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Concerning wage increases and the recent proposed partnership agreement between the trade union movement and the employers in Ireland I make the following observations: To say that wage rises, due to the implementation of the agreement, will push up the rate of inflation and consequently negatively affect the degree of economic prosperity in Ireland is erroneous. If there is a free market then a free labour market must correspondingly exist. Consequently if wages rise then this must be a result of the specific market relationship obtaining between the supply and demand of labour power. If the there is a real rise in the price of labour power then the demand for labour power must exceed the supply. Consequently the working class cannot be subjected to criticism if they receive a rise in real wages. Their increase is merely a result of the laws of economics that the much of the bourgeoisie and their economic ideologues subscribe to and are forever praising. Indeed this very same bourgeoisie claims that it is distortions in the market mechanism that is the source of much of the economic problems. This is why they regularly attack state ownership of the means of production in the form of nationalisation.This being so then, for them, what is needed are freely operating market conditions which means increased wages in Ireland given that according to much of the bourgeois economic community the demand for labour power is currently exceeding the supply of labour power in Ireland. Such a change in the price of labour power, according to the economics of these wise fellows, should lead to economic equilibrium whereas a price for labour that does not reflect market conditions will tend to lead to disequlibrium. These fellows cannot have it both ways. Warm regards George Pennefather Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/ Be free to subscribe to our Communist Think-Tank mailing community by simply placing subscribe in the body of the message at the following address: mailto:[log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%