The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 17, 1926, Page 12

By R::Palme Dutt. TJ\HE report of the British coal com- mission was issued on March 11 This document, which is an open dec- laration of war on even the existing low standards of the working class, {is a decisive pronouncement of the fu- ture policy of capitalism in Britain. Tt is of international importance for the immediate future struggle of the working class movement, and a heavy blow to all conceptions of “stabiliza- tion” save on the basis of the com- plete defeat of the working class. The Dilemma of the Mining Industry. crisis of the coal mining indus- try in Britain is the crisis of Brit- ish capitalism in its sharpest form. Coal production in 1913 was 287,- 000,000 tons, in 1924 it was 267,000,000 tons, and in 1925 it was 245,000,000 tons.’ Coal exports in 1925 were 22% leas than the pre-war average. This decline in the ability to produce mar- ketable coal severely affects British shipping (four-fifths of whose outward cargoes are coal), and paralyzes all British industry with heavy costs, thus adding to industrial stagnation. For this reason coal has been the cen- ter of the economic problem in Brit- ajn after the war, and the center of conflict between the capitalist class and the working class. The reasons for this decline lie, firstly, In the charge of technical con- ditions, the development of new meth- ods of technique and of utilization of coal as well as of new sources of power, the emergence of new centers of production, and the consequent de- eline of the world coa] industry as a whole, but most heavily affecting Brit- ish coal, because British capitalist or- ganization has been most heavily rooted in the past and unable to re- spond to the new conditions (French eoal production, owing to the instal- ment of modern machinery since the war has increased; German coal has been driving out British trom the European market). ,..Second, the reason for the high costs lies in the extreme disorganiza- tion and anarchy of the British coa: industry, the technical backwardness —testified in official commission after commission—and the wasteful br of inflated capital Between 1914 and 1921 the coal industry, with a cu, value of 135 million pounds ster?'r- was made to yield profits to the ex- tent of 308 million pounds si and a large portion of these profits was turned into nominal new capita: on which today further profits ° to be raised. On the other hand, modernization and technica: dey. ment have been heavily neglect and fallen behind France, Germany and America. This situation can only be met by a complete reorganization in respou to the changing conditions of moder: technique, cutting across the tangle of accumulated capitalist interests and eliminating wasteful burdens and un productive organization. Such a re- organization, however, cannot be car ried out within capitalism, but can only. be realized on socialist lines, In «onsequence, the only alternative for British capitalism is to endeavor to economize on the workers’ conditions by lower wages. But wages are al- ready down to breaking point; ac- cording to a recent statement of Bevin, the trade union leader, in Jan- uary, 1926, five hundred thousand min- ers are receiving less than £2 a week. This is the problem confronting the commission. The commission was ap- pointed as a sequel of the failure of the coal owners’ attack on wages last July. The united resistance of the working class on “Red Friday” com- pelled the government to intervene and postpone the conflict by the de- vice of nine months’ subsidy to the coal owners to “compensate” them for maintaining the status quo, Dur- ing these months the government has concentrated on preparing, on a large scale, for the future conflict, The commission was appointed, as in 1919, to gain time; but this time the com- mission was composed solely of capi- talist representatives (an ex-liberal cabinet minister belonging to a large financial house, a”»big.. banker, a,,big extile employer. and a former .gov wnment official) to prepare the cap italist case. The miners only agree: oy a vote of 477,000 to 332,000 even to appear as witnesses before the com- mission, The subsidy is by common consent only a temporary device, and no so lution. It will have cost, by the time it reaches its end on April 30, of £21,- 000,000. The government, which 1s in financial difficulties amd endeavor- ing, for example, to save £8,000,000 by desperate attacks on unemploy- ment and health insurance in its econ- omy bill, will not readily continue this expenditure; and the other industries are up in arms against it. Therefore, even if any continuance is adopted, it can only be a short postponement of the issue for tactical reasons. The dilemma remains inseparable: either socialistic reorganization or re- newed attack on the workers. As one of the principal coal owners, C. P. Markham, the chairman of fifteen companies, declared: “Whatever the commission decides, the fact remains that whenever the subsidy comes off there is bound to be a fight.” The Commissione’ Proposals. report of the commission is a confession of capitalist bank- ruptcy. The existing disorganization and backwardness ig admitted, anc he necessity of drastic chang: Many mines are “badly planned” an om “to small a scale;” suffering frou. defective equipment and manage ment;” “methods utilized are unsciex tific;” coal is not being put to scien iifie use; research is neglected; anc selling organization and transport i: anarchie and costly. Nevertheless the commission is un ible to recommend the unitary state reorganization which alone can carry through the necessary changes. Na tionalization is rejected. Even com pulsory unification and grouping is re ected. British ‘capitalism has ¥éachec: | a stage at which it can no longe emedy its own abuses. The frame vork of obsolete property rights ha vecome so unstable that even a par ial blow or change cannot be ad nitted without endangering the whole The commission recommends onl; the nationalization of mineral rights ut not of the mines. The existing oyalty owners would be bought ou t a maximum price of £150,000,000 ince royalties at present amount tc £6,000,000 a year, the interest on th urchase price and the administratioz »sts would be equivalent to th*s, an: >» economic change would be mad: ve that the income of the royalt; vners would be for the future gua: teed. No control over the industr) vould be established, For the organization of the indus- ry the commission can only recom 1end a system of state boards with- out compulsory powers,. These pro- posals therefore are extremely weak or the actual situation, and more a vindow-dressing of reorganization -han any serious attempt, A coal sommission would be established to vdminister the mineral rights, and in the renewal of leases endeavor to en- courage grouping, In a few extreme vases even legislation might be used to carry through amalgamation of articular companies, To develop the scientific use of coal and co-ordinate t with other sources of power, 4 na- ‘ional fuel and power committee should be set up—but only with ad- visory powers, Research is to be en- couraged. For the better organiza- tion of transport a standing joint com- mittee of the ministry of transport and the ministry of mines is recom- mended, For cheaper distribution co- operative selling agencies and munici- pal retail schemes are recommended. And so forth, In all these proposals the essen- tials of the problem are left un- tackled, What, then, is the practical proposal of the commission, since they are emphatic that the subsidy must be ended? The practical pro- posals of the commission for the im- mediate future are to be found in the The British Coal Report 2 The hniperialiet Policy China | ¥ ik The Cartoonist shows China in the toils of the Serpent of imperialism. The serpent must have his head chopped off, which is the business not only of the Chinese masses but also of the Workers and Farmers of all the World. sections on wages and hours. Wages ust be reduced. This is the single ositive point in all the voluminous ‘eport of the commission, Wages must be reduced, On hours he commission recommend no change inless the miners should “freely pre- er some extension of hours with a $8 reduction of wages”), not out of ay consideration for the men, but on che frankly business grounds that any xtension of hours can only mean in- creased output, when the problem is already to find a sale for the present output, or alternatively a wholesale discharge of men, thus simply swell- ng the state’s unemployment prob- lem; and, further, any extension of hours would make the British miners’ aours longer than in any important area on the continent except Upper Silesia, thus leading to renewed ex- tensfions in competition and further overstocking of the market, But wages must be reduced, The 1924 agreement must be cancelled, and @ return made to the minimum of the 1921 agreement (reached after the knockout blow of “Black Fri- day”)—a reduction of 10%, The 1921 minimum is fixed at 20% above 1914; the cost of living is official returned at 76% above, But even this is not enough, Wages must be fixed at an economic” level, “This does not mean simply a return to the minimum of 1921, i. 6, a uniform reduction of -0% on the present minimum per- centage, In some districts less may ve needed, in others more, It will »e for the mine owners and the min- ers to carry out by negotiation the nec- sary downward revision of district minima, There is thud to be no Limit .o the process of redaction, Alongside of these proposals are set customary recommendations for “im- proved labor relations"—compulsory profit sharing, joint pit committees, famfly allowances (out of the work- ers’ wages), annual holidays with pay (“when prosperity returns”) and so forth, Prospects. sum up the effect of the commis- sion’s proposals, First, there fs to be no attempt at the unification which alone.can tackle the industry's problems, 5 g 4 A a 5 FE Third, the reduction of wages Is therefore the essence of the commis. \sion’s proposals, This fs the only path forward to stabilization which British capitalism can see. The la movement, in the words of the of the miners” in defense of “no re duction of wages and no increase in working hours, to These pledges will now be put the test, The united front of “Red Friday” will need to be maintained in a more serious conflict, which will in- éevitably raise larger issues, :