him from doing this -It is at this point that Benn Comes Hi. Benn's whole strategy for becoming leader of the Labour Party depends on the support of the union bureaucrats. He will do exactly what they tell him. While Wilson isn' the slightest worried by Benn as an individual,he is worried that a different reformist combination of Benn and the trade union bureaucracy could replace him. In order to prevent this line up, Wilson has to find a way of smashing Benn and the trade union bureaucrats separately.
Magic key
The magic key to Wilson's problems is the Social Contract/voluntary When Wilson shifted Benn after the referendum, he knew that if the union bureaucrats told Benn to resign then the Minister of Industry would do so. But Wilson calculated he could neutralise the bureaucrats by negotiating with them on Social Contract Mark II. Then the union leaders would tell Benn to stay in the Government -which they did. Benn's meek move to the Ministry of Energy would thus discredit him and weaken one of Wilson's potential bureaucratic rivals - which it did.
Figurehead
Once the figurehead of the opposition within the Labour bureaucracy had been cut down to size, Wilson could move to the next task -discrediting the union bureaucracy. Hence the 'voluntary' incomes policy. The idea is that as the huge cuts in working class living standards seep /TISH ATIONALIST COALITION The main purpose of Wilson's present policies is to drive down the living standards of the working class - what he calls 'everyone making sacrifices Wilson has few fears that the trade union or Labour bureaucracy can stop - only the mass action of the working class can achieve that. But Wilson will eventually have to face opposition within the bureauc. racy from those appalled by the size of the electoral disaster which he is creating for the Labour Party. Part of Wilson's ploy is therefore to use the present crisis as a way of destroying the credibility of the Labour left.
through, the trade union bureaucrats will become more and more discredited - and while a few Tribunites vote against, Benn will be part of the Government imposing them.
Demoralised Finally, when Wilson calculates unat une wradc umon icaucrsmip nave sufficiently demoralised the working class, full statutory wage controls and savage spending cuts will be slapped on. The union bureaucrats will protest, and Benn may even be give the go-ahead to resign from the Government, but by then both the Benn wing of the Labour bureaucracy and the trade union leadership will be discredited. The two will then get together, but as a combination both of whose parts have been savagely defeated.
Refusal to fight This is the reality of the Labour left. By its refusal to fight, tne Labour left not only stabs the labour movement in the back and creates massive defeats for the working class, but it can't even defend itself.
In the coming period when the 'voluntary' policy fails and the statutory controls and the cuts go on, the Labour left will ask for support in their 'fight" against the policies of of Wilson. The working class movement must make united action with anyone who opposes his capitalist policies. But the labour movement should also remember the role played by the Labour left in creating the conditions for the present attacks.
-LABOUR'S INDEPENDENT WEEKLYvit 39 NO Government. He is the linchpin of the whole TUC policy of accepting massive wage cuts.
lic expenditure, and growing unemployment can only be obtained through the Labour Government.
would burst the flood dykes of the fluential figures inside the labour ership.
aims of the thinking sections of the capitalist class. thundered: Still there is doubt or the character to marshal lic opinion, not in order to split his party let in the unready Tories lead it into rational they mean capitalist| action'.
by the spokespersons of the ruling 1974 lies like a dark menace across their plans.
there is deep unremitting hostility to such an idea Tory the ruling class is that Labour can As the Times said on 4 July: 'Even from the Cabinet it would send a ber of trade union members of the centre for example are saying they will not vote for a statutory policy. A good many people in the Parliamentary Labour Party are peering reactions outside Westminster.' valuable service for the ruling class.
Government policy. This has made ion on record to accept cuts in living standards. This also helped to legitimise these anti-working class proposals in the rest of the labour FOUR YEARS ago a serious and bolster his proletarian image. He leaves his own white Rover car behind and drives a union Ford delivery van when he thinks the members need a flash of working class demagogy.
Jones is a typical product of prewar working class defeats and postwar class collaboration. He has done his job for the ruling class. That is why the Financial Times couid bestow its Man of the Week award on him. They will never give the title to people like the Shrewsbury 2 or the Pentonville 5 Particularly if the Yorkshire resolution is passed an absored weekly 10 july 1975 i jones plan = 5
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-and the only way in which the Labour Government can solve it
He has grown in stature