Five years fighting a chain of betrayals

Scan page 9

Review Which way forwand Articles on the stewards' movement, the publi sector and the fight against cuts and privatisation, lessons from the NHS strike, and unions and the Labour Party. Polemics on the Socialist Workers' Party and the Communist Party.

Features on the left and the Stalinist state 'un ions', and on workers' politics and national lib eration. From the arsenal of Marxism: Leon Trotsky on boom, crisis, and workers' The Monday after the sacking threat was announced, the shopfloor workers at Longbridge were saying that if a single Cowley worker was sacked, then we all had to come out.

Grasp

Everyone. at Longbridge understood the implications of the sacking threat for the whole trade union movement ... everyone, that is, except the works committee. They seemed unable or unwilling to grasp the seriousness of the situation. They didn't organise any measures to prepare the workforce to meet such a threat.

On the Tuesday after the ultimatum, the delegation of shop stewards went to see the works committee and proposed that a joint shop stewards committee meeting be called to prepare for solidarity action.

The convenor, Jack Adams, was away at the Scottish TUC, and the rest of the works committee seemed unable to operate without his presence. The works committee without Adams is like a chicken with its head cut off, except that at least a chicken without a head runs about. These people were simply paralysed.

They failed to even call a works committee meeting to discuss the situation. Their answer to the delegation's request for a joint shop stewards committee meeting was a bland "Cowley hasn't asked for any support so far and when they do, we'll start to move."

Later a suggestion was made by another steward who went over to see them, for at least a message of support and a donation. Even this met with a similar negative response.

One of the works committee members actually said that because the strike was official, everything was OK and we didn't need to do anything at Longbridge!

The other reason that Longbridge rank and file workers have identified so strongly with the Cowley workers is because they know that the Longbridge management is only holding back on further attacks here because of the Cowley situation.

Three weeks ago, workers in CABI voted to resist management plans to remove all inspectors from the tracks and to force all operators to carry out their own inspection (stamping their own work). Since then the company has held back from implementing this measure for fear of having both their major assembly plants in dispute at the same time. But nobody is in any doubt that if Cowley is defeated, the Longbridge bosses will go ahead with their plan immediately.

I've got no doubt that if the Cowley strike continues and if BL management go ahead with their sacking threat there will be a strong response from the shop floor at Longbridge. The only problem is the weakness and cowardice and complacency of our plant leadership here. However even they now show some signs of moving. Last week at the IGWU branch of which Jack Adams is chairperson, a resolution was proposed by him, giving full support to Cowley, sending £100 donation and calling for strike action in every BL plant if management go ahead with the sackings. threat. That is obviously the kind of solidarity action that is needed and it is good to see that Adams and the works committee seem to be pushing for this. Better late than never. THE Leyland Action Committee is a body of Leyland workers, formed at the time of the 1978 wage review, whose aim was to campaign within the plants against a wages sell-out.

It has remained in existence ever since then because of the continuous sell-outs.

From the 1980 review, in which the workers were balloted and voted it favour of strike action, which was then not implemented, through to the present Cowley assembly plant sell-out, it has been clear that what' required is a new leadership to struggle for the workers' interests, independent from the employers.

Leyland has been used as an example by successive governments, as to how they want industry's profits defended. Under the last Labour government it was through workers' "participation", , whereby unions at all levels were to be used to jointly agree speed-up and low wages.

With the Tory government it has been through dictatorial measures, using the union leaders to sell out struggles. In both cases, the result is the same.

The central plank of the employers and the government has been to look after the "profitindustry to the detriment of the the workforce.

Collusion

In this they have benefitted from the collusion of the trade union leadership.

In January 1980 the steel strike started. The November 1979 BL pay review was still being • negotiated. BL workers were held back from taking any action alongside the steelworkers.

In February of that year there was a national ballot of BL workers, who voted 2-1 in favour of striking. The trade union leaders refused to implement this. It was the Leyland Action Committee that organised coaches of steel workers and BL workers to lobby a convenors meeting at Canley, demanding they implement the strike vote.

They refused. And it was only put to Leyland workers whether they wanted to strike or not on April 8 - the day after the steel strike ended.

Throughout each of the subsequent wages campaigns, the Leyland Action Committee has put forward proposals and campaigned in the factories and at BL combine level for action to defend wages.

Similarly on jobs. Our consistent opposition to speed-up, which means job losses, is exemplified by the issuing of a different leaflet to each of the mass meetings of the Cowley assembly plant strike.

Our supporters have taken a principled stand in fighting this struggle from the beginning. • On victimisation: Our record is clear. We took a strong position in defence of Derek Robinson, of the Longbridge 8 and of Alan Thornett.

In the case of Alan Thornett, for example, we produced. a special edition of our bulletin, distributed at the main plants, explaining the case and showing how the union bureaucracy sold out.

The Leyland Action Committee holds regular meetings and throughout the Cowley Assembly strike we held fortnightly meetings.

The meeting on Monday, 25th, for example, heard reports from assembly plant stewards, and discussed the state of the THE Leyland Action Committee put out bulletins at every turn in the dispute, warning of dangers and pointing a way foward.

On Apri O, the bulletin explained that «the so-called 'offer' the management have made is actually worse than the conditions they were threatening to impose at the beginning of the strike...

"Audited Plant Status (APS) is not a concession, it is a further imposition. It involves, in management's latest figures, a manning cut of a further 243 across the plant... Management's problem has been that they have been hesitating to force APS in because they feared the reaction of the 70p (plus 16p p&p) from WSL, PO 135, London N1 ODD union organisation and the crisis of leadership and drew up the leaflet for Tuesday's mass meeting.

We do not see the Leyland Action Committee as an alternative to the BL Combine Shop Stewards Committee, which is unofficial, but as an alternative leadership that struggles within both the official and unofficial bodies.

The Combine Committee, controlled jointly by the Stalinists of the Communist Party and the right: wing, has been virtually defunct, having met only once in the last year. This in itself shows the crisis of leadership.

Anybody interested in receiving copies of leaflets and LAC material or wishing to join LAC should write to Leyland Action Committee, 194 Dawlish Road, Birmingham B29.

workforce - now they are trying gel as a concession in return for the acceptance of bell to bell running!"

The April 14 bulletin underlined the statement from BL boss Géoffrey Armstrong that for him the six minutes was "only the beginning" towards a rate of exploitation "equal to the best international standards in Japan, the continent and the USA"

On April 19 the bulletin argued the case against a 'buy-out' of the six minutes. The April 22 bulletin picked up on hints dropped by union officials Ken Cure and Moss Evans on TV the evening before, and accurately warned against the danger of.

name Advertisement • st TELECOM Buckle - betrayed fight to defend Alan Thornett.

proposals for a ballot on the six minutes and APS being "brought in in a deliberately confusing way"

April 26's LAC leaflet argued against the sell-out. 'We have the unity of the workforce, the official support of the unions and the full support of the community in Oxford. That doesn't happen very often and we should not throw it away now."

With more supporters and more resources the LAC can have a bigger voice next time. Join the LAC now; help to rebuild the shop stewards movement in BL, and help to prevent future sell-outs. 15% OR WE NUPE WoRkERS SOciAliST REViEW 3

Scan page 10

poster from France, May 1968. 'Give a finger and they'll take an arm'

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

STAY OUT