In 1971, the crisis of world capitalism had manifested itself in a currency crisis of unprecedented proportions and the suspension of the convertibility of dollars into gold, the final blow to the world monetary system that had been established by the post-war Bretton-Woods agreement. Ted Grant explained the basis for this crisis was to be found in the deteriorating position of US capitalism and its attempt to export its balance of payments problems to its rivals.

In 1970, Ted Grant exposed the move to de-nationalise public assets by the Conservatives and proved that the nationalised industries, despite their bureaucratisation as a result of the lack of workers’ control, were more efficient than private industries.

In May 1972 an attempt by the right-wing trade union leaders to bow under the Industrial Relations Act was fiercely opposed by the rank and file. As Ted Grant pointed out, exposing the cowardly actions of these trade union leaders, “Unjust laws passed by Westminster at the behest of the enemy class are not worth anything when weighed against the power of the organised labour movement. The jails are not big enough or strong enough to contain the workers who will resist, if a lead is given.”

In February 1972 the Tory government led by Edward Heath provoked a major confrontation with the miners, who were tired of seeing their salaries squeezed by rising prices. “This government of capitalist perfidy, malice, stupidity, cruelty, incompetence and greed for gain, must be brought down”, commented Ted Grant.

In 1971, the economy was growing sluggishly and was rife with inflationary problems. Ted Grant disproves the bourgeois myth that an increase in the wages of the working class causes price increases and examines the real causes of inflation.

In 1971, one year into the Tory government, with sluggish economic growth unemployment was growing and inflation had risen to 9%. At the same time the Tories were launching a vicious attack on the organised labour movement, provoking a backlash from the working class. Ted Grant pointed out that only a clear a decisive lead given from the Labour Party and the Trade Union movement as a whole for genuine socialist policies, could end this nightmare once and for all.

At the end of 1968 a currency crisis shook the world markets outlining the extreme volatility of the world situation. Here is Ted Grant’s analysis on the processes behind that crisis.





Join us!

Help build the forces of Marxism worldwide!

Join the IMT!