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NEW AGE 10p MONTHLY PAPER OF THE COMMUNIST WORKERS MOVEMENT No.5. July, 1978 LIVERPOOL RUNDOWN (contributed) What is the reason behind the run- its effects are shown in areas ning-down of industry in Liverpool. like Liverpool. There is an oversimplified answer currently given by some left- wingers (and not denied by the bosses) to the effect that Liver- pool is being punished for its mil- itancy. Like all myths, this has a grain of truth in it - and like all myths it serves a purpose. The press and television hold up Merseyside with its dole queus as an object lesson to the rest of Britain's wor- kers. The "left-wing" myth avoids the necessity for further thought about how capitalism works and how Britain's industrial revolution. The deposition of King Cotton Liverpool is both the benefic- left Liverpool in a worse posi- iary and residual legetee of Bri- tion than Manchester. tain's imperialist heyday. It obtained its charter from King John as a port of embarcation against Ireland, but its fortunes only really began to soar in the period of the slave trade. By the time the slave trade was outlawed (William Wilberforce, the abolitionist, was hurled from the pier head for his efforts), King Cotton was established in both Liverpool and Manchester, and Liverpool was the port of MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES Manchester had an infrastruc- ture of engineering and manufac- turing industries to serve the cot- ton mills, which were easily adap- ted to other products. Liverpool did not. Its indus- tries were ones of processing and transporting raw materials, shipbuilding and the like. Bri- tain's declining position in world trade and the overall shift of new industries to the South East ex- acerbated the imbalance in Mersey- side's industries so that in all the postwar years, of alleged boom, Liverpool's unemployment was consistently twice the national average. That this did not cause more trouble than it has was perhaps be- cause the workforce - on the docks for example - was to a large extent casual, with a very small percen- tage of skilled craftsmen. And so there was not the problem of men re- fusing to take other jobs because of "overqualification", while many workers were used to spells on the dole. Capitalism, therefore, has anti- cipated on Merseyside its failure in the rest of Britain. STRIKE RECORD What then of Merseyside's strike record used as the excuse by the bosses for industrial decline? It is quite true, as the local chambers of commerce and Develop- ment Offices bleat regularly, that other areas have a worse strike re- cord in terms of days lost per wor- ker. It is also true that strikes on Merseyside have had a higher poli- tical content than usual. and have been fought with a bitter determi- nation. IN THE FRONT LINE Merseyside trade unionists were in the forefront of the struggles against "In Place of Strife" from Labour and against "Fair Deal at Work" from the Tories. In the major disputes of the last decade - the postmen, dockers, buil- ding workers, seamen - Merseyside workers have been first out and last in. Over the same period, Liverpool workers have been in the front line of the struggle against closures and (Cont'd overleaf) CONTENTS INCLUDE:- The State of the Unions. P.3. Kampuchea, Fear and Fantasy. P.5. Argentina. P.6. Afghan Coup. P.7. Police Raid Youth Club. P.8. Mutiny Papers "Lost" P.8. And more......... FORD WORKERS COMBINE KAMPUCHEA (Formerly Cambodia) has come in for many attacks in the press, and now "Penguin" has published a book which makes further accusations. Inside, DR MALCOLM CALD- WELL shows the flimsy nature of the "evidence" put forward by these critics (P.5.). (Above) Kampuchean women on the land. They are playing an immense part in the rebuilding of their country, Democratic Kampuchea. After years of isolated activity in the various Fords' plants in Britain, which has enabled union bureaucrats, such as the notorious Reg Birch, to negotiate sell-out deals one after the other, socialists and rank-and-file militants from all Ford (UK) plants have formed the Ford (UK) Workers Combine. It aims to draw up a package of dem- ands to organize and fight for on the shop floor. Their main demands are:- £20 on the rate, 5 hours off the week. No productivity deals, no penalty clauses, no strings attached! The Combine is fighting to have its demands taken up by all shop stewards at Fords'. The CWM supports the Ford Workers Combine in its fight for better pay and conditions. We also consider it important that the issues of racism and soli- darity with Ford workers in oth- er countries, particularly Third World ones, are taken up. Workers of all lands, oppressed peoples and nations, unite!

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