Send delegations to all the BL plants

Scan page 16

Dear Brother/Sister;

Laurence Scotts workers have been on strike for ten months, now. Like you we've been fighting to save jobs. We've shown the way. Congratulations on joining us. Like us you have shown that ordinary workers have had their bellyful of Thatcher and employers like Michael Edwardes and Arthur Snipe.

We are a little flame. You have made it burn brighter. Let's hope that other workers follow our example. Here are some lessons that I think you might find useful-lessons that we have learned during our many months of picketing. You can't go it alone. Don't think you can; you can't. We've got other factories. We have spent months picketing Doncaster where Arthur Snipe has his headquarters. If the other workers had supported us and come out with us we could have won by now. So get on your bike. Send delegations out to all the British Leyland plants, including the car factories. Ask them to support you by joining your strike. Financial support is essential, of course, but you know the real way to stop Edwardes is to hit him where it hurts— in his pocket by closing down the whole combine. If all the British Leyland workers come out you can win, but not by just restricting it to Vehicles.

Another thing - Boyd and Duffy. I'm told that the AUEW is your biggest union. It's the same at Scotts. You've got a problem. Your union leaders are playing for the other team. We've been fighting them for ten months as WORKERS from left and community bookshops in many cities from Scotland to the south of England have recently sent in their signatures for the Labour Movement Press Defence Fund Appeal.

This appeal - 'A Labour Inquiry, Not the Courts' -was launched after Sean Matgamna and John Bloxam of Socialist Organiser were sued for libel by Vanessa Redgrave of the WRP, a year ago.

The case is still making its slow and costly way through the legal procedures.

No date is fixed for it to come to court.

The Labour Movement Press Defence Fund is also asking for contributions towards the legal expenses.

Name Address Organisation...

I would like to associate myself with the appeal 'A Labour Inquiry, Not the Courts'/ Please send me copies of the petition form/ I enclose cheque or PO to LMPDF for £.......

(Delete as appropriate).

Send to: Jonathan Hammond, Treasurer, LMPDF, c/o 214 Sickert Court, London N1 2SY.

Published by the Socialist Orgi well as Arthur Snipe. Don't be taken in because they have made your strike official. They did the same for us. But when we wouldn't accept the sellout they negotiated, they put us out on the street.

When you begin to bite they'll try and put the muzzle on you as well.

They won't leave you to get on with it.

You could do yourselves and us a big favour by passing this resolution in your branch. If we can get 10% of AUEW branches to support our resolution, MONDAY'S meeting of the BL Bus and Truck division management and representatives of the three-week long strikers in Leyland and Bathgate was a virtual re-run of their meeting two weeks ago, management sticking hard to their plan for mass sackings (their one concession being to postpone them to April 2) and the AUEW-led trade union side formally refusing to accept.

Stalemate

But the situation is far from a stalemate. For there are ominous straws in the wind that the crucial AUEW members are to be faced with demands from their leaders that they return to work. The reasoning being that, since the company refuse to concede and have further threatened to close the whole of Bathgate and the Leyland fourkry soon, it will save jobs to accept the present 4,100 sackings.

The source of this speculation is not the AUEW ulation is Lane, will be strike cc betrayal above. we can get a national ballo on whether Boyd and Duff stay in office.

«This branch believe that the Executive Counc has mishandled the Laur ence Scotts Electromotor dispute.

As this is an issue c concern to all AUEV members, this branc demands a ballot for th removal of the Executiv Council in line with rul 14, paragraph 5. " (Send t AUEW, 110 Peckham Rd London SE15 plus copy 1 LSE Strike Committer c/o 20 Rounderoft, Romil: Journal but the Fleet Street press, a medium which in the past has been far more reliable in predicting the union's national policy. And, in BL, many times before have such press leaks of secret meetings and deals between BL executives and top union officials proved right.

That means Thursday's mass meetings will be faced most likely with the collapse of their national leaders and the problems of going on without even their paper support: However easy it was to predict this scenario, and NW EC member responsible Gerry Russell has never differentiated himself from the Boyd-Duffy duo who have done the same so often in BL Cars, nevertheless the situation is a difficult one.

Stance

will largely decide the stance of the mmittee. Ev en with of this ordi er from 1 strong esponse SUPPORT THE LEYLAND VEHICLES WORKERS!

Demonstration and rally: Saturday February 27. Assemble noon at Leyland Civic Centre.

Leyland pickets Cheshire).

Anyway, best of luck. Stick together, hold regular meetings, go to anybody else who is willing to support you, watch the union leaders and try and get other 'Leyland workers to come out. United we stand, divided we fall. That's what it's all about.

In solidarity, STEVE LONGSHAWE, AUEW deputy convenor, Laurence Scotts.

Police bust Scotts picket - page 15 from the plant leadership can go a long way to counteract it, particularly when the Leyland Vehicles strike has shown such unity and tenacity so far. But a way forward under such conditions means going on the offensive if isolation and weakening are to be resisted.

Deeper

That means not only a deeper turn for support from the whole labour movement, but, as a priority, urgent approaches to the remainder of the BL workforce. BL Cars, with its large union membership and control over the company's volume car production, holds the key.

It is inconceivable that victory can be gained without them if Edwardes and his pernicious Corporate Plan are to be really defeated and not marginally deflected. The recent AUFW foundry Section decision in black any components out-