6

Centralized Economic
Control In Britain

Boe ’S experience during the first two years of the
war proved that centralized eontrol over manpower
cannot by itself achieve full mobilization of the men and
women of a nation. Right from the start of the war, in Sep-
tember 1939, full power to allocate manpower between in-
dustry and the armed forces was given the minister of labor
and national service, yet this did not prevent a serious wastage

of manpower.

Britain has learned that central-
ization of manpower control, to be
effective, must be accompanied by
centralized control over the whole
economic effort of the nation. So
long as scheduling of production
and allocation of contracts re
mained in the hands of seven con-
flicting government agencies, each
dominated by monopoly interests,
the value of centralized control
over Britain's manpower Was
largely offset.

Tt was further weakened by
jack of coordination between
those responsible for production
and those who decided basic mili-
tary strategy. For instance, some
50,000 coal miners were taken out
of the industry early in the war,
thereby initiating a coal shortage
which today is threatening the
nation’s arms output.

Creating of the ministry of pro-
duction in March 1942, with full
power over allocation of raw ma-
terials, industrial capacity and
manpower, established the basis
for total economic mobilization.
Production Minister Oliver Lyttle-
ton and Labor Minister Ernest
Bevin, both members of the war
cabinet (Lyttleton is also a mem-
ber of its policy-making defense
committee), can now coordinate
their production and manpower
programs to meet the strategic
needs of the nation.

“My prime responsibility is to
determine the relative importance
of the various demands for labor,”
Lyttleton stated in the House of
Gommons on March 24 “Mr.
Bevin’s prime responsibility is to
provide it.”

With a total British population
of only 45 millions, Labor Minister
Bevin has no easy task to supply
enough men and women both to
Britain’s large army and to the
war industries. Under the WNa-
tional Service Acts of August 1939
and December 1941, all men be-
tween the ages of 18-51 and all
unmarried women from 18-51 are
liable for military service. Mar-
ried men with children are not
deferred. To date, men 18-41 and
women 20-24 have been called up.

Britain’s methods of deferring
key industrial workers from mili-
tary service have changed sharply
during the war. In September
1939, in conjunction with the
Trades Union Congress, the gov-
ernment drew up a schedule of
reserved occupations. Workers in
these occupations were given
planket deferments. As the war
developed, the government gradu-
ally raised the age limits above
which workers in reserved occu-
pations might be deferred. Fin-
ally, in December 1941, an order
was issued raising these age
limits by one year every month.
The effect of this has been prac-
tically to abolish the schedule of
reserved occupations.

Today, in order to get a defer-
ment, each industrial worker
must go before his district man-
power board. There are 45 such
boards in Britain under the min-
istry of labor. They act in con-
junction with the regional produc-
tion boards; thus the recently-
achieved coordination between the
production and jabor ministers, 50
essential to over-all economic
planning, is now being reproduced
at a lower level in the nation’s
industrial structure.

In considering deferments, the
district manpower boards obey
the following directive: “Nothing

LONDON.

that a woman can do, or can learn
to do, however impossible it may
seem, should be allowed to absorb
a man of miiltary age.” Women
workers 20-24 are not deferred if
their places in industry can be
taken by older women.

Under the Registration-for-Em-
ployment Order of March 1941, all
men liable for military service
but not yet called up—that is to
say, those in the 41-51 group—are
liable for service in industry. The
same order makes all women be-
tween 18-45 liable for industrial
service. Married women with
children are open to deferment.

Today, nearly 7,000,000 of Brit-
ain’s army of industrial workers
are women. Another 300,000 are
parttime workers. ‘Within a
year Britain should have a million
part-time women workers,” a
labor ministry official stated re-
cently. Almost one-half of the
workers in Britain’s war indus
tries will soon be women. #

Britain’s 11 regional production
boards and 55 district production
committees, described last week
by Allied Labor News, have just
completed a comprehensive, de-
tailed census of the nation’s in-
dustry. All machine tools, factory
space, raw Material and man-
power resources have been tabul-
ated. This survey, which will
guide the allocation of new con-
tracts and the transfer of men
and machines from inefficient
plants, provides a basis for the
over-all planning of production.

By BETTY RADFORD
Allled Labor News Writer

CAPETOWN.

42 South African Trades and
Labor Council, which includes
the large unions of gold and dia-
mond miners of the Rand, has
cabled Sir Walter Citrine, secre-
tary of the British Trades Union
Congress, to enlist the support of
British workers for African
jabor’s fight to release arrested
union leaders in Northern Rhod-
esia and the Belgian Congo, where
refusal by British, American and
Belgian mining corporations to
cooperate with their workers has
seriously affected production in
the rich Katanga copper belt.

“phere is a possibility of seri-
ous labor trouble in the copper
belt,” the cable said. ‘We urge
that further representations be
made to your government to with-
draw the action taken against
Chrys Maeyer and Frank May-
bank (leaders of the Rhodesian
Mineworkers’ Union arrested last
month for ‘fomenting unrest’).
There is enough evidence that
they are not guilty of subversive
activities to warrant a democratic
trial.’’

A delegation from Johannes-
burg Trades Council interviewed
Prime Minister Jan Smuts, who
agreed to put the case before Lord
Warlech, British High Commis-
sioner in this country. Since
Rhodesia, a British crown colony,
is governed from London, and
since the labor policy of the Am-

Bengal Workers Form —

‘|e

INDIA’S easternmost provinces of Bengal
threatened with invasion by the Japanese an
last week was launched, the workers are not
duction but are also cooperating with the Kis
People’s Defense Brigades. Hindu an

British Mortar Crew

British infantrymen man a three-inch mortar during a dem-

onstration,

witnessed by General Eisenhower, CinC, U.S.

Army European Theatre of Operations, during which in-

fantry advanced under a creeping

barrage of live artillery

and mortar fire to obtain an objective.

outh African Trade Unionists
Appeal To British Labor

erican Metal Company, which
controls the two biggest and most
anti-labor Rhodesian mines, is
determined in New York, the
Rhodesian Mineworkers are mak-

RAF Negro Pilot

First Nigerian to be com-
missioned into the British
Royal Air Force, Pilot Of

ficer Peter ‘Thomas, of
Lagos, is training as a
fighter pilot.

ing strenuous efforts to explain
their position to metal-mining
unions in the U.S. and Britain.

Negotiations are continuing in
Rhodesia, with the legislative as-
sembly and the governor insisting
that Maybank, secretary of the
Mineworkers, and Maeyer, chair-
man of the union local at Am-
erican Metal’s Mulfira mine, were
arrested for subversive activities
and not for trade unionism. s

A memorandum to the gover
nor from the general council of
the union last week reiterated
Rhodesian labor's wholehearted
support for the United Wations
and said that both arrested union-
ists have always held anti-fascist
convictions and are executives of
a strongly anti-fascist union. One
charge against Maybank, who was
largely instrumental in establish-
ing labor-management commit-
tees in the mines over the oppo-
sition of the companies, was that
he had threatened to disrupt out-
put of copper. Mayer was accused
of organizing “Gommunist cells”
among African workers.

In response to labor pressure,
the Rhodesian government has
now revoked a deportation order
against Maeyer, put said in a
statement, “The advisory board
has unanimously recommended
the continued detention of May-
bank.” If the unions fail to per-
suade the government to with-
draw its threat to deport May-
bank to New Zealand, 2 general
strike vote will be taken.

People’s Defense Brigade

CALCUTTA. 1

and Assam, which for months have be |
d from which the British advance into Br
only straining every nerve to increase war pie
an Sabhas (peasant unions) to form arm:
d Moslem workers participate jointly in these acti

One of the vital war materi |
produced by India is jute. Te a
crease their profits the Ben |
and Assam jute employers, |)
ganized into the Indian Jute M |}
Association, cut production 20 <}
cent last August and laid off
workers. To deal with this sit j}
tion, the General Council of 4 ©

Bengal Trades Union Congr || 0
met in Calcutta and passed ° piel
following resolution: gard

“We urge the Bengal gove
ment to realize the seriousness |
the situation and appoint a jo j ats
committee, consisting of repres Or:
tatives of employers, workers = pi ¥
government, to investigate ¢” (
ditions in the jute industry, p fave
vent the layine off of workerse | |
introduce a uniform standard }.4
wages, This is imperative 1f 7 — -
duction for the fight agai Pu!
fascism is not to be impeded. pre

Following this meeting, work Alt
in the jute mills elected comr frat
tees to co-operate with the + |
ployers in finding ways to inere |
production, — : i

The Bengal Railwaymen’s E-
eration met at the same time
demand speedier conversion }¢
railway shops to war product § a
military training of the work f
and inereased pay to offset” ree
rise in living costs. - fe

“Only a well-fed people can
fend the country,” one delez § .
said. “Only training in the use
arms will raise the morale of ##
workers.” AW

Significantly, measures taker i
the workers and peasants to fne
ganize their own defense brige £..
have gone farthest in Chittasi ;
nearest city in India to the. Ff
anese armies. (Chittagong : |
the point from which Gen
Wavell started his offensive
week.) When _Chittagons
severely bombed last May 9, #4
president of the local Dock W oF
ers’ Union, Golam Sarif,
killed.

Immediately after this a 1
trict Organizing Committee™ —
formed to recruit a Peor
Defense Brigade. The comr &
tee consisted of five member:
three Hindu and two Mosi
Within two weeks the brig
numbered 2000, 25 per cent
whom were Moslem. In the 3 'f
of the common danger, WP
between the Moslem muino |
and Hindu majority was © |
plete. ¥

At the same time, a Pec
Committee was formed by jj
trade unions and Kisan Sabh: 4
organize ca-operative stores ¥
the sale of rice, salt and Tj
sene, to prevent profiteering, §
arms from the landlords anc §
government and give the pt
military and political semi-oft |
recognition, and its influence |
the community is such thé
now handles all legal dispute

Tts main task today is tt
erease production of food and
materials for the United Nat
armies. :

Last month enemy af
spread a false alarm that a
of 6000 Japanese was on its
to attack Chittagong. While 1d
workers and peasants rallie
defend their homes, local go
ment officials ran to the st
to catch the outbound train. —
People’s Committee prevente |
train from leaving.