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WITH THE ASLEF executive appearing to stand firm on the question of yet another arbitration on pay and flexible rosters and with BR launching a new propaganda initiative in the press on the joys of variable rostering, the railways still look set for a prolonged confrontation. Prolonged is indeed the word, as the ASLEF NEC have announced yet another week of two-day stoppages.

The ASLEF leadership are now keenly aware that there is a growing movement in the ranks for an all-out strike and despite efforts to control local militancy, Buckton and Co are having a job holding in the reins.

This week they have moved to increase disruption of BR by scheduling strikes on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, rather than Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. BR will have to shut down and restart its network three times in a week.

The Labour Party NEC has clearly supported the train drivers, and Tony Ben has spoken out for them.

Neutral

But the Shadow Cabinet has made it clear that the Bishops Stortford deal certainly does not include the PLP leadership backing Party policy on this issue! It has remained 'neutral'.

Terry Duffy of the AUEW and Frank Chapple of the EETPU have done worse, publicly backing BR's call for arbitration. And Sid Weighell of the NUR has also helped the bosses, accusing ASLEF of 'reneging' on last year's deal with BR!

ASLEF EC members have been touring branches th McCarthy's inquiry promises railworkers nothing pleading with the membership to fall into line with the official policy. Where pleading has failed and the local branch: concerned weak, massive personal pressure has been placed on individual branch ofticers to abandon localised actions and place their faith in the Executive.

At King's: Cross, where the branch is traditionally well-organised and militancy is running high, even the appearance of Don Pullen. the Assistant General Secretary, at a recent branch meeting was not enough to sway rank and file members from whole-hearted support both for the policy of non-cooperation and the blacking of the Sun.

But EC members have been vicious in their effort to keep control. Over the Perty Sun blacking, which was undoubtedly an escalation of the national dispute, Bill Ronksley, outgoing _ President and : a member of the Communist Party, singled out King's Cross for attack. Ronksley put a motion before the executive calling for the expulsion of Kings Cross branch from the The motion was defeated but it is only a very extreme example of how far the EC is prepared to go in order to put a dampener on local action.

The executive realise, of course, that they cannot control the branches merely by coercion or threats. The exasperation. of many militants at official policy has to be appeased in one way or another.

Now, the EC is proposing to have lightning strikes, instead of the two-day events which have become incorporated into the commuters' routine and have virtually no impact whatsoever on the movement of freight.

Total But the attitude of BR and the government calls for all-out action. It is not the disruption of passenger and freight traffic which will win the dispute but a total stoppage of this traffic.

The executive have also displayed their determination to contain the struggle in another key area that of blacking action. As a result of initiatives taken by Kings Cross branch, the EC has now obtained from Bil Keys, General Secretary of SOGAT, something in the way of a directive which has been sent to SOGAT branches.

SOGAT members are, of course, scabbing on the ASLEF strike by transporting newspapers nationally during the course of the dispute.

Keys has now instructed his members not to cross ASLEF picket lines! That is either a way for Keys to neatly sidestep the issue or an open invitation to organise secondary pickets.

At a meeting with Nick Sharman from the SP Region TUC last week, an ASLEF delegation was informed that in spite of local branch pressure the drivers' union executive had not been calling for a clear direcASLEF that the EC demand effective blacking action from the TGWU.

The ASLEF EC is clearly and consciously going into this fight with their hands tied behind their backs.

A meeting has been set up for this week at the London Liaison Committee. The committee must, as a matter of urgency, take up the question of blacking action which can only be enforced by secondary pickets.

One branch on its own cannot sustain the kind of picketing required to prevent scabbing of the sort that has been going on with SOGAT members on Fleet Street.

The Liaison Committee can, however, sustain such an action and indeed extend it to TGWU branches in the coach operator firms.

Drivers have seen a reluctance to take on extra coaches for rail traffic, but there have been no actual ASLEF pickets to mount pressure for sympathetic action.

Last year, the executive committee did away with the union's district councils as a "cost-cutting" measure. It is now clearer than ever that this was done to eliminate direct contact between branches for precisely such an eventuality as a national dispute.

The Liaison Committee must fill this gap and direct the militancy in the ranks towards the EC so there can be no alternative for them but to call for all-out action.

Formerly the Liaison Committee was restricted to ASLEF members. No such restrictions can be placed upon it now.

Guards in the NUR are still in rebellion over "flexirosters" as was demonstrated by the walk-out at Fenchurch Street and Shrews buryness last week. This magnificent action is however localised and isolated.

The Liaison Committee must provide a focus and a lever for the guards in their fight to reject the new productivity measures and against the rotten leadership of Weighell and the right wing. "We are inviting people to break the law," wrote Bill Keys, secretary of the print union SOGAT, in last week's Tribune.

And this policy of defiance of the Tebbit law was applauded by a union special conference last Friday, 29th.

Keys outlines proposals *TUC-coordinated industrial action to defend unions against the Tebbit law, *Trade union withdrawal from the NEDC, Government bodies and tribunals, *Non-compliance with ballots on closed shops. No union must accept funds for ballots.

SOGAT's proposals point the way for trade unionists to start preparing for the decisive industrial action which alone can defeat Tebbit.

But if most of the TUC leaders have their way, then there will be no action, no preparation,' just defeat accepted in advance.

Risky

TUC officials have drafted a document on Tebbit which says:

*Withdrawal from tribunals is "dangerous";

*Withdrawal from the NEDC would be futile;

*Defiance of compulsory ballots is "risky";

*Coordinated action is impractical;

*Even a token one-day protest would be too much.

Accepting this policy would mean meekly putting out our hands for the Tories to put their chains on them. Socialists must organise now for a fighting policy.

*See centre page feature on the fight against Tebbit's

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