Behind Edwardes stands Thatcher

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EDWARDES must have been shaken rigid.

For four years he has been shielded from the The stakes for which Thatcher and the capitalist anger of workers on the shop floor in BL by obliging class are playing in this confrontation are therefore union officials and by cringing convenors. extremely high; and while some may quail at the But all of a sudden the old magic formula failed prospect of a closure of BL, the employers will (at to work. First the BL convenors, and then even the national union officials, were forced to recognise the But can the same be said for the leaders of the seething militancy among the workforce.

Such was the feeling that Edwardes did not dare True, Terry Duffy has taken time out from his try his specialty - a ballot conducted over the heads efforts to knife the Laurence Scott strike to lend of the workforce in a blaze of media witch-hunt: he vocal support to the stand taken by his members in BL. This position is in startling contrast to the Cornered, he hit back with the only means he AUEW's record of squalid subservience to Edwardes knew - an ultimatum, threatening to close the corporation and sack all 58,000 manual workers. TGWU negotiator Grenville Hawley, too, has All of a sudden the struggle escalated from a played an uncharacteristically militant role - urging (crucial) pay dispute to a major political confronta- BL convenors to fight for all-out action, and slammtion - in which the issue at stake is now the right to ing attempts by the EETPU to force a postal ballot strike, and the very survival of shop floor trade For if Edwardes were to succeed, and it became a sacking offence to take official strike action - even after the workers' annual contract has expired and procedure has been exhausted - then this setback for union organisation would effectively smash shop floor strength in BL. And it would herald a wave of similar attacks throughout British industry. If (or when) Edwardes goes ahead with his sackWing threat, the union leaders must be ready with a militant response - not wringing their hands and tions for the whole of British capitalism - simply off sweeping decision -- with colossal economic implica- his own bat. He is acting in close collaboration with major class confrontation which will decide the fut- ure of trade unionism and the labour movement for the Thatcher government. The lines are drawn for a Edwardes is plainly not able to make such a saying they never thought it would come to that. and a decent wage rise (breaking the four per cent Plans need to be made by the TGWU and AUEW limit) is vitally concerned in this struggle. berships if this huge mass sacking goes ahead. leaders now for all-out strike action by their mem- AUEW. Every worker who needs the right to strike And it doesn't just concern the TGWU and the postponed further talks on the miners' pay claim until two, weeks after the NUM contract expires on by "side with BL. Public sector union leaders are November 1st, in the hope of avoiding a struggle side ominously silent about the pay review affecting one BL - are up against the four per cent limit. million local authority manual workers who - like But miners' leader Joe Gormley had deliberately when all they have to offer is a bundle of polici in the hands of the union bureaucrats and the control of the action, and seek every possible meal ed from shopfloor members in each plant to tal to extend it into the engineering industry, the publ Labour co-thinkers. Strike committees must be elec That is why the struggle in BL must not be le •Some union leaders in BL itself have begun to sector and the whole trade union movement. argue that it would be wrong to see the struggle as Within Labour Parties, demands must be place that would simply put the SDP in office! But wheth- one to remove the Thatcher government - since on MPs and councillors to lend their weight to ti struggle and actively mobilise material and politic er they like it or not, the Thatcher government support. Those that refuse to back the struggle mu sees the struggle as one to beat down the whole lab- be exposed to the labour movement as protectors ‹ an open appeal to all other workers facing the four our movement. BL union leaders should be making Thatcher and enemies of the working class. • • Labour Parties and Trades Councils should try per cent limit to bring their struggles forward and draw other groups of workers facing the four p cent limit into BL strike support committees, whic can develop into councils of action to the extent ti And in the political debate that will take pia The silence, the treachery, and the red herrings ently for the perspective of defeating and removi around this confrontation, we must argue consi potential of this BL strike to topple Thatcher: that is come precisely because union leaders recognise the to step up the tight within the labour movement the hatcher government, and for the need thereto a prospect which trightens them beyond belief. While the working class stands only to gain by ensure that a new Labour government is not allowi to act in the same way as those of Wilson and Ca the defeat and removal of the Thatcher government. the bureaucracy sees the strengthening of the conti- Workers' rights and living standards will | dence and militancy of the working class as a threat defend not by a Labour government of the old tyl being forced back into office on a tide of working And the Labour leaders too fear the prospect of accountable to the needs and demands of the labo but only by a workers' government, responsive al solve the problem of mass unemployment through class militancy that would place demands on them to movement. To create such a government requires t development of a new, revolutionary leadership measures like a reduced workweek, public works the working class: we urge readers to organise wi projects, and nationalisation under workers' control, Benind Edwardes stands the Tory government knew he would lose. union organisation.

Close collaboration years to come.

least at first) rally around Edwardes.

labour movement?

over the last four years.

on the strike call.

But where will those struggle is not ten days physical reality? leaders stand away but an when the immediate strike alongside BL. to its own position.

And the TUC should make plans to bring all the unions together against the four per cent and the sackings blackmail, in a general strike.

BEFOR HORKER for preserving British capitalism. strike spreads. aghan. us to carry through that fight.

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