the new
journal of the employers’ Organisations in Britain, announces in its latest issue that after simultaneous meetings on March 24th, the new merged organisation is to be launched, probably by August. The March meetings will discuss a charter which, subject to amendment, will become the founding document of the new body. This will be called the Confederation of British Industry. Its President will be Mr. Maurice Laing, with Sir Peter Runge and Mr. Leslie Jenkins as his deputies. In spite of the recent lamentations by Mr. Enoch Powell, who urged employers not to associate in this way, in this month’s issue of The Director, this consolidation marks a new phase in the evolution of neo-capitalism in Britain. The employers, once again, prove to be more class conscious and disciplined than labour: for although the T.U.C. is the only national trade union federation, it is not as closely integrated as the employers are likely to be after August. Labour must sit up and take notice.
Hull Branch’s resolution says that an incomes policy must take into account all the devious ways businessmen have of accruing profits until Government restrictions cease. London City makes similar points to those in the Ayrshire resolution but links the question with that of the extension of public ownership. London South rejects “all forms of wage freeze imposed by either a Labour or a Tory Government” — two other branches made a similar point. But to end on a lighter note; Coventry wants to give “every support to the Government in their efforts to introduce an _ incomes policy.”
Feb. 17, 1965 — THE WEEK