The massive vote against the T.U.C.'s voluntary incomes policy last week at the meeting of union executives is very good. It helps. to clear up Some of the confusion created by the T.U.C. chiefs acting as the custodians of Wilson's policies in the unions. Despite the majority, everyone knows that the T.U.C.'s voluntary scheme is finished. Now the main confrontation will be directly between the Government and the unions, The Government is expected to bring in compulsory legislation and several of the most important unions have made it clear that they do not intend to climb down, It is a good job that the T.G.W.U. dilnot accept the advice of Tribune and John Horner to back the T.U.C. scheme, Had they done this we would have almost certainly got the worst of both worlds: Government legislation plus a half-hearted attempt to operate a T.U.C. scheme. However, there is very little sign yet that the need for a fighting offensive strategy has been grasped, Most of the opposition to the Government and the T.U.C, remained at the level of mere wages-militancy and the line of high wages/ high productivity. In other words, the opposition to the Government is, in essence, merely calling for a return to the good old days before attempts to impose incomespolicies came on the scene. But this is by no means enough; the clock cannot be turned back. Socialists within the trade union movement must explain and expdAjn again the need for a strategy which links opposition to the wage-—freeze with a struggle along anti-capitalist lines, The struggle for the concepts of workers' control, for opening the books, for trade union control over hiring and firing and so on, must come to the front. But these demands must be linked with struggle and socialists also have the duty of supporting all struggles and posing the need for every attack to resisted to the full, It
for details) will help to popularise these conce’ts,.