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'Escalation of the dispute would threaten the officials' control' "The most serious situation since 1926"

Anna

THE PAY struggle in the NHS has now reached a cruc ial stage. The response to the three day strike on July 1921, both from health workers themselves and from the wider trade union movement, will probably determine whether or not the dispute is escalated into the kind of struggle needed to win.

Already there are. signs that the trade union leaders are trying to wind down the action. They can see only too clearly that serious escalation of the dispute would threaten their control over it.

COHSE's notorious sellout merchant Albert Spanswick has already put the knife in by sending a telex to CoHSE officials telling them there has been a misunderstanding. The three day strike is not a strike at all, but three days of 'intensive industrial action' Many CoHSE branches up and down the country will ignore this cold-blooded attempt to sabotage their action, and will be out for the full three days if not longer.

The solidarity from other workers has been tremendHE But ~ dedication HWFC bulletin no.4 now out - 5p plus post from Anna Lunts 78 High St, Atherton, Lancs (0942 877296). Badges 20p each. ALAN STEPHENS reports from the ASLEF picket at Kings Cross, London.

WHAT do you think is the way to win, we asked.

"SEE activist repied. But activist replied. "Rut we should have been out all last week, and then we'd have won it straight off"

ASLEF branch secretary Steve Forey said: "The priority is our own depot, but we've got to stop trains running, and we're not going to do that just by standing outside Kings Cross station"

Assistant secretary Steve Gone EC is hidingthe pe got to put pressure on them to get out andorganise pickets"

Kings Cross ASLEF are not waiting for the EC, but have organised for their own flying pickets - to other rail depots, to Fleet Street, and to other crucial areas.

ous - the highest level since the fight against the Industrial Relations Act, which united millions of workers in a common struggle.

The three-day strike should be the best display of solidarity yet, with thousands of workers following the lead taken by the miners and others. However, this solidarity will not continue unless hospital workers ASLEF leader Ray Buckton But on Monday they also sent a delegation up to ASLEF headquarters i in Hampstead to put their demands to the EC.

"Yes, we're plugging the holes" , was the response of ASLEF general secretary Ray Buckton. Steve Forey challenged an EC member: "We must get out and get picketing". '. "Yes" , came the reply, "we've been talking about it" themselves áre out!

Not only must hospital workers support the three day strike, but action must be escalated now, or' much of the support will be cut from under our feet.

Many hospitals are trying to keep action going by working to rule, pulling out sections, and lightning strikes. But these are difficult to sustain and will not win the 12% claim.

There can be no doubt that well-organised picketing could stop all rail traffic and make sure that cargoes normally carried by rail do not move. For all their bravado, British Rail themselves put the number of scabs no higher than a few hundred out of ASLEF's 24,000 members. ASLEF estimates the figures much lower - 25 members scabbing on Monday 5th, when BR claimed 250.

Solid

In many areas the strike has been absolutely solid. In Glasgow, for example, a big mass meeting of ASLEF members on Sunday 4th voted in support of the strike call with only two The problem is that if enough people can be convinced that the strike is going badly, then the strike will go badly.

The British Rail Board is keeping up the pressure with threats. The Financial Times reported on Monday that "letters to state that drivers All-out indefinite action must be argued for and prepared for. It is the key to continuing the solidarity from other workers, and the key to cracking this ruthless government.

We should also try to make links with the ASLEF strikers at local level, with joint shop stewards' commit tees and strike committees visiting the drivers on the picket lines to show support. were deemed to have dismissed themselves by going on strike could be distributed by the middle of the week" • Urging the BRB on, leading Thatcherite MP George Gardiner ranted:

"Commuters demand that this strike be broken. They don't want another fudge". . It would be a fight to the death. "Is it by any chance going to be the death of ASLEF? What a welcome event that would be"

At King's Cross, ASLEF branch chairperson Tony Dent had this to say about drivers who reckon that the safest thing is to scab.

Losing

"Men who don't belong to a union are out on their own. In two months' time these blokes who are good boys now and patted on the back by Parker will find themselves losing their jobs first"

And Steve Forey commented on the possible BRB strike-breaking moves:

"The first thing we want LAST SUNDAY 20 activists from all over the country attended the fourth national meeting of Health Workers for the Full Claim in Birmingham.

We broadly agreed that we should argue that hospitals should stay out after the three day strike on July 1921. Despite the problems of betrayal and isolation which have forced back hospitals which have previously taken indefinite strike action, most of us felt that we would have very little to lose by staying out. If the strike is not seriously escalated this time, there is a strong chance that the dispute will lose its momentum.

After hearing about the success of the local Health Workers for the Full Claim bulletin that Leicester local we other TOCa.

bulletins would be important in arguing for workers to stay out.

There was a debate on the future structure of the campaign, and we agreed that a secretary, treasurer, and editor were needed, to share the workload, but that open national meetings should continue to take the decisions, rather than a formal steering committee.

The fact that we have been able to increase the print run of the bulletin every time (6,000 of the fourth bulletin have been produced) shows the need for a rank and file campaign in the present dispute. The formation of functioning local groups will put much-needed flesh on the bones of the campaign.

Next national meeting.

Saturday July 24, in the Socialist Centre, Leicester. drivers are eventually sacked, then the TUC has no alternative but to recognise this as an attack on the union and to respond.

'We're in the most serious situation since 1926, and in a weaker position -but if the threats are carried out, i see the possibility of a Branch committee member Steve Melton added:

•The TUC should give ASLEF whole-hearted backing, rather than the pathetic letter sent out so far. We need clear instructions from the TUC for union members to black goods normally moved by rail.

"If the sacking threats are carried out, then the TUC should call an all-out general strike because of the importance of the struggle to the whole trade union movement.

"There's no way it's just flexible rostering. There are also 4,000 jobs involved. If we cave in on this, then the whole trade union movement on the railway is threatened with destruction" TONY Christopher, General Secretary of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation, has started a purge of his union's left wingers. Less than two months after the IRSF Broad Left was founded, its steering committee have been suspended from union membership.

Probably on July 17 the Executive Committee will expel the six steering committee members. Included in that six is the IRSF vice-president, a long-time SWP member who had served on the IRSF EC for over five years.

Christopher and the right wing are mortally afraid that the IRSF, the only union to reject the pay sellout in 1981, will follow the development of CPSA.

If expelled, the six also face the serious possibility of losing their jobs. In a workforce which has achieved a 90-95% level of unionisation, to be militants expelled from the union places them in a very vulnerable position.

Two rules give power to the bureaucrats. Rule 68 forbids "circulation of any material whatsoever . . by or from individuals, or by and from groups who are not a constitutionally elected branch committee •..unless prior sanction is given by the General Secretary or Executive Commitby Stephen Corbishley tee."

Taken to its logical conclusion, it forbids even the circulation around a local office of a postcard from a member away on holiday without the permission of the General Secretary!

And Rule 7 gives the EC - if it is "of the opinion" that a breach of the Rules has happened — powers to suspend and expel.

The IRSF Broad Left does not intend to back down. Its regional conferences planned for July (to precede the national Broad Left conference on September 4) are going ahead. Many of the left Branch Executive Committees, particularly in the Tax section, are planning office meetings.

Out of these meetings will develop a fightback against this petty tyranny. The previous (successful) EC action against an SWP rank and file group 4-5 years ago stimulated Branch Committees to start local Branch magazines, and this present action can backfire for the EC.

This struggle shows that a witch-hunt in the Labour Party can easily be turned into the unions, and that therefore democracy in the unions and democracy in the Labour Party are indivisible.

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

Swon't payo the rent

is support from the NUR.!! PARITY WITH THE S ‚JUDGES!, HOI