Solidarity with BL strike UNIONISM AT STAKE!

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Clash in Poland POLAND'S ruling party last week ousted leader Stanislaw Kania and moved to a more hard-line attitude towards the workers' movement.

On Tuesday there was the first of what could be a new series of confrontations. Solidarnos members were, apparently, selling their local newssheet as usual in the town centre at Katowice when police arrested 5,000 protesters gathered, and were reportedly dispersed by police using tear gas. Meanwhile hard-line Stalinist students occupied the offices of a local steel mill and demanded the local Party leadership resign because they considered its attitude too soft.

MORE ON POLAND: PAGE FIVE. by Bill Peters day after Edwardes' ultimat- industry. It would open the Such a re: THE strike of BL Cars' 58,000 manual workers, due to commence on November 1st, is no longer simply a wages struggle, but a fight for the very existence of the trade unions in the corporation.

Edwardes' : ultimatum that he will sack the whole workforce and wind up BL if the strike goes ahead makes it an issue for the whole of the working class.

The ultimatum received its answer in the mass strike vote from the BL plants last Friday, 16th. It was a vote which reflects not only the history of sell-outs in BL and the frustration felt by BL workers, but also the hostility of the working class as a whole towards the Thatcher government.

The exact size of the vote will not be known until the convenors have met on Thursday of this week (22nd) and taken reports from each plant. But it is obvious that the management and press figures of a two-to-one majority are a gross underestimate, and the trade unions' figure of eight to one closer to the mark.

The two major areas, Longbridge and Cowley, comprise almost half the membership. Of the 11,000 workers in the six Cowley plants, less than 1,000 voted against the strike. In Longbridge, where the Cowley vote was announced to the meeting before the result, only a tiny handful of the 15,000 workers voted to accept Edwardes' 3.8 per cent offer.

The main Rover plant voted four to one for the strike, and Jaguar five to one.

Such vote, day after Edwardes' ultimatum, is unprecedented. It means that BL workers are going into the fight with their eyes open, knowing that it is not just an industrial struggle but an all-out confrontation with the Tory government.

Impending

The total support of the Thatcher government for Edwardes, with statements from minister after minister, means that Thatcher also sees it as a make or break confrontation. It is becoming increasingly obvious that a victory for BL workers could well bring the government down.

It is therefore crucial that the Labour and trade union movement now begins to see the impending struggle in those terms as well. Just consider the consequences of a Thatcher Edwardes victory.

If Edwardes is able to successfully carry out mass sackings, it will constitute the abolition of the right to strike, not only in BL, but to a great extent throughout Edwardes industry. It would open the way to Tebbit's draconian anti-union laws, which if implemented would take the trade unions back to the Taff Vale judgment.

If Edwardes closed down all 36 plants it would put another one million workers on the dole (if the suppliers and component industries are included). An Edwardes victory would also be a massive green light for Thatcher to force through the four per cent limit in the rest of the public sector.

If these are the implications, and there can be no doubt about it, it means that the fight cannot be fought by BL workers alone. It is a crucial confrontation at the highest level, with the whole of the trade union movement.

Basis

The strike must begin on the basis of such an analysis. Already both the TGWU and the AUEW have made this strike official in advance. The T&G executive have also taken a very important initiative against the four per cent limit. The October issue of the Record, the T&G paper, carries a headline, 'Four per cent no way'. It draws attention to the union's policy of free collective bargaining and urges all negotiators to "draw up pay claims on the basis of free collective bargaining and pursue them vigorously"

At its last meeting, the Executive Council passed the following resolution: "The General Executive Council therefore states quite unequivocally that it will support its members both in the public and private sector in the fight to defend and improve their real living standards against a government hell-bent on dramatic cuts in real wages"

Such a resolution would put the TUC on a collision course with the four per cent and the Thatcher government if it was carried out to the full.

But even resolutions of that sort are not enough. In BL there must be an answer not only to the four percent but to the sackings and victimisations as well.

Bluff

To say that Edwardes is bluffing is not an effective answer to victimisation. It must be answered by the full strength of the trade union movement. The T&G and the AUEW must make it clear now that they will call out the whole of their membership in every industry if the victimisations go ahead.

If Edwardes calls in the receiver, they must support the occupation of the plants.

Constitutional objections must be cast aside. On May 14th last year the T&G 'called on' all its members to requirement in rule to hold a come out, despite the ballot before they could be instructed. When the AUEW funds were sequestered under the Industrial Relations Act, Hugh Scanlon called an immediate strike of the whole of the membership. When the Pentonville 5 were jailed under the Industrial Relations Act in 1972 the T&G called the whole of its docks trade group out on strike.

Pentonville

this time the Executive could call out its automotiive group, covering the whole of the car industry, in the event of its 40,000 members in BL being sacked.

Although in 1972 a national dock strike was enough to get the Official Solicitor in to get the dockers out of jail, the TUC was already moving to call a one-day general strike in their support. Sackings in BL today would be a much bigger issue than the Pentonville Five. The TUC must be forced to use the full weight of the whole trade union movement to stop Thatcher and Tebbit and their hatchetmen in management.

The determination of BL workers is not in doubt. But the trade union movement could pay a heavy price if BL workers are left to, stand alone, as the steelworkers were last year.

Then, BL workers voted to strike, but the leadership would not implement their decision. The TUC stifled a general strike decision by the Wales TUC, and Bill Sirs called off thri steel strike on the some of the sellers.

WAGES DEPT.

38% near-impossible task.

The mobilisation in support of the BL strike must therefore start now, and not wait until November 1st.

* T&G branches, Regional Committees, District Committees, and shop stewards committees, to send resolutions to the Executive calling for all-out action in the event of mass victimisation.

* AUEW branches, shop stewards' committees and District Committees should do the same.

* A campaign must be waged throughout the trade union movement, calling on the TUC to call for a general strike if the sackings are carried out.

* Trades Councils and trade union and Labour Party branches should take the mitiative now in setting up PL strike support committi :s.

Inside BL, there must be n retreat and no comprom • se on the strike resolution. 'lans must go ahead to ensul a total stoppage on November 1st, with flying pickets organised to stop the movement of all cars to the showrooms.

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