Parliamentary politics and workers' democracy

Scan page 12

18k7 some workers win the vote - our as yer wur no worners closely linked to the trade union bureaucracy.

Ben Tillet addresses dockers' ma AS TRADE union and Labour leaders try to knock the Labour democracy struggle on the head, it is useful to look back over the history.

If you were in a union 120 years ago, in some ways you might be very pleasantly surprised. There were no permanent full-time officials, for example.

The executive would be drawn in annual rotation from one of the larger branches, the head office would be moved around from tire to time and from town to town.

'Government' as the writers Beatrice and Sidney Webb pointed out, was by • Il the members in general meeting which strove itself to transact all the business and grudgingly delegated any of its functions either to officers or to committees' Workers understood the necessity for organisations which must hava powers of discipline and control over the members if they were to be effective. They were determined that the discipline and control should be used in their interests.

As unions grew in size and became national rather than local bodies, this type of democracy was undermined, yet the centralisation of policy-making and the growth of bureaucratisation occurred only slowly and was forced to come to terms with primitive democracy'.

Designed

Union rules, as they developed, were designed to make sure that leadership and policy-making were subject to the control of the ordinary worker. If certain functions had to be carried out and certain decisions taken by particular individuals, then they must act not as representatives following their own knowledge, judgment and personal inclinations, but as delegates acting upon the mandate of the members they represented, decided upon by a vote after a collective discussion.

Full-time officials should be regularly elected and answerable to an elected executive carrying out the wishes of a strong delegate conference. You can still see this type of set-up, somewhat changed, today, in the rules oi a union like the AUEW. 100/: Sume wurnero yat terr There were, of course, counter-pressures: by the turn of the century writers like the Webbs and Robert Michels noticed what the rank and file had always known: there were strong pressures on union officials to become separated from and more conservative than those they represented in terms of both life style and ideas, pressures that were maximised by •employers and a hostile state. Moreover, the early trade unionists were often something of a craft elite in the working class.

But the original traditions still remained the model that many workers carried in their minds, their ideal of what working class democracy should be, and they maintained this model, above all, in the workplace.

Its strongest embodiment can be seen in the shop steward system, with officials elected annually, closely supervised by the members they work with and subject to recall, and in the factory meeting where all workers vote openly atter public discussion of the issues.

When the Labour Representation Committee was established to carry into Parliament in an organised way the aspirations of the trade unions, the political organisation it established was bound to carry the influence of this tradition. However, it could also be expected to come up against a very different view of democracy.

Tony Benn has said, 'in the heart of Parliamentarianism lies the continuation of the Burkean myth. We've, got to deal with that...

Edmund Burke, the 18th century theorist of Parliamentary Democracy, saw MPs not as delegates who should follow the wishes of those who had voted for them, but as autonomous representatives of the whole community and all their constituents.

For Burke, the House of Commons was 'a sanhedrin of skilled legislators who interpreted the cries of distress of the people They did this on the basis of the stable and eternal rules of justice and reason' Monsters It was not the fact that they were representatives of the people; but the fact thạt they were wise and experienced which gave them the right to rule. Parliamentarianism ruled out 'authoritative instructions' and mandates from the electorate. MPs should, said the 19th century prime minister Lord John Russell, 'follow the will of their constituents only if it cotoynto for incides with their own deliberate sense of right' With the extension of the franchise, particularly after 1867, party, organisation was néeded to recruit support from the new mass electorate. But the accepted argument was, as Robert McKenzie claims, that 'the new extra-Parliamentary organisation must not be allowed to become Frankenstein's monsters which might destroy or at best control their creators' Despite further developments such as the growing powers of the Prime Minister and Party in the Commons, and the increased by-passing of Parliament by the government machine, these ideas still remain. Compared with working class ideas, this conception of democracy is profoundly individualistic and elitist.

Whereas delegate democracy is the attempt by workers to ensure that their class interests are carriea out in a hostile society, representative democracy serves a privileged minority class.

Moreover, the ruling classes made sure they ran no great risk in playing the Parliamentary game. The right to vote and legislate were concessions forced on the ruling classes by mass action, but at the same time power was concentrated elsewhere - in the uwnership and control of capital and industry. in the civil service, in the judiciary, in the army and the police A vote every five years in a situation where workers were split up, individualised, and open to hostile propaganda, did not influence this real world. It did essentially give the appearance of democracy and help to encourage workers to leave politics to the MPs.

Despite the Parliamentaran outlook, Labour in the early 1900s had no intention of simply establishing a second Liberal or Tory party. In accordance with working class tradition, policy was to be decided by an annual conference of delegates, mandated by affiliated organisations. An NEC elected at Conference would administer the party, and neither national officers nor MPs were given higher status than ordinary members.

As early as 1907 the problem of power relationships and the tension between the two kinds of democracy was highlighted by a resolution at Labour conference which argued, 'That resolutions instructing the Parliamentary Party as to their actions in the House of Commons be taken as the opinions of the conference, on the understanding that the time and method of giving effect to these instructions be left to the Party in the House in conjunction with the NEC' In practical terms, the authority of conference in the early years was strong. It became a forum in which the record of the parliamentary group came under close and critical scrutiny. The PLP was, as yet, a weak force with no leader but a rotating chairman.

In 1913 the requirement that it should present a formal report was introduced, and in 1914 a special conference was held to examine their policy and performance. At that conference, J.R.Clynes stated that The conference and no-one else had the right to judge and decide what the Parliamentary and electoral policy should be' War The general acceptance of this idea was illustrated by, for example, the extra-parliamentary party's control of policy towards the war.

In the new constitution of 1918, Clause 5(1) stated, 'The work of the party shall be under the direction and control of the Party conference...

But there were loopholes in the constitution: and as they developed expert skills and prestige, the parliamentarians were able to gain election to the NEC and have a strong impact at conference. The deradicalising influences of Parliament came into play.

The MPs' involvement in day to day Parliamentary tactics; their desire tor security; their cringing constitutionality; their divorce from the day to day struggle; above all their reformist ideas, meant that the PLP more and more asserted its autonomy as it attempted to prove its fitness to govern. The advent of the first Labour government tilted the terms of the comparison firmly in the direction of Parliamentarianism.

Ramsey McDonald was as autocratic as any Tory leader. 'As long as I hold any position in the Parliamêntary Party - and I know that I can speak for my colleagues also - we are not going to take our instructions from any mutside with unless we agree them',_McDonald told the 1928 Conference. He had swallowed Burke, whole, and the membership were now forced to do so.

Reflecting on the first two Labour governments' successful defiance ( working class democracy McDonald's deputy Phili Snowden exhibited hi contempt for the grass roots. 'My experience ( conference has taught m to attach very little impor ance to their resolutions Of the hundreds of resolt tions I have seen passe outlining a drastic pre gramme of reform, 1 ca hardly call to mind which has had any practic:

'Conference will talk let them talk. The rank an file ought to have lear their lesson by now. The have had enough expe: ience of the futility of cor ference decisions' The rules were change in 1929. Clause 4(c), whic specified the duties of th MPs, disappeared, an conference should no not decide what measure the NEC and PLP shoul 'promote' but only whi went into the programme.

After McDonald's de sertion in 1931 there was lurch back to extra-parli mentary control. The TU and the large unions for th first time began to play decisive role _ but ofte to the right of the MPs.

The trade union leade were as hostile to genuir rank and file control E McDonald ever was.

There was, therefor far from a forthright asser ion of the need for MPs 1 accept a mandate from col ference, simply an attem! once more to reconci Parliamentarianism wil working class democrac with the result that t former ultimately don inated.

The 1945 governmen with its prestige and th times at six conference mostly on minor issues good example of the reali of the 'compromise' cou be seen from the 19. conference.

A year previously a re olution was passed instruc ing the NEC to discuss wi the government the abol ion of tied cottages. Bevi opposed it on the groun that 'It is impossible for tl conference, not knowi the Parliamentary situ tion, to determine the Pa iamentary timetable Nothing was done, and the 1948 conference a res lution was moved calling the government to leg late.

Bevan again argut It is quite impossible fo:

conference of 1,100, ever

Scan page 13

Books and pamphlets that you should read thur Henderson - lahour movement leaders wedded to capit Todar's PIl fighting to fend control it were constitutionally proper, to determine the order in which the PLP and the government introduce legislation' Compared to McDonald, Attlee was prepared to allow conference decisions a role, but he was not prepared to accept the full rigours of conference control.

Parliamentarianism had fed on itself. Even lefts like Bevan accepted it. New generations of Labour Party MPs were socialised into its rules and mystique even before they were selected. Once in the House, all the pressures were for the incineration of any more basic democratic ideals.

Most saw it as the first step on the ladder, and Prime Ministers like Attlee possessed enormous patronage. They could make or break a career. The temptation to accommodate was immense. Moreover, there was no alternative threat, no alternative pressures.

The PLP, with its own meetings, with no circulated minutes and few votes, was insulated from external control, whilst the leaders with their prestige, experience and skills, were in a position, with a little lip-service, to manoeuvre conference to their way of thinking so that confrontation was rarely necessary.

Harsh

By the end of the '50s, many on the left would agree with Richard Crossman that the harsh reality of the situation under the fine words had been that, 4 ... since it could not afford, like its opponents, to maintain a large army of paid party workers, the Labour party required militants, iencies.

'But since these militants tended to be 'extremists' , a constitution. was needed which maintained their enthusiasm by apparently creating a full party democracy, while excluding them from effective power.

'Hence the concession in principle of sovereign powers to the delegatesd at the Annual Conference, and the removal in practice of most of this sovereignty through the union block vote on the comp of the PL Hower ities of ri and defe mentary there.

For th wished t the natu was a mi Antho ically at ary del uous po the grea ation w threat tc democra ed the ! ions anc culous t ed to de de grave grassroi the one hand and ›lete independence „Pon the other' ver, some possibilank and file control eats of the parliawing were still Be Gaitskellites who to formally change ire of the party it ajor problem. ny Crosland speciftacked parliamentmocracy. 'Contin›litical activism by it bulk of the popuould pose a real › the stability of our Icy'. Gaitskell callpattern of delegati mandates 'a ridi›usiness' . He wish›liver the final coup a to the traditions of sts democracy Defied Defeated over unilateralism, Gaitskell simply defied the conference decision -supported by union leaders who overturned norms of democracy which they had in the past at least paid lip-service to. As Lewis Minkin points out, ... a new precedent had been created, the party leader who had flatly refused to obey a conference decision on the most contentious issue of the time had survived with his prestige and power enhanced. The lessons of this were available to any future party leader' • Despite his left past, Wilson built on his predecessor's achievement. He asserted the rights of his government against conference. "The government must govern'. Conference censures were merely 'warnings' Unlike Attlee's government, Wilson's first administration suffered numerous defeats at Labour conference, peaking in 1968. Indeed, the reverses were deeper and more wide-ranging than any government had ever suffered. They were, however, simply ignored. Protests treated with were contempt.

As Minkin comments, ... by the time of the 1970 general election the Labour Party conference appeared to have moved into irreversible decline as a political institution. Its authority over a Labour government was openly defied' But throughout the 1970s, as the parliamentary leadership maintained its rightward drift and carried the PLP with it, there was growing radicalisation in the ranks. A watershed might be seen in Wilson's statement that under no circumstances would the proposal for the nationalisation of 25 of the largest companies, contained in the 1973 programme, become part of Labour's next manifesto.

The development of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy which followed from this was based on the realisation that no matter how left policies passed at conference were, they would remain so much paper and print unless new means could be found to exercise direct control of those charged with their implementation.

This reform programme was based on a reassertion of working class democracy and on the lessons of history: if the rank and file don't control the leaders, then the leaders will control the rank and file.

The successes of the reform programme have shown that there is no need for fatalism or pessimism in the fight to control the Parliamentarians. It has shown the role that conference can play in transforming the Labour Party.

If the fight for democracy is now being blocked, that is essentially due to the fac ext cra itc.

the Pa: its Pa: cal est bre inv str iat an:

the de ide TOI go ple an tio t that it has not been ended into the bureauitised trade unions. And an be extended.

We also need to broaden : range of the Labour rty's support and extend reach away from the rliamentary focus. We • do this through the cablishment of workplace anches, Labour Party rolvement in industrial uggles, and direct affilion for community, black d women's groups.

The ideological root of e stifling of working class mocracy has been the =a of a parliamentary ad to socialism. It is not od enough simply to reace this with ideas of ore outside pressure;

ore outside organisation, d more mass mobilisain being required.

If we realise that it is the direct action of the workers themselves, and not their parliamentary representatives, that will destroy capitalism, we will begin to see that parliamentary activity is very much subordinate to the task of encouraging and stimulating that direct action.

We will begin to insist that MPs are no more important than the party's ordinary members, industrial representatives, 10410182110 its branch secretaries, its journalists. As long as the whole focus of the party centrally directed towards Parliamentarianism with other activities being seen as ancillary, MPs. will be seen as the party centrai cadre, able to manoeuvre successfully even within tighter rules.

We must also argue that parliamentary democracy - though to be defended against attempts at repression and turning the clock back - is not enough.

We know that parliamentary democracy is inadequate as a model for the labour movement controlling its representatives in today's society. We must also argue that it is inadequate as a means of representing our interests in a transformed society.

We must rehabilitate and reintroduce into the present debate discussion of extensive and more deeper forms of democracy, such as workers' committees directly based on factory and community groups, with regular election of delegates, planning in detail both political and economic decisions.

Socialist Organiser January 21, MICK LIGGINS introduces some basic reading on th current situation ir the six counties of Northern Ireland IF YOU want to know the real nature of the Northern Irish state, then read Michael Farrell's book 'Northern Ireland: the Orange State' (Pluto Press, £5.95).

The book is written by a socialist who was involved in the Civil Rights movement in the late 60s and early 70s and helped set up the 'People's Democracy' group. It deals with many aspects of Irish history from the time partition was established up to 1973.

The main contents of the book deal with the Orange leadership and the mobilisation of Protestant workers on the side of or even to the right of the British state; the role of the Loyalist special armed police forces, the A, B & C Specials, and the RUC; the role of the British state in the North, which shows up so-called British democracy exactly for what it is; and the politics of the opposition -the Northern Ireland Labour Party, the bourgevis nationalists, the republican movement, the civil rights movement. It also covers the growth, and the sabotage, of the industrial militancy of the Catholic and Protestant working class, dealing with various Significant After reading the book, events in Northern • Ireland - deaths, Republicans refusing to go to Westminster, the determination of the hunger strikers, Paisley's third force - all become much more significant.

The book is not really a political statement or propaganda, although quite obviously it has no sympathy with the British or Loyalist forces propping up the state. It is more a list of facts put into a coherent account.

Its account of the Bloody Sunday massacre, where the British murdered 13 unarmed Civil Rights demonstrators, is excellent and very moving without any special efforts to dramatise it. It also describes will the reaction by the Catholic community as they started to defend their community against the British army, which was sent into Ireland in 1969 by the Labour government to 'defend' the Catholic community from Loyalist pogroms. Within a short time, as the book clearly shows, the real role of the British army was revealed - to defend the Orange state on behalf of British imperialism.

Engineering

The accounts of the industrial action in the North are also very good. In 1919 an engieenng strike, although defeated with no official support from the unions) closed down the docks and factories for four weeks and put Catholic and Labour supporters in the leadership. After the strike 100,000 workers marched on May Day calling for Labour representation.

Purge

The Unionist leaders put a stop to it, seeing their position and state in jeopardy. Carson and other Unionist leaders made inflammatory statements that resulted in a purge from the shipyards of all 'communists and Sinn Feiners' - which in effect meant all Catholics. This was followed by violence.

The other side of industrial action was shown in 1974 when the Vister Workers' Council called a strike against the Sunningdale agreement which gave 'catholic representatives' positions in government. The strike was carried out and made effective by the intimidation of the Loyalist paramilitary groups, and the quiet cooperation of the British army.

This book also clearly shows the case for defending the Republican movement, despite its wrong methods against imperialism. The motivation for the acts of the Republicans is fuelled by years of repression by the British state, and : each death in Ireland or Britain is caused by the British state.

If you have not read anything other than newspaper articles on Ireland, I would strongly recommend you read this. It is informative, good reading and gives you an idea of the issues in N. Ireland for further study.

YEARS IS ENOUGH!

Poisle:

Scan page 14

Socialist Organiser no. 69 January 21, 1981 Page 14 Lee Jeans struggle - sold out by NUTGW if we can have guarantees themselves and if MANAGEMENT'S remorseless offensive against jobs and conditions at the Rolls Royce plant in Hillingdon near Glasgow continues. Last week they announced a further batch of 480 'voluntary redundancies' The first that workers heard, of these redundancies, as usual, was from the press and television at the weekend. 120 volunteers are wanted from the offices, and 360 from the shop floor.

Already, on the official figures, there have been:

* 500 'voluntary redundancies in October 1981;

* a 10% speed-up in November 1981;

* a pay rise of only 4% plus increments for length of service (differentiated according to the worker's grade) in December 1981;

* the announcement of further redundancies in the same month due to Lockheed ending production of the Tri-Star aeroplane, porered by the RB 211 engines. produced at Hillington;

* increasing use of subcontractors to manufacture parts, and transfer of production to other plants.

Worse

In fact though, the situation is even worse than the official figures admit.

It was more like 800, rather than 500, who left the factory in October, and the speed-up for some jobs has been as high as 60%! And management also . has plans to make workers operate two machines each.

If ever there was a need for a fightback, it's right now. Management is dećimating the workforce in slices of 500, until the remainder is small enough to polish off with a single chop. But the shop stewards' convenor and Communist Party member George McCormack has not even called a shop stewards' meeting, never mind a mass meeting, to organise against the job losses.

The next shop stewards"

meeting will not be held until a fortnight after the announcement of the redundancies, and another three working days on top of that will pass before the committee members can report back to the shopfloor.

Record

In fact, a lot can be done but McCormack is the last person in the world to do it.

His record over the previous attacks shows that. The fightback needs to be organised right now. Every day that passes increases management's chances of achieving their body count. Already workers have begun putting their names down for redundancy, tempted by management's offer of a minimum £2,500 pay-off (increased this time because of the abolition of earnings related benefits). The shop stewards' committee must take the lead in hammering home the message that anyone taking redundancy has no chance of finding another job, and the job they are giving up isn't theirs to sell in the first place.

Shopfloor meetings, block meetings, and mass meetings must be organised during working hours to build a united campaign against job losses INUE ONLE SIR John Boyd, the Dr.

Frankenstein of the AUEW and specialist in the manufacture of clones, has launched a new product on the labour movement -Duffy Mark II - in the form of the President's 'brother' Dennis, recently elected organiser for the West Midlands Division.

Escalating

The appearance of other identikits in the regions is the product not of test-tube technology or Madame Dutty and oppose anyone volunteering for redundancy.

Enforced redundancies and further speed-ups must be countered by blacking the work involved and strike action in the case of sackings and the use of disciplinary measures to victimise workers. The fightback needs to be linked to other fights against job losses, both locally and nationally - the Loveable Bra sit-in i at Cumbernauld, the probable sit-in at BL in Bathgate, the Rolls Royce plant in Coventry where 500 jobs are under threat etc.

STAN CROOKE ammie Tussaud's, but of a bureaucratic retrenchement of the union machine in the light of the witchhunt in the Labour Party and escalating unemployment.

A major target for attack are the Broad Left officials and stewards in Manchester, in particular CSEU Secretary John Tocher, who comes up for re-election in September. These activists have been in the forefront of the fightback at Gardners, Laurence Scotts and, to a lesser degree, at Barnes Flexible Packaging:

With unemployment peaking 400,000 in the North West (14% minus school leavers) and a new wave of mass redundancies on the way from leading multinationals in the New Year, militants are fighting two-front defensive battle. On the one hand, Thatcher has blocked with international capital against her own industrialists in order to produce a 'leaner' economy.

On the other hand, central echelons of the trade union leadership (Boyd. Chapple, Grantham.

Weighell have been pulled into Thatcher: shins.r by Stan Crooke ON FRIDAY, 8th January, workers at the Loveable Bra factory in Cumbernauld near Glasgow began a sit-in for jobs.

All workers at the factory are members of the National Union of Tailors and Garment: Workers (NUTGW). Shop Stewards' C nvenor Sadie Lang and Staff Representative Kathie Platt told me:

'Since October 19th the factory has been in the hands of the receiver. We didn't know anything about the receiver taking over until he walked in.

'In December, after a lot of soul-searching, we reluctantlv agreed to 123 like helpless marionettes.

Indeed, at a recent mass meeting at Leyland Vehicles in Preston called to discuss opposition to 4,000 redundancies, Gerry Russell (AUEW Executive Council) said "We must beware of those people who spread false hopes that there is an alternative to all pulling together to save the only, British motor though, is that no leader- company ship, help or assistance can be expected for workers wanting to struggle from such people.

Looming

Battles are also looming at a number of other companies in the North West. At Gardners, scene of a bloody points victory for the workers in the Autumn of 1980. the membership have been confronted with the demand for 160 compulsory redundancies. Moreover all 2.000 workers were sent a letter from the management saying a small malignant minority of men on the Works Committer manin1982 looks like being an even worse year for NUTGW bureaucrats than 1981. In February of last year women at the Lee Jeans factory launched an occupation which the union took 7 weeks to make official, did nothing to support apart from paying out strike redundancies. We were told that the size of the workforce left after those redundancies would guarantee that another buyer would take over the factory.

• The receiver announced on a Monday that he wanted 123 redundancies. The olutionary objectives."

But the stewards will not budge from their policy of no compulsory redundancies and have taken considerable initiatives to geart up the workforce for a resumption of hostilities Massive "restructuring operations" are also being carried out at International Harvesters (plants at Oldham, Doncaster and Bradford), Massey Ferguson (Manchester, Coventry)

and Leyland Vehicles (Preston, Glasgow, Wolverhampton).

These 'operations have a number of common characteristics in each company: plants are switched from manufacturing products on site to simply being assembly factories, where the management "out-sources" orders for components to a wide number of suppliers, thus weakening the bargaining position of the unions.

New technology is rapidI introduced. usually with the active assistance of the EETPL. Indeed, at recent negotiations at one major company. a leading offrial said. 'We are willine to encourage our mempay, and withdrew even this token support weeks before the end of the sit-in.

This year, even before the middle of January, NUTGW members have once again begun a sit-in to fight for jobs. It must be glum faces all round at NUTGW head office .

next day he just went down round the canteen and tapped the people on the shoulder: who he had chosen.

"Last Friday, 8th January, there was a mass meeting in the canteen with the convenor. 1 (Sadie) demanded assurances about our job security. He wouldn't give any assurances. So we began a sit-in straight away. It'll continue until all jobs here are guaranteed."

Workers now remain in the factory round the clock. From eight in the morning till half four they work as usual, but then stay on, on a rota basis, to prevent any stock being moved out of the factory, and to prevent a lock-out, since they are already technically redundant.

Thanks to the deliberate policy by the receiver of keeping the women in the dark, whether another buyer for the tactory can be found is unclear.

Sadie and Kathie explained: 'There is very limited information from any source. We haven't heard anything from the Scottish Development Agency, (which owns the factory premises) or the Cumbernauld Development Corporation (which owns the warehouse premises).

And the receiver doesn't let us know what's going on. 'The receiver's company, Touche Ross, is based in Romford and that's where all the decisions are made, although they do have an office in Glasgow.

if we can have guarantees that our union will have a monopoly of membership over the craft grades created by new technology."

In order to finance these activities the multinationals have sought large loans from the banks, and in response the banks have demanded more close control of the 'cost-cutting' operation.

At Maşsey Ferguson and Harvesters respectively Conrad Black and Roy Shepherd have been brought in "to kick these companies into shape"

Further, the November issue of 'The Engineer"

stated, •These men have spent the last few years operating as freelance management ants - being retained by consultleading financial institutions and conglomerates LIUILS as chairman or chief executive in textiles, furniture, special steels, motor vehicles and automotive components. Steve Taylor (AUEW St-nior Steward at Massey's in Manchesterl put it in a nutshell. 'These guys are like professional gunfightero. they are a law unto If any firm did have inter ions of buying the facto: then they would har begun talks by now. Th makes us more suspi ious.

"And the receiver h been running down the fa tory. It seems a clear ca of asset-stripping to l When he came, we we producing 7,000 doz bras a week, now the mac ines are set to produ 3,000 dozen, but we doi sew that number in fact.

"Norman Hogg (the lor Labour MP) has been iny ved from the beginni He's arranged to mr Tony Houghton, the he of Touche Ross, on Monc to try to get more inforn tion. •Apart from Hogg, 1 local Trades Council l also pledged its support the women's fight, wh the NUTGW has provic "a fair amount of suppo and is currently mak investigations" • Cobwebs As Sadie and Kat put it: "Cumbernauld ci afford to lose any m jobs. It's already a I town' full of empty wi houses and factories cobwebs. Cumberna needs these jobs and want support from ex other factory round f to help keep them.

Although the simila between Loveable Bra Lee Jeans springs to m Sadie and Kathie poi out that there were d erences: 'We're diffe from Lee Jeans. They » fighting with their company, but we're fi ing the receiver and banks, in this case clays, since an owner longer exists here.

Textile workers in :

land and elsewhere 1 make sure that t women do not face same isolation and bet at the hands of their leaders.

themselves and if arrive at your factory are there for one r Besides the nece dissemination amon workforce of inforn about what is going these companies, thi an urgent need to an interplant lead both on a city-wide and linking toi plants in the same ind Such a rank and fil anisation must als geared up to remove trade union official:

stand with the bosses

Scan page 15

January 21, 1981 Pag

----- pull-quotes -----

support of the union lea ers, was only defeated nir

politically conscious social- ists, to do the work of organising the • constit-

SUPPORT ¡ THE STRIKE

ThE JR. IL SOLIDARITY LAURENCE SCOTTISE

WITH *SIT-AN