Sequence 11

tive forces of the country will continue to be stifled and all
economic planning will be impossible.

These two fundamental measures must be accompanied by
the State control of overseas trade. Socialism has nothing to
do with either Free Trade or Protection. Both are governed
by the interests of private property. A Socialist Government
seeks to organise the whole economic life of the country as a
unit in the interests of the community. It must therefore put
an end to the chaos which Capitalism has created, whether under
Free Trade or Protection, by establishing governmental or
State control of imports and exports in the interests of the
community.

Strike at Poverty

Simultaneously with the aquisition of real control over
these vital points of economic power, which secures the basis
for far-reaching measures of socialisation of main and basic in-
dustries, the Socialist Government must immediately meet the
critical conditions of the masses. It must, as part of the essen-
tial "ambulance" work :--

Launch wide national schemes of slum clearance;
Build workers' houses and new schools in rural and industrial
areas alike;
Control and, if need be, socialise the building industry, so
that the Housing plans may be carried through without delay;
Establish on a national basis, nationally paid for, the Trades
Union Congress scales of relief for the unemployed, which at
the moment, are £2 a week for a man, his wife, and two
children;
Abolish the Means Test and the Unemployment Anomalies
Act;
Reduce the hours of labour to fourty a week;
Repeal the Trade Union and Trade Disputes Act of 1927;
Insitute a new Factory Act, measures to ensure the Safety of
Miners, and protective legislation for workers in offices, retail
shops, retaurants, hospitals and similar institutions;
Raise the school-leaving age to 15, and within two years to 16,
and provide maintenance allowances;
Lower the pension age to 60 years and raise the rate to a
minimum of £1 a week per recipient, on a non-contributory
basis, so that the recipients may be withdrawn from industry.

These things must be done in the first few months of Power,
and though their cost and that os Socialist development are too

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