Feeding the Blackpool bloodhounds

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But to impose punitive damages payments • TORY Conference delegates in Blackpool unions through the courts would be to go far beyo

the selective strategy of picking off one section a

True there has - as Thatcher promised - been no time: if Thatcher is now prepared to press for su 'U' turn. But neither has there been any let-up in legislation, it is a guage of the contempt she has 1 inflation, in the flow of bankruptcies or in the rise of unemployment. The anger of youth on the streets For the Tory bloodhounds at Blackpool -has erupted into riots that have made a mockery of long fed on a diet of peanuts - the prospect previous years' bayings for 'law and order'. getting their teeth into some workers will fill thi

So deeply is the British economy disjointed that

hallowed Tory sacred cows - the naval dockyards - But for the working class the latest attack und have wandered into Geoffrey Howe's abattoirs: and even those bedrocks of Toryism, the shire counties, A new, revolutionary leadership is needed wit! are in revolt against Heseltine's latest plans to impose Such measures are an unmistakeable echo of the the labour movement; a leadership that is prepar a straitjacket on local authority spending. Heath government's Industrial Relations Act of 1972 to build action to confront and defeat the gove have begun to make inroads into disillusioned Tory On the political front, the upstarts of the SDP extended to the unions since 1906 to the handful of which confined the immunities that had been real alternative, a workers' government that y ment and equipped with policies as the basis fo unions that were prepared to register under the Act.

Small wonder in the midst of such chaos that a The immunities were restored by the Wilson growing group of Tory MPs - in an apparently more government in the 1974 Trade Union and Labour and more organised fashion - are beginning openly Relations Act. But the final two years of the to challenge Thatcher's rigid monetarist strategy, and Callaghan government saw growing attempts by call for measures to ease unemployment and stem employers to find ways of using the courts to the tide of closures and recession through increased prevent strikes or inflict damages payments on trade ministers are prominent in this attack - which sig- Ted Heath and former Heath government encouraged also by the abject spinelessness of this Now Thatcher, egged on by Tory hard-liners and bottom. The latest business surveys show oI Productive investment will remain at Io nificiantly is gathering strength only shortly after year's TUC Congress, appears to have decided to books down and firms planning to cut investm Thatcher's purge of 'wets' from leading ministerial launch the Tories once again on a collision course That's the picture after a four per cent incre Thatcher has no intention of changing course. in bank lending rates over the last three weeks, fi Her cabinet is a demolition-squad cabinet, recruited on the basis of a willingness to mútilate the social It's good news for bankers and financiers. !

At the same time Tebbit is likely to propose the working class, it is another indication that!

But to complete such a task, and to inflict the meaures to curb the closed shop - with legislation to Tory government is still prepared to let this slu cut in working class living standards needed to raise enforce hefty compensation to workers sacked for go longer and deeper, with no attempt to restrair the level of profitability, the strength of the trade not joining a union and to offer non-union members for the sake of raising the rate of exploitation. unions must be confronted, and a defeat inflicted on the chance of a court order to prevent them being High interest rates and continuing price in sacked. "Union only" labour contracts often used by tion on one side, and the 4% wage limit on the ot!

Enter Norman Tebbit, a neolithic Tory who Labour councils which in particular benefit direct are the two jaws of the Tories' squeeze on jobs : believes himself ordained to smash up the unions. Most important is the proposal to strip trade labour departments, will also be outlawed. prepare the ground for war on the unions, and Tebbit's notion is to kill two birds with one stone - placate the blood lust of his party colleagues in employers for damages as a result of strikes called unions of their immunity from being sued by 'declaration of intent' by a government whose consistent line has been to confront sections of the To introduce such legislation would be a further to fight to bring all other sections of worl Now the job of socialists must be to build unity : BL workers have given a lead for a fightba Linked to this is the plan to make it compulsory trade union movement and rely on the union bureau- pursuing wage demands out alongside the first package of legislation to be introduced by the Tebbit seems certain to announce a new to hold a secret ballot before a strike is called.

will find precious little to cheer about.

voters. government spending.

posts.

services in the pursuit of profit.

the working class. government. before procedure is exhausted.

mere verbal statements from mere verbal statements unionists. pOl with the organised labour movement.

Closed shop cracy to prevent an all-out struggle.

the TUC leaders.

with ecstasy.

lines the political task ahead.

establish a planned socialist economy.

MORTGAGE payments are up. services will be squeezed harder burden. Higher interest charges will price increases everywhere.

and increase redundancies.

12% to 16%. living standards. suspects at torture like Castlereagh.

Michael is innocent and denies that he ever made any alleged confession. Perhaps his jailers were particularly incensed at their failure to coerce a written confession *gunta.

Tllar Local coul by the inter work through