WHO CONTROLS WAGES ?
It was to be expected that the Daily Worker would represent the invitation as an insult, for the Daily Worker is not interested in economic recovery within the present political framework. But it is a serious matter that the leaders of Her Majesty's Opposition, men who were Ministers a few months ago and, as Ministers, were calling for higher production to defeat inflation, should now be looking towards action which would frustrate any such end. When, a few weeks ago, there was a growing agitation, undoubtedly Communist-inspired, for industrial sabo- tage to defeat what were called " the Butler cuts," it was immediately denounced by leaders of both the Labour Party and the trade unions. But is the encouragement of new wage demands at this time far short of sabotage? It may be contended that the leaders of the Opposition are not encouraging such demands—they are merely saying that they are inevitable. But the distinction is invalid. It breaks down on the test of truth. The demands are not inevitable. -If they are made, and the miners' and agricultural workers' unions have already said that they will be, they will be made by the deliberate action of sane men with their eyes wide open. There is nothing inevitable about it. Trade union leaders have only an imperfect control over their supporters, but neither leaders nor supporters are mere automata, brought mechanically into, action by the move- ment of selected economic index numbers. They can think if they want to. And they are capable of understanding the simple argument, which has been repeated over and over again by members of the previous Government as well as the present one, that higher incomes without higher output mean inflation. The central object of the new income-tax reliefs in the Budget was to encourage workers to work harder by giving them the assurance that their extra earnings would be less heavily reduced by P.A.Y.E. If they respond to this by submitting new wage claims instead of turning out -more goods they will certainly reduce the Budget to nonsense. They might even bring down the Government, but they would bring it down in the midst of a national disaster.
