Ag we go to press the report of the. 0,E.C.D. study on polities governing prices, profits and other non-wage incomes is about tc appear, fe shall comment on it in our next issue. Tut the interest with which it is awaited in the business press has already been stimulated by a neat little apertif, in the shape of the report of the Brussels Commission on the economic situation of the Common Market, published on Tuesday 18 August.
The Commission hns cause to lament. The strength of the labour movement, in a situation of full employment, has been sufficient to defeat all sorts of attempts to constrain wage ‘pressure on the economy, The labour market remaining tight, wages and profits rose throughout the past year, and "the overall rise in production costs agsin ‘greatly surpassed’ the overall increase in productivity," as the sombre summsry in The Times was quick to stress. The force of union pressure, however, hes been sufficient to compel the Commission to seek some rather deeper explanations than those normally canvaseed, about "wage inflation." “There is dancer," it says, "that with : information on other cle:se; of income being less accurate or even non-existent..,the weight of eny restrictive measures may be concentr=ted cn waves."
In fact, of murse, this hits har’ at the nub of the argument about ‘incomes policy! which has been the centre of attention in every European country during the past period, WNeo-ceapitaliam has desperately been trying to foster atate regulation of wares, in order to overcome the market pressure for higher wages which naturally accompsnies full-employment. Last year, hourly wage rates rose by 16% in Italy, and increased substantially in every country in the Common Market except Germany, where there was a slight increase, and Holland, where there was an actual setback, Since employers tend to pass on the cost of wage increase, with interest, by raising prices wherever possible, the cost of living index rose by 2.1% in Belgium, 2.9% in Luxemburg, 3.1% in Germany, 4.8% in France, and 7. in Italy. The actual rise in livigze costs, of course, will prove to he ereater that that reflected in these fisures, beceuse they sre carefully computed in such a way as to minimise the effect of rising prices and inhibit trade clsims., In this context, a showlown with the unions, an the issue of incomes policy, becomes more and more imnerative for the employers and their state.
Britain can in no sense stend aloof from this pattern of events. <All the pressures on the Common Market countries exist here in the same ‘egree, or to an even freater extent. Two response are clearly oblif¢atory if the unions are to defent the employers' maneouvres. first, it becomes absolutely necesssry for the European and British unions to co-ordinate their activities, Since they face the same onslaught, it is criminally stupid to meet it in an unco-ordinated way. Not only must links be formed across national boundaries, but they must also be forged across the re.icious and political schisms which rend the lsbour movements of almost all the European » Countries, The Hritish movement, with its lonz non-sectarian traditions, And its comparative og meeiak een help in this direction, Second, but no eeetrently, we must develop a common offensive stratezy to beat the empl-
(90. an international sca le. This involves a programme of deep structural
Bc alculated to erode capitalist power across the whole European
There is not much time for left if these things are to be done,
Members ishould becin to demand that the work atartes now.