Throughout the western world, economic problems facing the capitalist system have developed to such a chaotic situation that only co-ordinated action against wage and salary earners can restore stability to the world's economies. Because the prewar disciplinary force of sustained unemployment is no longer an option to employers and governments, they have developed 'incomes policies' (i.e. sophisticated union bashing) as a means to keep labour subservient to capital. As the British writer Ken Coates has put it: ". . . international competition demands that margins be considered even more tightly, and basic costs be budgeted over longer periods within narrower limits of fluctuation. Hence the over-riding concern about inflation, and the constant preoccupation with the 'stabilisation' of wage costs. Wages must be brought under control if the cutting edge of capital is not to be dulled to a degree intolerable to its masters". (Essays on Industrial Democracy, 1971, p.22)

All over the western world governments have introduced these 'incomes policies' and developed systems of industrial relations designed to restrict workers' demands. New Zealand has been a little slower than other countries to formalise such policies into long term legislation, but last year the National Government caught up when it introduced the 'Police Offences Act (Industrial Division)', better known as the Industrial Relations Bill. According to a government statement at the time it was introduced, the Bill "is the first major restructuring of New Zealand's industrial legislation and institutions since 1894. It will provide a new charter for the conduct of industrial relations in this country". In fact the Bill is nothing more than a programme of disciplinary regulations for labour, a sophisticated plan for union bashing that is no different from past anti-worker legislation (which was described in Bert Roth's article two weeks ago — Eds).