The collapse of Rolls Royce, the crisis in the steel industry, and now the collapse of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Ltd. prove, in the most dramatic fashion, the diagnosis chat British capitalism is not just in a temporary recession but is undergoing a deep structural crisis, the roots of which go back to the relative position of British imperialism vis-a-vis European, American and Japanese imperialism, since the last war. The Geedes Report on Shipping, for instance, reported that Britain's share of world tonnage built between 1950 and the present day declined from 45.6% to 6.5%! As we reported in The Red Mole (Ist June 1971), Britain's export of steel has remained static for two decades. while overall production of steel between 1954 and 1970 moved from 13 mill'on tons to only 25 million tons while Japanese steel rose from 8 to over 90 million tons, and American steel production now stands at 115 million tons. At the same time, with the present reoession in airline markets, it is the British aircraft construction companies which suffer closure, It is plain that British capitalism is going to witness many more crises in the primary sector of industry, It is equally plain that the Tories, as witnessed by their anxiety to get Britain into the Common Market and their deliberate closure of UCS (the Tories had planned this for some months), are prepured to sacrifice whole industries in the primary sector in their efforts to create an investment boom, in increasing cooperation with European capital where necessary, in those sectors of the economy with a high growth rute and a high degree of capital intensiveness. ICI. for instance, are one of the major pressure groups for entry into the Common Market, and Courtaulds has just completed a massive two-year programme of takeovers and capitalisation. Should British capitalism ever recover from this crisis, it is clear that the shape of British industry will be radically different from what it is ut present, and that the British working class will suffer massive unemployment and drastic reduction in its living standards.
That the Tories are quite prepared to run down British shipbuilding is quite clearly demonstrated by an announcement by the Chamber of Shipping last week that the demise of British shipbuilding will in no way affect the shipping lines, British shippping in no way depends on an indigenous building industry, and the Chamber was quite adamant that it did not regard itself as responsible for the financial bealth of British shipbuilding. Like the steel industry, the shipbuilding industry is enormously undercapitalised, and is shared by a series of comparatively small firms with inadequate working capital and outdated facilities. A survey in yard was over 40 years old. Obviously, in a five your period which has seen oil tankers grow from 90,000 to over of competing on world scales.
and for the creation of an investment boom are not only utopian but incredibly dangerous. The Tories can only create an investment boom by carrying out the antibuilding industry. The Labour Party, when it was in power. proceeded in an optimistic fashion. In 1965 the Labour government gave Fairfields £2% million to save it from bankruptey, and in 1967 to facilitate the merger between the several Clyde shipbuilding firms, 65% million was provided by the Labour government, followed by a further grant of E9 million in 1969. Now the Tories are prepared to pay £5 million to keep the UCS yards turning over while the liquidator winds the business up. It is clear however by the banks. What the Tories have done in effect is to pay £5 million to wrap up LICS.
a massive response by the Scottish working class which should set the tone for future struggles by the British working class. The unions, with the exception of DATA. have allowed over 25% cuts in manpower since 1968 (and rises in productivity of 87%) so there is little room for defensive demands. In addition to that, the blatant obviousness of the Tory strategy on UCS and the high level of unemployment on Clydeside provide the background for a militant confrontation with the Tories. Moreover, the Clydesiders gained a clear intimation of the Torv designs 1964 found that over 50% of the machinery in John Brown's 200,000 tons is a norn, British shipyards are quite incapable Under these circumstances, the demands placed on the CBI and the Torles by the TUC for a reflation of the economy working class policies that they are carrying out already. An nates. "Investment boom" is not going to recreate the British shipthat the t6 million needed by US could have been provided The immedincy of the threat on Clydeside has produced on UCS when the profitable Yarrow yard was broken from the group earlier this year.
The response of the Clydeside working class has been thi unequisocal slogan of occupying the yards, It is clear that the Scottish TUC, the Labour Party and even the Provost of Glasgow (representing of course sections of the Scottish bourgeoisie who will suffer very severely by the closures) are trying hard to regain control over the rank and file workers by sending vigorous delegations to Laondon, none of which however have made any headway with the Tories. Wedgwood Benn, making a bid to increase his power base inside the Labour Party, has announced his "plan" to nationalise UCS. He has received a stormy reception from the Scottish working class who demanded to know why he didn't nationalise when he was boss of Mintech and proceeded to dole out millions of pounds to the shipping mag The workers of UCS have made it quite clear that they will oceupy the yards as soon as the first man is luid off. The Clydeside working class has pledged its support for thi The T&G tugnen (who fought for seven weeks back in 1962 to break from the National Union of Seamen) have declured that they will black any attempts made by the Government to move ships from the yurd before completion. The one danger, to which the UCS workers are alive, is that the plans for UCS will be announced by the liquidator during the coming three week holiday period in July. thus making a mobilisation in response difficult to organise The Red Mole supports the Scottish working class in its fight against the British bourgeoisie und their government. A victory over the Tory government, which they are in an excellent position to win, will he a victory for the English working class movement in its present state of confusion following the sell-out by the TUC. An occupation of the DCS shipyards will resurvect the militancy that was shown in the intention of the GEC workers to occupy their factories in Merseyside in 1969, und which was so tragically absent from the response of the Rolls Royce workers. What is also clear is that the working cluss of Clydeside is prepan to resist auy move by the Tories to bring in the British arm from Belfist to break the occupation.