[He has lost none or nis ді аесівюд…]
Socialist Organiser1981 1981-10-29Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 9 →
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He has lost none or nis ді аесівюд, де нишки. concern for the preserva. Such are the TUC leaders tion of Tory governments. against whom the BL Lest week as BL workers strikers must contend. IN THE winter of 1973-4 the miners had the Tory government by the throat.
Heath's three-day week had failed to crack their fighting spirit; the whole working class was rallying to their support; the govemment stood, on the brink of defeat.
Who was to be found inside No.10 Downing St, anxiously discussing how to save the government. None other than NUM President Joe Gormley.
Preservation
prepared for all-out strike action from November 1, in a confrontation with Thatcher, Gormley once again felt obliged to help out.
I- tell= with than Matina. I LIKE WIll Let a al Coal Board on the miners' pay review - also due for settlement on November 1 - Gormley all. owed the whole proceedinge to be adjourned until November 14.
Gormley left workers in no doubt that this was a deliberate move to leave the BL strike isolated. The forthcoming struggle was 'definitely one factor' in ha admitted 1977 - was sacked for putting his name to the pamphlet.
32,000 workers in the Midlands walked out in his defence - only to have the strike halted by the intervention of Duffy and the AUEW bureaucracy.
Even with the Edwardes plan rammed through and the shop stewards' movement still reeling from a major betrayal, BL workers were still in with a chance. The steel strike, which had begun in January: was holding firm and winning wide support: together they could fight and hope to rally action to defeat the Tory government.
Defied
Nothing was further from the thoughts of the union negotiators. In February they met - and decided to ballot BL workers on whether or not to strike against the five per cent offer. To their surprise, the answer was a resounding two-to-one strike vote.
But still the officials on the JNC refused to call a strike. Their destruction and vacillation encouraged Edwardes to put the boot in. He issued an ultimatum: anyone who clocked in on April 8 would be deemed to have accepted the five per cent and the 9z page document. Anyone who did not would be deemed to be sacked.
JNC leaders belatedly met and called for a strike from April 8. Duffy reacted by denouncing their decision and calling for a separorgalilet