Dressurised to on win me ein building a protest against the Tory policies of Jim Callaghan's Labour government, underlining the strains already beginning to tear apart the flimsy "social contract" between the unions and the government.
They stopped short, of course of calling a one-day strike: but the 'left'-leaning public employees union NUPE had already announced a campaign of guerrilla strikes against cus in meam eoncaron and socal government services. Localised one-day stoppages had included a strike and 4,000-strong lobby by Oxford NUT.
Driving torward the angry fightback in the unions were the package of £3 billion cuts imposed earlier in 1976 hv Chancellor Denis Healey, compounded by the on-going top-level talks between the Labour goverment at the international Monetary Fund over the terms for a loan to bolster up the value of the pound.
At the beginning of 19-6. steriing had been trading at comfortably above $2. By the summer it had slumped to $1.70, and by the autumn the slide had threatened to continue below $1.50.
Committed as they were to managing and maximising the efficiency of British capitalism, Labour ministers looked desperately for loans to stabilise the currency: and such loans could only be had on terms laid down bo bankers and the US government, both of them hostile to abour and its links with the unions.
As the sterling crisis escalated, Heatey was forced to turn back at the -=== As the huge demonstration marched through London in the gloom of a dank afternoon on November 17, the attention of Labour ministers will have been on the handful of IMF negotiators rather than the demands and needs of the labour movement.
A handful of left wingers in the cabinet, led by Tony Benn, attempted to hold out against the bankers' demands for austerity. Benn summed up his position:
"They said to me, 'You see, your plan, Tony, will mean a siege economy'. And I said •We haven't an alternative to a siege economy. The difference between my siege economy and yours is that in my siege economy we'll have our allies with us, against the bankers. In your siege economy, we'll have the bankers with us and our supporters outside.
Benn went on to circulate his cabinet colleagues with copies of the minutes of Ramsar MacDonald's Labour Cabinet in 1931. when "exactly the same discussion took In the evere e cuts package vard the sale ===- ......: -:::::: discontent" of 1978-9, in which anger exploded and wage controls were swept aside by a succession of public sector strikes The resistance was already building. The Grunwick strike, led by low-paid Asian women, was escalating as a focus of the fight for unionisation and the right to picket.
Even during the IMF negotiations health workers in London voted to stage a historic "work-in" occupation to prevent the closure of the Elizabeth Get organised, get active!
• I want to know more about Socialist Please send me your introductory pamphlet: 'Socialism after Stalinism'. I enclose a PO or cheque for £1.00 payable to 'Socialist Outlook Fund'. I Please send me details of the Socialist Outlook Fourth International Supporters Association Name Address Post Code Tel | Post to: Socialist Outlook, PO Box i109, London, N4 2UU. coming to office under pressure to slash back public spending to meet the requirements of international bankers: the Maastricht Treaty and the drive for European Monetary Union could mean cuts of £18- £25 billion.
It is a real enough threat to bring recent stern warnings from Denis (now Lord) Healey that the single currency could trigger riots in the creers. wentv vears aner ne was booed off Labour's conference rostrum, he should know.
Socialist 50p • No. 111. 23 November 1996
last minute from a flight to an IMF - -ase =ier