PORCIS the books

Scan page 9

Like all impotent creatures the British Press is jealous of its virility.

Prevented by its own timidity and business connections and by repressive laws from investigating any of the real scandals in politics or business, it substitutes muckraking.

Nothing pleases the Press more than to be hinting at sexual secrets of prominent figures.

T. Dan Smith was able to practice his corruption unhampered by the Press (while it was the common small talk of. the North East), and Jeremy Thorpe's connections with the London and County Securities fringe bank have been allowed to slip into the mists of the past.

(Mr. Thorpe became a non-executive director of the apparently expected only to attract publicity to the group.

The publicity did eventually accrue when the bank collapsed with 12,500 small depositors at risk.

He was ticked off by a Department of Trade report for "an error of judgement").

when allegations about Mr Thorpe's sexual life were of the jac vient hacks of Fleet Street ground into action.

For more than a year they have pursued Mr Thorpe from one statement to another under the disguise of *Press Freedom' and allegations of a 'cover up' and a murder threat.

Fourth The real question that they wanted to ask became clear at Mr Thorpe's press conference last week.

"Have you" asked the man from the BBC, 'ever had a homosexual relationship?"

It was the fourth question of the press conference and the only one that really counted for these guardians of our freedom.

As Mr and Mrs Thorpe, his lawyer and Clement Freud tried variations on outraged dignity, the mob blundered on for several minutes turning the question over as if thumbing through a dirty magazine.

Four times they came back to the same question. Never mind about Norman scott, the murder threat, the alleged cover up, what about your sex life?

They chased hard for just half a sentence around which to huild their "Confessions of fals Eventually Thorpe retreated behind a thinly concealed threat of libel action where the slavering journalists dared not follow.

They returned to their offices to inspire editorials that threw the mud back in Mr Thorpe's face.

The Daily Express said:

"It is not good enough and it will not put an end to all the rumours and awkward questions... The crux of the matter is his relationship with Norman Scott in the 1960's ... How could such an innocent relationship have had such cruelly ludicrous results."

There is no reason to suppose that the Liberal Party is less free of corruption, shady deals and coverups than the two bigger brothers in Parliament, who have become almost inured to business scandals.

Sex life

There may well be a job to do on the business dealings of the Liberals in general, Thorpe in particular and a cover-up on the Norman Scott affair.

But if there is one book that Socialist Press does not call to he opened. it is the pay-offs govern the lives of millions of workers.

Outlet

The "nationalised" Leyland empire, for instance, acts for the British capitalist class as a crucial outlet for the almost entirely privately owned component firms which are currently recording substantial profits.

In addition, Leyland workers face cuts in real wages coupled to savage attempts to cut manning levels on production tracks, in which the company relies on the support of convenors and union officials declaring the need to 'save the company'.

Yet at the same time huge interest payments are being made by Leyland to privately owned banks, each of which is turning in huge profit figures.

The 'open the books' demand is a means of exposing this state of affairs to the organised workforce Leyland, and making this the basis of further action in defence of jobs and living standards.

No illusions As socialists, of course, we have no illusions. The problems that workers face in Leyland cannot be solved in just one company.

To resolve such problems it is necessary to fight for the nationalisation of the entire I NO S the working class, starting from the existing level of consciousness of workers, and fighting to develop that consciousness in the course of surunge struggle open the books' demand, coupled to demands for the protection of jobs and living standards, offers a means to raise these questions in a living way in the workers' movement.

First condition Trotsky outlined the the demand purpose of as follows:

"A real economic plan requires concrete statistics, figures, diagrams. Naturally we are very far from that. The first condition for a first outline of the plan consists in setting forth everything that the nation possesses in productive, material and human forces, in raw materials, etc.

We must be acquainted with the real costs of production like the "incidental expenses" of capitalist frauc and for that we must abolish once and for all the fraudulent plot that goes under the name of business secrecy. advocates of workers' we are staunch trol. We often meet this objection: "Control is enough. We want nationalisation and workers' management."

However we do not in any way counterpose the two slogans. For the workers to romanent firme Trotsky take over the administration of industry-which absolutely necessary, and as soon as possible, for the wellbeing of civilisation-we must immediately demand workers control...

For nationalisation operate in a revolutionary way, not bureaucratically, the workers must participate at every stage. They must prepare themselves for it, beginning now, in the management of industry and the entire economy in the beginning with theis facorol. form of workers (Writings, 1934-5, p. 225-6)

The open the books demand is thus completely linked to the fight for workers control of production and the overall struggle for the nationalisation of the entire economy under workers management.

The call for the opening of the books therefore has nothing whatever in common with "workers participation" schemes.

These are designed to incorporate layers of shop stewards and convenors into management, revealing selected management statistics as a stimulus to encourage such collaborators to oppose militant action by workers on the shop floor While "participation"" sets out to blur class lines and defuse struggles, 'open the books' starts from the independence of the workforce from the deals and interests of management.

As such the demand s equally valid in "private"" c= "public" sector enterprises. in "bankrupt' or profitable firms.

It provides a means direct workers' attention te their exploited position is society, and to point towards an independent class solution to such exploitation.

And in this context the demand is a fundamenta. aspect of the work of the Workers Socialist League within the mass *0:8275

----- pull-quotes -----

bank in 1971 at £5,000 a year, for which sum he was