Certain structural alterations are taking place in British industry which are of great importance for socialists, and which will have their impact on the structure of the working class movement and its political balance, I will deal with three industries which have been in the news recently, Shipbuilding The Financial Times of 23rd October reported that "Tentative discussions are taking place within the British shipbuilding industry aimed at some form of rationalisation - either in the form of actual mergers or much closer industrial collaboration = which would reduce costs and return shipbuilding to a profit-earned basis. One yard on the Tyne has received several approsches and it is believed that similar discussions are taking place on the Clyde and elsewhere. But the general attitude of the shipyards is to delay any final decision until the Governmen}commissioned Geddes report on the industry is published early next years..e.smergers and rationalisation discussions, however indefinite, have been accelerated by the losses ann ounced recently by leading shipbuildes ~- the Swan Hunter group, and Hewthorn Leslie = and the appointment of a receiver by the Bank of Scotland for the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company." It is worth noting that in the latter case the worké?s are already demanding urgent Government action to prevent a closure which would heve a severe local affect. Discussing the various methods of rationalisation possible, the paper says, ",+efinancial mergers may prove to be necessary and these would make sense only on a regional groupings on the Tyne perhaps between Vickers, Swan Hunter and Hawthorn Leslie; on the Clyde with such firms as John Brown, Lithgows, Fairfields, Scotts and Greenock Dockyards, Before this, however, much could be achieved in the way of industrial collaboration, A number of yards on the Clyde, for example, have their own engine-building works and a good deal of rationalisation could take place heréeesseWhat is evident is that some of Britain's shipbuilding capacity will have to go out of use. It has a capacity of about 12 million tons of shipping a year but output has never gone beyond the 1.4 miljion tons level in the post war years," Matiematicians among our readers will have worked out that the Financial Times is saying in effect that 20% of the rhipbuilding capacity in this country should be closed down, or "rationalised". We can guess what this means in terms of sackings,etce, Iron and steel This industry, in contrast to the shipbuilding sector, has experienced a very favourable period. However, it it expressing some doubt about the future. This is clealy brought out in latest issue of the quarterly Steel Review, which is the official journal of British Iron and Steel Federation. The first thing the journal brings out is that certain steel firms will be pressing the Iron and Steel Board to sanction an increase in prices, In attempting to justify this it said that a recently completed survey had shown that since the Board last adjusted prices, just over six months ago, costs had risen by the equivalent of about £20 million a year, The bulk of this increase being due to higher wages and salaries, But worse still according to a leader in the journal "With the possibility of a downturn in trade lying close ahead, such a further massive increase in costs in such a short period must bring into question the adequacy of the present
: n level of steel prices, to be continued/