The Massive Destruction of Productive Forces

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West Midlands:
The Massive Destruction of Productive Forces

UK Manufacturing Suffers Sharp Decline

The major destruction of the productive forces occurred during the Thatcher years and a major decline in the manufacturing base in the West Midlands took place during that period. Since then there has been a continuous decline up to the present time.

By May 1984, one third of the manufacturing jobs which had existed in the West Midlands County in 1978 had disappeared according to research carried out by the Birmingham branch of RCPB(ML) at that time. This involved a loss of 225,000 jobs. Major factories such as Longbridge, then owned by British Leyland employed 25,000 workers compared to Ford in Dagenham who employed a similar amount and registered as the largest factory complexes in Britain. Rover Solihull employed 12,000 and Castle Bromwich 6,500. Today these companies employ less than 2,000 apiece.

Also by May 1984 the regional CBI reported that manufacturing output was 18% below its 1980 level. It was this situation combined with declining levels of output and line speed ups, de-manning and productivity drives, which produced the situation where such massive numbers of workers were made redundant. The issue then was drive for maximum profit and employers and the then Conservative government called for a more competitive workforce with increased productivity. Today the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce is blaming the productive forces in the same way and has alluded to the situation at Alstom (The MET) as being in the same situation. Longbridge workers have a permanent gun held to their heads over productivity and continued survival of the factory complex.

In 1984 the government started to confuse the unemployment situation, which reached new records, and tampered with figures. The West Midlands County had reached 16.5% compared to the UK average of 13.4%. The national average for people aged over 45 and unemployed was lower than the West Midlands. In some parts of Birmingham it was nearing as high as 50%; Sparkbrook reached 42.2%, (a traditional area of low pay, high unemployment, comprising of ethnic minorities and historically an area of Irish immigrant labour dating back to the beginning of the 20th century). This shows how dependent the region was on manufacturing at that time. The region has since changed over the last 20 years but the dependence on manufacturing industry is still very important and the regional trends are beginning to show their negative features once again.

Ethnic minority workers were particularly affected by the situation in the ’80s. These workers were exploited as a pool of very cheap labour in foundries, metal manufacturing and engineering industries and this continues up to this time. These of course are the very industries most severely in decline.

Industry, which were new to the region in the ’80s is where brutal levels of exploitation started to take place and persists, particularly amongst ethnic minorities and women. The clothing industry is one such area. In the ‘80s only about 7,000 people were officially employed in the industry but the reality was nearer 30,000. Casual labour, working from home, particularly people from India and Pakistan has still seen an increase. Wage rates have always been low flouting even capitalist law. These workers today continue to work long hours and under sweatshop conditions, most of them are unorganised in trade unions and are stealthily untouched by Health and Safety law.

Another growth area where bad conditions are commonplace is in shop work and catering. Part-time and unskilled work grew from the 1970s onwards and replaced traditional work. The proportion of women in these jobs has been particularly high. One area is the service sector, which achieved growth. Hourly wage rates are very low and even fall behind minimum pay rates in some cases.

Today, therefore, as one of the traditional heartlands of manufacturing, the West Midlands is a region particularly hard hit by the crisis, but also one where workers have retained their class consciousness. At present the workers are taking up the fight against the destruction of the manufacturing base, which is accompanied by such justifications as the need for "inward and outward investment", the development of the "knowledge-based economy" and so on.

The year 2002 was the worst year for Britain's manufacturing industry since 1991 according to official figures reported in the Financial Times. According to statistics from the Office for National Statistics, manufacturing output fell by 0.3 per cent in December from the previous month, taking the annual decline to 1.2 per cent. The depression in December was due to significantly lower levels of car production.

John Butler, economist at HSBC, said that since the start of the global downturn, British manufacturing output has fallen by seven per cent compared to falls of 2.5 per cent and 2.1 per cent in France and Germany respectively. Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show that factory production fell by 4% in 2002. There was a 15% increase in company insolvencies in the fourth quarter of 2002 compared to the same period a year earlier. The number of companies going to the wall in this period of 2002 reached 4,323. Simon Rubenstein, chief economist at investment bank Gerrard, said that the manufacturing figures proved that the sector was deep in recession. "While the year-on-year rate of decline may be decelerating, the trend in manufacturing is still very much in a downward direction. By any standards that should be sufficient to conclude that the industrial part of the economy remains firmly locked in recession," he said.

Britain’s trade deficit in goods has also reached a new record as exports to the US continue to fall. The ONS said that the deficit widened to £3.98 billion in November 2002 from the previous record of £3.62 billion in October of the same year. The trade gap with non-EU countries widened to £3 billion in November 2002, from £2.4 billion in October – the highest shortfall since August 2001.

Britain’s deficit on trade in goods and services widened in March this year to £2.3 billion from a revised £2.2 billion in February, according to ONS figures. There was a widening in the deficit on goods to £3.6 billion compared with a revised deficit of £3.5 billion in February.

For the whole year of 2002, Britain’s deficit on its overseas trade reached £34 billion, the highest figure since records began in 1697, the ONS figures show.

Survey data for the three months ending in April 2002, show that there was a fall of 69,000 full-time workers to 20.66 million but a rise of 120,000 part-time workers to 7.20 million. Part-time employment level is the highest since the series began in 1984.

Total hours worked per week were 893.1 million hours, down 1.4 million compared with the three months ending January 2003.

Manufacturing output was flat in the three months to April compared with the three months to January, with five subsectors showing increased output and seven showing falls.

The most significant falls on this basis come from the paper, printing and publishing industries, where output has decreased by 2.0 per cent, and the basic metals and metal products industries, where output has fallen by 1.9 per cent.

The paper, printing and publishing subsector is showing widespread falls, with printing and book publishing featuring as the most significant. Two thirds of the basic metals industries fell on a three monthly basis, with manufacture of fabricated metal products having the biggest effect.