[Steel industry _ has gone almost without a…]

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Steel industry _ has gone almost without a finger ifted by the bureaucrats. Unemployment at 3 million • a monument to TUC betrayal as much as monetarism.

The civil service too has laken a heavy burden of losses: but when mass nilitancy emerged on the 1981 pay review, TUC leaders were quick to spot the danger that this might rally resistance and noved in to limit the industrial action to a demoralisng, endless succession of partial stoppages and protest.

The retreat by the official -eadership has been total und unashamed. It has proreeded despite the obvious emergence of working class militancy in the 12 months.

When BL workers voted 8-1 for strike action last autumn they found themselves up against not only the Tories and Edwardes but also Len: Murray, the eleven general secretaries of BL unions - and even Joe Gormley, who consciously delayed NUM pay negotiations to avoid a confrontation alongside the BL workers.

Indeed Michael Foot too hastened to play his part in securing an lith hour sell-out. Eager to prove his strikebreaking credentials to the Tory press, and reassert the values of "parliamentary democracy" , he sought out behind-the-scenes talks with Edwardes and worked might and main for a sell-out.

With the added incentive of avoiding a quick general election, Foot has carried out a comparable backstage role in the latest sell-out of the NUR.

The whole of the current pay round and the latest battles over productivity have seen union leaders intent upon one thing above all: the struggles must not extend out of their control or challenge the existence of the Tory government.

But the Tory government unashamedly challenges the existence of trade unionism. The Prior Bill and the Tebbit Bill combine to offer a swingeing package of attacks on the most • fundamental rights While the bosses devise new tactics, what are the union leaders doing?

to organise, strike and picket.

In the face of such' a withering onslaught, TUC leaders have shrunk still further into their boltholes. The mass demonstration of March 9, 1980 and the 'Day of Action' of May 14, 1980 against the Prior Bill were replaced this year by a 'Union Day' of limp leafletting as the TUC has run up the white flag to Tebbit.

The TUC and Labour leadership has shown since 1979 that it has three levels of response to Thatcher's attack: dead slow, stop and reverse.

For the working class still stuck behind these reactionaries,. cynics and incompetents, the task is to NE SONT EXPEL H1703* LOCKING AFT Ta:

:" 12 develop an organisation and a programme that can enable us to force the bureaucrats off the road and clear the way for the necessary struggle against the Tory government and the employers they repres ent.

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*US Minci!!