[are the abolition of the forty hour week…]

Scan page 4

are the abolition of the forty hour week and the minimum wage of 4000 sucres declared by the Roldós government in the period following its election in 1979.

The centre-right government of Roldós' successor Hurtado is at this stage not prepared to concede either of these, so there have been large-scale liquidations of factories and redundancies as the bosses try both to protect their profits and to pressurise the government.

Peasants are facing the start of a big clampdown on credit, and a calling-in of existing credits. Harvests in some sectors are also bad.

Public spending and public sector employment are being heavily cut.

The cost of living is rising rapidly, particularly since May, and it seems 1. Minimum salary to be raised to s/7000 a month from s/ 4000; salaries now between 12,000 and 15,000 to be raised to s/15,000; automatic salary and wage adjustments in line with rises in the cost of living; treeze on prices of basic items; freeze on charges for light, water, phones, rent. 2. No rise in fares; state or municipal takeover of transport; free imports of vehicles for public service; creation of state spares depots. 3. Immediate solution of outstanding labour disputes; five years' job security for all workers; a law against fraudulent liquidations of companies. 4. Demands for agrarian reform and a state takeover of the banana, rice, coffee, and cocoa trade; a moratorSocialist Organiser, Thursday 30 September 1982 Page Schulter (right) replaces Jorgensen and promises Danish bosses ate' urban party. The main big farming and industrial bourgeois party is the interests). DENMARK'S new Con servative-led government is threatening big cuts in public spending and an end to inflation protection for wages.

Scan page 5

The government is due to present its economic programme on October 5, and prime minister Poul Schluter has said that it will probably include scrapping most of the cost-of-living protection currently built in to most Danish wage agreements.

The new 'bourgeois coalition' was formed after Anker Jorgensen's Social Democratic government resigned on September 3. Like Jorgensen's, it is a minority government, commanding 66 seats out of 179 in Parliament.

Schluter's Conservative Party is not the main party of the Danish bourgeoisie (it has not led a government since 1894), but a 'moderLiberal Party (based on In addition to a firm policy' servatives and Liberals, the coalition includes the Centre Democrats (a right-wing, anti-communist, anti-union split from the Social Democratic Party) and the Christian People's Party (another Behind the political shift stands an economic crisis. Denmark's national income per head is among • the highest in the world (60% more than Britain's), but now the prosperity is faltering.

Deficit.

Unemployment is about 10%, the central government budget deficit is about 12% of national income, and the net foreign debt adds up to around 28% of national income. (In comparison, the total foreign debt of Latin America's four big debtors Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico - is about 43% of their aggregate income. But this debt weighs far, far heavier on their much poorer economies).

, Jorgensen wanted to cut od THE transfer of powe in West Germany from thi SDP/FDP coalition to a new alliance of the CDU/CSI and FDP is not progressin smoothly.

With a last minute cam paign by the local part: in Sunday's regional elec tions in Hesse, the SDI lost only one seat. Thei 42.8% share of the vot gave them 49 seats.

The CDU, with 52 seat from 45.6% of the vote didn't receive the overa majority they expected