After Rover defeal PREPARE FOR NEW EDWARDES ATTACK

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THE ROVER SD1 plant at Solihull has become the latest victim of the Edwardes 'recovery plan' — and another 2,000 workers will join the dole queue in the West Midlands.

That was the result of the mass meetine held on Wednesday 8th July, when the workforce voted 2:1 to reject the stewards' recommendation to resist closure and prevent the movement of plant and materials to Cowley.

The company's threat that non-cooperation with the closure would result in loss of redundancy noney was undoubtedly the immediate cause of the surrender. But this threat need not have been decisive if the workers had been given a strong leed funes antinal TrITI leaa irom nanonal 1UYYu officials and (perhaps CVCIE importantly) n- oA arn nam imanatnn+lerl if the unions' record in BL over the past few years had been one of backing the fight against Edwardes instead of selling it out Michael Edwardes at every turn.

Events outside of 1 also served to demorali the SD1 workers: wh len stewards pointed to t the T&G's promise of official support some workers shouted back, 'What about Ansells?' reference to the recent Birmingham brewery strike made official and then stabbed in the back by T&G officials.

So the vicious circle of management attacks followed by union sell-outs, followed by rank and file demoralisation, followed by more management attacks, continues.

The 2:1 vote was, of course, a terrible defeat f but it also showed a surprisingly large hard-core minority willing to fight come what may.

That hard core was there from the moment the closure plan was announced in May. The question is, the stewards had decided to put a clear-cut call for occupation to the workforce back in May, could they have carried the day?

Most SD1 stewards argue that they would have been defeated 'all or nothing, for the option from the outset. Socialist Challenge supporters in particular argued throughout that the only lope was to play for time, zo for general commitments to 'resist' the closure, and attempt to build up support for an occupathrough propaganda and shopfloor debate.

No-one can guarantee there was a majority for action in May. But every recent experience notably, Speke no.2 in 1978 and Linwood earlier this year - suggests that the "softly, softly' approach certainly doesn't work. It allows the closure to grow into an accepted fact, and gives the grab the money and run' brigade an opportunity to develop. From now on the message must be: strike while the iron is hot.

This is why the BL Combine Committee conference planned for August 8th must go ahead despite the Rover defeat. If more job loss and plant ciosures are to be stopped, then a strong rank and file based movement must be built now, ready to fight on the immediate issues facing all BL workers - the new Procedure Agreement (which will make striking a sackable offence!) and the 1982 pay claim due for settlement on November 1st.

These are the issues that supporters of the Leyland Action Committee will be fighting for in the plants and at the combine committee.