'lefts' Rescue Wilson

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At its meeting in Aberdeen the Scottish TUC adopted a resolution calling for sliding scale of wages agreements. The motion, from Stirling Trades Council, calls on unions to fight for cost of living clauses which would transform threshhold agreements into a sliding scale of wages based on a cost of living index worked out by the trade union committees.

This important decision comes at a time when this demand is developing in the mass movement. It goes alongside the demand to open the books adopted by the Birmingham meeting of motor industry shop stewards 1 ADril 23rd.

is not enough, however, sims ly to pass resolutions on these demands. The Scottish TUC allowed the troops to be used against the Glasgow dustmen who were fighting for wages. Only through a fight against these leaders will these correct demands for the sliding scale of wages be implemented.

Labour Prime Minister Wilson now stands blatantly in breach of the decisions of every policy-making body in the Labour Party, and is only preserved by the reluctance of the left to push him out.

This is the message, loud and cle from the Labour Party Special Conference, held in the Sobell Sports Centre. Islington on Saturday.

The Conference threw out by a 2 to 1 majority Wilson's policy of entry into the Common Marki and called for a 'no' vote in the referendum in line with a resolution submitted on hehalf of the NEC majority by Brian Stanley, P.O.E.U. General Secretary.

Not one delegate would get up to move the logical conclusion to IN Last Saturday, 26th April, that position - that if Wilson's policy is thrown out, Wilson himself, along with Jenkins, Prentice. Callaghan and the pro-Market faction should also be removed. Wilson thus remains in his position by default, ruling the roost from misters ke fetter we step out sition, free to sack of line, and carrying out the stratic requirement of British capitalm by advocating British entry and by staging this referendum rather than follow the mandate given him by the labour movement LOYAL Where does the 'left' stand questions? Perhaps they can best be characterised by the loya Lopposition of the Militant group whose speakors confined the selves to platitudes about the Socialist United States of Europe, divorced from any conception of how it is to be achieved, At the same time they refused to attack the main obstacle to such a policy - the Labour Party leadership -and refused to criticise the refusal of the Tribunites to fight in support of Heffer. NEC Now that the conference is over, and Wilson still in the saddle, the press is trying to whip up a frenzy against Benn's supposed "plot" to isolate Wilson by directing through the NECa campaign for a "no" vote -Of course the NEC would be correct in using all party resource to carry out agreed party nolicy (Continued from Front Page) rapidly declining further. Ryder therefore equals unemployment on a considerable scale.

The report completely establishes the case for the books to be opened. The figures revealed show that not only was nearly all the profit distributed to shareholders as dividends rather than used as investment but that these profits were based on false book kmpins A substantial profor example: portion of BL's fixed assets were old and had been fully written down. The depreciation charge was therefore an inadequate measure of what should have spent on capital investment"

FIDDLE In other words Stokes and company were fiddling the books in the interest of the shareholders with the jobs of a million workers and their families involved. The case tor opening the books of every BL plant and every associated supplier is unanswerable. The "leadership" of the Combiner Stewards Committee must be forced to stop collaboration with Ryder and fight to implement the Cowley resolution.

Ryder, ex-chairman of Reed International, well knows the role of leadership when it comes to a fight. In a section of the report therefore he continues the witch-hunt started by Leyland management in Cowley last year when Alan Thornett was victimised. He makes the following statement in an attempt to streng then the right wing and weaken any shop steward prepared to fight to defend jobs, wages, conditions and agreements in the Leyland plants. He says: "It may be argued that some of the shop stewards are motivated by extremist political views, and do not act in conformity with the policy of their members. It must be for the members themseives to recognise the responsibilities which the shop stewards are exercising on their behalf, and to ensure that the right people are chosen to exercise thes responsibilities".

In other words he is saying elect yes-men who will accept every dictate of the company because if you elect someone who will lead Wilson: Still in the saddle 1d in tighting Wilson. But of ourse all the hullabaloo about the referendum simply covers over the fact that a principled socialist leadership would not be putting such an issue to a vote -ut would merely withdraw unilaterally from the capitalist confederation of the BEC.

While calling for a "no" vote in the referendum, we stress again that the crucial issue at this point s the fight to remove Wilson as Labour leader, and expose those who protect him with left" talk in the labour movement. a resistance we will stop the mone and put you on the dole. He is reported to be considering backing this up with the appointment of Derek Whittaker, the managing director of the Cowley complex, who directed the victimisation iast year to the key position of head of the new Cars Division. These threats must be set against the incredible mismanagement Ryder was forced to reveal in the report, such as competition between models in the same sector of the market and the chaotic com ponent planning.

The report is heavily abridged on the basis of "commercial confidentiality" - commonly known as business secrets. So even now with workers jobs at stake they are not to know the truth. Benn's role in this is central. The plan is to be administered by his National Enterprise Board which will have provisions for opening the books to selected TO bureaucrats, in order to suck them into further collaboration, whilst making it a criminal offence for them to reveal such information to the working class - as Socialist Press was first to point out on FebTuary Gth. Benn does this under a left cover of fraudulent workers' participation" in the Ryder STRATEGIST BENN Therefore Benn, the great advocate of nationalisation, emerges as, in many ways, the best long term strategist of capitalism. Man: of the industries which grew up in the boom period can no longer find the capital needed for the super exploitation of workers necessary in today's cut-throat competition. They now find this capital through the Labour Government and Benn.

British Leyland workers must reject the Ryder report outright. They must demand that their leaders also reject it and fight for full nationalisation under the management of elected committees of workers - not simply capitalist nationalisation which in British Steel has led to the announcement of 20,000 redundancies beginning in the next few months. Ryder must not be scen as an issue simply for BL workers but a test bed for an offensive against the whole working class.