RANSPORT HOUSE has announced that arrangements have been made for this year’s Young Socialist National Rally to be held at the Morecambe Bay Holiday Camp from 15th-22nd May. _ The circular announcing this says that during the week there will be lectures and study groups as well as other educational and political activities and a wide range of social and sporting events. The cost for accommodation and facilities of the Holiday Camp for the week is £10/10/0 per person. The circular states: “It is hoped that constituency and local parties may each be able to award at least one
scholarship.” Young _— Socialist
branches can send members, and
“individual applications will also be
welcomed.”
This announcement indicates that,
at present, there are no plans afoot to
disband the Young Socialists as had
been widely predicted. It is to be
hoped that there will be a strong-
Left-wing contingent present at the
rally. By May the main themes of
the Labour Party Government’s poli-
cies will be much clearer. This Rally
should give an opportunity for an in-
telligent discussion of the many prob-
lems posed by these policies.
Voice Steel conferance— a correction In our last issue we announced that the monthly paper of the trade union Left wing, VOICE OF THE UNIONS, was to hold a special conference of steel workers to prepare recommendations to the Government on the drafting of the Bill to nationalise the industry. It is extremely important that this opportunity to make an important breakthrough towards industrial _ democracy should be grabbed with both hands by the Labour Movement. The conference was announced as scheduled to take place in Nottingham, on the weekend of the 6th and 7th February, 1965. These arrangements have now been altered, and the gathering will be held on the same days in Sheffield. Credentials are obtainable from Richard Fletcher, 71 New Kings Road, London S.W.6. Already considerable interest has been evinced from steelworkers in Yorkshire, Wales and Lincolnshire. WEEK readers who live within reach of the steel areas are asked to do all they can to inform trade union representatives and active socialists within the industry of the fact that these plans are being discussed, and to invite them to participate. We shall carry reports from steel towns about the progress of the campaign.
Higher rents—
says Crossman
URING a tour of local housing
developments in Leeds last
week, Mr. Richard Crossman, Hous-
ing Minister, had this to say about
Government policy:
“During the next six months we
shall be coming up with ideas which
are likely to be in legislation in the
next session.” Negotiations were to
be started with local authorties on
the revision of subsidy policy, so that
subsidies were going where they were
needed. But people must get used
to paying higher rents if they were to
be provided with high quality hous-
ing, said Mr. Crossman. “I think
it is true that if you improve the
quality of houses people can be in-
duced to understand there must be a
sense of responsibility about rent
paying and look at rents in terms of
reality,” said the Minister.
Of course the “terms of reality”
include higher interest rates to save
the pound. These terms include the
situation where houses cost many
times their construction price because
of the operation of the money market.
Pase 27
Poll has
sombre warning
for Labour
GENERAL Election round-up
by National Opinion Polls
vividly demonstrates, whatever
George Brown may think, the con-
tinuing existence of sharp class divi-
sions in Britain today.
Dividing the electorate up into ABs
(professional, upper and upper
middle class), Cx (lower middle and
white collar), C2 (skilled workers)
and DE (unskilled, pensioners, un-
employed), NOP found that 74.7 per
cent, of ABs voted Tory, 60.7 Crs,
33.9 C2s and 30.9 DEs.
Labour’s strength is in the re-
verse direction: 59.1 DEs, 54.4 C2s,
42.8 Crs and a meagre 8.9 of ABs.
The survey contains a few sharp
warnings for complacent Labour
officials. | The party held its own in
the middle-class belt but made no
progress at all, professional people -
remaining overwhelmingly Tory.
There was a slight improvement
for Labour in the C2 class, but the
Tories actually made gains from
DEs.
Most significant of all is that it was
old-age pensioners, apparently ‘grate-
ful’ for a few meagre pickings from
the Tories, who swung right. With
Labour already retreating on the
pensions issue, they~ are doing
nothing to halt this erosion of tradi-
tional support.
Equally alarming is the sizeable
vote for the Tories amongst trade
union members. The Tories claim
that 3 million trade unionists voted
for them and NOP shows that 27.7
per cent. voted Conservative com-
pared to 62.2 for Labour.
If this dangerous trend is to be
halted, Labour should quickly
launch its own detailed inquiry inte
the General Election results and
attempt to find out why so many
trade unionists—nearly a quarter—
vote Tory.
The answers may well confirm the
Left’s contention that Labour will
only increase support from the
working class and middle class if
they mount a nationwide campaign
to really press home party policy—
and that policy must be radically
different from the Tories’.
by Roger Protz
Farmworkers and builders enter claims
66 TPNHIS week farm workers had an extra 12/- in their wage packet. But this increase was the first they had received since 1963 and was the result of negotiations which started in the middle of last year on a claim for £12 a week. The resulting wage of £10/2/0 for 45 hours is far from satisfactory and there is still too big a discrepancy between the earnings of farm ard industrial workers,” said Lord Collison, General Secretary of the National Union of Agricultural Workers, at Cambridge, on Saturday. “But the discrepancy between the two will not be rectified merely by improvements in the basic weekly rate. The two other factors which have to be brought into line with the general standards in industry are the length of the working week — at present 45 compared with 40 to 42 hours in industry — and recognised additional rates for special skills and responsibilities. “The Union’s proposals for a proper wages structure in agriculture were first put before the Wages Board in 1961. Discussions on the principle are still going on and the workers cannot be expected to be kept waiting much longer for some definite arrangements to be brought into effect. Everyone in the industry is agreed that farm work is highly skilled and that it demands greater technical know-how every year.” Lord Collison, who was addressing a Conference of branch officers of his Union, went on to say“ ...In February we shall be presenting a claim for a 40-hour week to the Wages Board. I hope that on this occasion the industry will be big enough to approach the matter positively with a view to seeing how it can be achieved—instead of, as on past occasions, throwing up its hands in horror and claiming that it cannot be done. “Every time there has been a reduction in hours there has been wild talk about its adverse effects and the extra cost. None of it has ever proved to be correct; both total production and output per worker have steadily increased, and wages as a proportion of all production costs have decreased. For every Io’ tons of food produced by a farm worker eight years ago he now produces over 16 tons.”
EGOTIATIONS are expected to
start shortly on a new wage demand for more than 1 million building workers. The industry’s present £150m. hours and wages agreement ends in November, but union leaders are preparing their claim for a further wages increase well in advance. The present agreement, signed after the 1963 national building strike, has provision for two wage rises this year—a cost-of-living rise in March and a final phased rise of 24d. an hour for craftsmen and td. for labourers in November. The executive of the National Federation of Building Trades Operatives, which negotiates for all the building unions, is under strong pressure to seek the award of a sub-
Incomes Policy- Writing in the February Issue of the Public Employees’ Journal, Syd Hill, who is the General Secretary of NUPE and a member of the General Council of the TUC, made the following important statement. “FANHE joint declaration by repre-
sentatives of the trade unions, employers’ organisations and the Government on the broad principles of an incomes policy has been widely welcomed as a revolutionary development. This enthusiasm is understandable in view of the speed ~with which the Government acted. But, without wishing to appear unduly pessimistic, it is worth remembering that the really tough bargaining has yet to come. The general statement, setting out a belief in the need for an incomes policy, has now to be shaped into a positive programme of action. During this process the trade unions will have to exercise all of their negotiating skills and deploy their organisational strength to protect and advance the interests of their members. It is frequently stated that the objective of an incomes policy is to stabilise wages, prices and profits in relation to output. But this is a dangerous over-simplification. It implies an acceptance of the present division of the nation’s wealth among the various Classes. If an incomes policy is to be based on social justice — if
Jan. 20, 1965 — THE WEEK
stantial increase immediately the
current agreement expires.
The Amalgamated Union of Build-
ing Trade Workers recently proposed,
without success, that the N.F.B.T.O.
should demand immediate pay rises of
11d. an hour for craftsmen and ts.
for labourers.
Federation leaders are determined,
however, that the 1963 settlement
should run its course.
They nevertheless expect to achieve
a 40-hour week in the industry within
the year. A claim in this direction
was anticipated in the 1963 negotia-
tions and last week’s announcement
that Imperial Chemical Industries is
introducing the 4o-hour week is re-
garded as a.further spur to action.