Stem the tide

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lead or mount any fight for strike and occupations in defence of jobs — as the unending chain of closures, and most recently the isolation and betrayal of the For some workers, like those at Timex, the news of Kinneil colliery struggle have shown — an additional cutbacks comes as a bolt from the blue; for others it is problem is that militants who wish to fight in a parthe grim confirmation of their fears and suspicions. ticular plant feel certain that their struggle will be For some workers the initial response is gloomy resignation to what seems an unstoppable tide; for As a result of this they may either opt to restrict others, however, a willingness to fight in defence of their campaign and action to their own immediate their jobs runs up against immediate problems.

area [like the Sheffield steelworkers, see page 14], or, Union convenors and officials, having become worse, become demoralised by the scale of the task, accustomed over the years to negotiating pay and conditions on the basis of the employers' ability to afford concessions have no answer to the pleas of the bosses It is certainly true, as the Sheffield steelworkers argue, that without action by the workers directly Decades of tacit agreement that the company's under threat, there is no prospect of wider support. books and 'business secrets" are closed to trade But it is also true that without a perspective of mobilunion eyes do not prepare stewards for the necessary ising broader supporting action - in particular from fight to uncover the real workings of the firm that is some of the bigger plants — it is unlikely that morale threatening the livelihoods of their members. Old in the threatened plant can be raise or sustained at habits must be discarded, and a sharp struggle waged a level adequate for a prolonged strike or occupation for the opening of the books to elected trade union The union bureaucracy which exploits this situaAn examination of the accounts and the plans of tion to avoid a fight is an obstacle that cannot be many of the larger corporations will show the inter- simply avoided - it must be confronted, through the connections between redundancies in one plant and mobilisation of the maximum action, links and awarespeed-up elsewhere in the combine, between the ness at rank and file level, raising demands for the "Іоввев" in one plant and "profits" accumulating extension of strikes and sit ins to national action It can in this way point to the necessary cam- And in place of their persistent attempts to negotipaigns for joint action between the threatened work- ate away jobs "peacefully" through voluntary packforce and their fellow trade unionists in other plants ages, union officials must be forced to fight in defence _ for supporting strikes and blacking action. of jobs through the demand for work-sharing across An obstacle to such action however is the, attitude the board in each industry without loss of pay. exemplified by the union officials at Timex in Dundee The health workers' i pay dispute last summer - seeking to protect jobs not through strikes and showed that given sufficient preparation, sections mass action of the working class but through pressure of workers will strike in support of others and campaigns designed to persuade the employers or against the Tory offensive. The fight on jobs — never the government of the "reasonableness" of the union taken up seriously by the TUC - now demands that we fight to create once again such feeling and unity.

With union leaders in general refusing to give any. Only in this way can the steamroller be halted.

Problished by the Socialist Organiser Alliance, 28 Middle Lane, London N&. Printed by Fast Erd Offset (TU). Registered as a newspaper at the GPO. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the SOA. fight than that one."

Pressure

Time and time again eference was made to he "immorality" the 'unfairness", the unjust ¡ature" of the imposition of edundancies in Dundee.

And equally often, the ocus of the campaign was seen as: putting pressure on the Scottish Office and l'ory government to win nvestments for the factory.

As Timex convenor Fordon Samson put it:

"We know we're in a najor political battle. We lave the right arguments. I we can express them, hen we can win... We're letermined to take it to the righest political level to get he government to put in he investment necessary o keep camera production n Britain."

A TGWU Dundee fullimer took up the 'indusrial ' relations" record of he workforce: 'The Timex workers have carried out all he proposals doing away with restrictive practices, iccepting job flexibility and 0 on. Timex came to Jundee in 1947. Since then only 21 days have been lost ›y strikes at the factory. There is no. other multinational in Dundee that has i record like that."

Noone could criticise he Timex workforce for eeling cheated, betrayed ackings.

But that is exactly what apitalism is all about: job "flexibility" • speedps, de-skilling, switching roduction from one plant › another, etc. A failure to ght back against such lanagement attacks does ot mean job security.

As the women at Lee eans found out before lem, the Dundee workers re now discovering that a o-strike record of "good ıdustrial relations" imply paves the way for irther attacks by managelent, ultimately in the orm of mass sackings. But this is the major roblem when it comes to the question • fighting back against the proposed ussing how to best build rike action both within nd beyond Timex at Dunee, the rally showed that le › campaign against edundancies was to be on e basis appealing or fair from the overnment.

Given this emphasis, the restion of strike action as mentioned only twice uring the whole rally, very uch in the context of a last resort if compulsory : dundancies were implemited. It was noticeable wever that the two ferences to strike action rew widespread spontanJus applause from the ily. close the rally simply pledged full financial and moral support on the part of all present for the Timex workforce. It was passed unanimously.

Defusing

In practice, such a strategy leads to a defusing of militancy and a demoralisation on the part of the workers. And then the union bureaucrats turn round and blame the workers for not being willing to fight!

The key element in a successful "fightback against the sackings is strike action, both inside the plant and outside it.

Inside the plant the shop stewards committee must continue to step up the propaganda campaign to solidify support for strike action, not as a last resort but as the main weapon. The relative narrowness of the vote to fight the ›redundancies ' (60%-40%) shows the need to step up the campaigning inside the plant.

And when addressing mass meetings at other workplaces, Timex workers must appeal for active strike support, in addition to moral and financial support. Shop stewards committees outside of Timex must lead campaigns amongst their members to ensure such appeals are responded to with CAR components, tyres, shipbuilding, steel, the never-ending toll of redundancies and closures continues almost daily.

isolated or sabotaged by the officials.

and abandon the struggle.

that they are bankrupt.

against closure. committees.

elsewhere in the same combinê. against the corporations involved. case.