The fightback is here

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The fiaht for trade union Problems, programm policies fo. the main Laurence Scotts convenor DENNIS BARRY told us:

There is no picketing or blacking of other plants going on at the moment. To tell you the truth we are beginning to feel a wee bit isolated.

John Boyd is said to have specifically contacted T&GWU bosses asking them to ignore any requests for blacking or other support from Scotts workers, as they are 'unofficial' and "unconstitutional'.

I understand exactly the position of John Tocher and Duggie Daniels. Right up until the agreement was cobbled together by Boyd and Snipe they did their jobs well and gave us every support.

The problem now is that just as the Manchester South District Committee is in the grip of the right-winger Wally Mather, so at the end of the day Tocher and Daniels are in the grip of Boyd and Duffy.

It's the same on the Confed Exec. From what THE LEE Jeans and Plansee disputes | have both been settled. After 20 weeks the Laurence Scotts strikers are still fighting for their jobs against owner Arthur Snipe, against the crisis, and against the Tory government. * This dispute is now at the turning point. If there is no immediate escalation, then the strikers will start rolling down the slippery slope - and Boyd and Duffy will be able to call in the undertakers.

The strikers are now on their own. Their union leaders are holding a pistol to their heads and demanding that they sign their own death warrants.

Yet it could have been and still can be very different.

Here Socialist Organiser prints interviews with JOHN TOCHER (AUEW divisional organiser), DUGGIE DANIELS (AUEW Manchester North district secretI've been told TASS put up the most resistance to the sell-out, but wouldn't you expect CP veterans like George Guy and Ken Gill to have given a more inspiring lead?

Some of the Labour Party MPs have done a reasonable job publicitywise.

It seems as far as the national Press is concerned, we're dead already. However, I'm still optimistic in that we've got 300 still on the picket rota, which isn't bad going.

The dispute has brought home to me the importance of your national organisations both at union and Labour Party level. A shop stewards' committee needs delegates at all levels of both organisations. You'll never know when they'll come in useful.

As for me and the rest of the stewards, we are as determined as ever to see this one through.

If you're looking a fightback against the Tories - here it is.

ary) and DENNIS BARRY (convenor, Laurence Scotts), by John Mellroy and Noel Hibbert.

We believe that the strikers must reimpose picketing on Snipe's main company, Mining Supplies of Doncaster, and blacking in the mines and on the docks.

This brought Snipe to the bargaining table before. It can do so again.

We call on all trade unionists seriously interested in fighting the Tories, and dockers and miners especially, to move motions in the stewards' committees and branches criticising the leadership of the AUEW and demanding immediate blacking of ail Mining Supplies products.

The lessons of Laurence Scotts must be argued in front of the whole working class.

Like the Laurence Scotts workers, none of us has anywhere to run from the Tories and the capitalist crisis. The best way for all workers to protect their interests is to support the Laurence Scotts workers now.

a socialist organiser socialist organise 20p broadsheet

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