: The British ruling class and its minions, the Tory Government, have suffered a serious defeat with the ending of the Brussells negotiations, As has been said the defeat is not a mortal blow (only the working class can inflict this) but it is one which will ecmise major problems in all aspects of its activities. The ruling class was banking upon entry into the Common Market to lay the basis for a thorough rationalisation of British industry and to gat into the largest and fastest growing market in the world. This dream is ended (at least for the time being) and they now have the task of formulating an alternative policy. Their problems are manifold and have a logic of their own, for instance, if they go too far along certain paths (e.g, devaluation or export subsidy) the door to the Ilerkat may close for a long time. On the other hand if they don't act decisively and quickly they will face another round of balance of payment crises, alternating with inflation, and a continuation of stagnation, For a whole period there will be a ‘crisis of policy! whilst the various factions in the ruling class struggle to get their particular solution adopted.
Socialists should not, of course, be worrying about how the ruling class will solve its problems tt, instead, how we can use this situation to get rid of thea ruling class, If we consider what sclution the capitalist decides upon it is only to see how this will affect the working class and the relationship of class “~ forces, Many of the factors which will influence their final decision are not yat clear, 6.@., what effect de Gaulle’s behavior will have on the structure of the Common Market. “hatever solution they decide upon it is bound to be at the expenses of the working class, They will attack the working class directly, by another attempt to impose a wages pause or even cutting certain wage rates (there have been 2 examples this week), and/or indirectly, by speeding up rationalisation of industry, etc. As we noted last week, a likely way of this being done would be to apply "the blunt test of competitive imports, in erder to weed out the weak from the strong’ (conomist 2/2/63). This would close down hundred, maybe thousands, of small and modium-sized business, ~°~ and forco tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of workers to change their jobs (or join the dole-quoues), The final outcome of this would he to make workers accept jobs with lower wages, and make the winning of wage increases mich more difficult.
Another likely by-product of a decisive anti-working class policy is that the Tories will work Jess and less with the T.U. bureaucrats, and that the latter will no longer be junior partners in the process of policy making. We had “an example of this last year when the Government, attempting to impose the wages pause, by-passed the T.U. bureaucrats. The Government ignored the recognised negotiating machinery built up over decades, Diffentiation within the T.U. tmreaucracy will take place as certain sections will be compelled to fight for their social position; for unless the unions can get wage increases, unless the unions can influence Government policy, and unless the unions can use the whole elaborate structure of negotiation, “hitley Councils, “ages Councils, otc., the T.U., bureaucrats will have no social function, They will lose members and be very vulnerable to left-wing eritics, The 'left-wing' bureaucrats supported by officers at all levels will be forced to use their strength to challenge the Governusnt, as was Cousins and others last year when they challenged the wages pause. They will not, of couree, launch decisive struggles tut their actions will act as a powerful impulse to big struggles involving powerful sections of the working class. The Left by participating in these struggles, by initiating them, by achieving leadership of them (by winning respect by pitting the correct tactics forward at the correct time) and always . putting the socialist alternative, can help to creat a mass socialist consciocusness.« Thus we would be helping to create the prereaquisitas for a struggle first to kick out the Tories, and secondly to go on to achieve a Labour Government pledged to socialist policies, This is the alternative: a Britain applying socialist policies and in alliance with all the working class and anti-capitaliat forces all over the