Bell scrapes barrel

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SOCHLOT Trotskyist unity BRING DOWN THE TORIES! FIGHT FOR A ING DOWN THE TORIES! FIGHT FOR BUILD A REVOLUTIONARY LEADERSHIP!

Public launching of the Workers Socialist League rom the fusion of the WSL and I-CL. Saturday 11 October, 10am-5pm, Digbeth Civic Hall, Digbeth With guest speakers and workshops/debates! exhibitions on: Poland, the H-Block struggle. the coming wages round, rank and file movem! in the unions, Women's Fightback, fighting the cuts, National Left Wing Youth Movement. the Labour Left, Trotskyist International ill details from WSL. PO Box 135, Londo throughout the country is especially urgent..

The unions are asking for a substantial pay rise to bring Vauxhall workers' standard of living up to what it was a few years ago.

They also want guaranteed work for a year, since Vauxhall workers have been laid off on 50% pay so often over the past few years.

We need either full pay on la-off or a guaranteed year. At present we get five days full pay per quarter for Discussing the coming selection of candidates for the 1982 local government elections, last weekend's Socialist Organiser Delegate Meeting decided that a national meeting of comrades involved was urgently needed.

The urgency means that a meeting after Labour Party Conference would be too date - so the Socialist Organiser secretariat has organised a gathering at short notice for Sunday 20 September.

Place: Room 324, Polytechnic of Central London, Marylebone Road (oppos.

Baker Street underground station).

Time: 11 am.

The agenda will be: 1) SO councillors' iences.

21 Taking policies out to the working class;

" Accountability 1) Drawing up the Mani festo.

All councillors/prospective councillors and other interested comrades are welcome to attend.

*For London comrades, next Target 82 meeting, 7.30 pm, Monday September 21, at County Hall. OVER last weekend letters were sent to all employees on the redundancy 'list' at Schreiber's Astmoor plant in Runcorn stating that they were redundant from the date on the letter.

Workers who were 'safe' got a letter saying:

«We are now writing to inform you that you are required to report for normal working at your usual starting-time from Monday 14 September 1981.

"If, however, as a result of continuing industrial action, you fail to report for work you will be dismisssed with effect from 14 September 1981."

On Monday 14th, expecting the more weak-willed ranks of the work-force to believe the threatening letter, pickets occupied the plant and chained the gates No-one came in to work, and after consultation with management and police we decided lo unchain the gates. walk out of the factory and resume normal picketting.

Return

But workers at the White House plant decided on Monday, by a narrow volt. to return to work after reading their threatening lenier.

Mr Schreiber has indicited that he will now call a meeting of all the strikers" families, to increase pressure on the Astmoor workforce to return to work.

But Astmoor is still solid On Tuesday 8th. a group of apprentices, led by a so-called socialist, decided that they wanted to go into work.

After being stopped by the pickets they went to the office of the renowned anti-union local paper - the Runcorn Weekly News - and gave a statement containing lies and misquotes, to the effect that they wanted to work, the strikers were only fighting for their own jobs and only two apprentices (two SO supporters) were active on picket duties (ir fact, there are four or five apprentices involved).

Scum

These scum should be blacked on return to work (and that seems quite likely) and the two ring leaders should be disciplined by the The would-be scab apprentices also started complaining after they turned up late to get their strike pay on friday.

At 4 o'clock on the Friday, a meeting was convened with the personnel manager by the two ring-leaders of the scab apprentices. The meeting concluded with nothing settled except that they now knew that they had no chance of entering the Astmoor plant.

Donations have started coming in but we still need Sund messages of support and financial dona- more. lions to Barry Poynton, 15 Barter: Close. . Murdishan, Runcorn. (heshire. Acheques made payable to Schreiber Workers " Welfare Fund): TREVOR BELL, the right. wing candidate for the presidency of the NUM, is obviously getting desperate about his already very slim chances of beating Arthur Scargill for Joe Gormless's seat when the latter at long last retires.

Given that Bell has about as much chance of beating Scargill as a Blackpool donkey of winning the Grand National, this is not surprising. Even so, he's really been scraping the bottom of the barrel latelv.

Shortly after his outburst about the actual memAdvertisement / ARVERS bership of the Yorkshire NUM being smaller than claimed, he has announced that the coal reserves at the recently saved Orgreave Colliery are much smaller than thought.

so smail, in tact, that Bell claims that there is only one year's reserves in the new areas to be exploited, and that Orgreave should therefore close.

It may well be asked why Bell, who as a 'backroom' boy for the NUM has all the information at his fingertips, didn't come out with this earlier in the year At the time of going to press we are still waiting for some concrete facts.

This disgusting stab in the back for the Orgreave men and all those miners who stood by them earlier in the year should be roundly condemned. If Bell wants to persuade the miners that he is the right candidate for the job, let him come out in the open and argue his politics.

So far one of the few honest things he's done is to declare himself for Healey -nuff said!

JOHN CUNNINGHAM

Birmingham.

Admission £1 [50p unwaged] Liaison Committee, etc.

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Sod. aganiser

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despite some trouble last week with apprentices: r

Ralle WORKERS' GOVERNMENT!