[Behind the witch-hunt, the unions are under attack!…]

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Behind the witch-hunt, the unions are under attack! End Blacklists!

The witch-hunt and victimisation of 14 people at BL Cowley for falsification of their application forms is an attack on the trade union movement. They were clearly sacked for political reasons; there was no complaint about their work: They are obviously being victimised.

The Tory government has just started its second term of office. It is increasing its offensive against the working class, with rising unemployment, privatisation, cuts, and new attacks on It is getting the assistance of the right-wing majority of the TUC General Council, which now wants to discuss with the Tories. As Arthur Scargill has said, this is like discussing the rope with your aspirant hangman.

To get through their attacks, the Tories must deal with those who are opposed to them and to their stooges in he TUC. They will now use the hysteria around the Cowley situation to boost their attack on the unions particularly at rank and file level and The Workers Socialist League for many years has been the target of witch-hunts, victimisations and attempted victimisations at BL's Cowley plant. We print excerpts from a statement on the current witch-hunt put out by the National Committee. of the WSL on 13 August 1983.

in industry — where the main opposition to the Tories will come from.

The press campaign is the start of this. Left-wingers come from outside the working class, they say. This campaign is designed to discredit all those, at all levels, who fight back, particularly those who try to change the leadership in the labour movement. Everybody who argues for militant policies becomes a suspicious person. Like rising unemployment, the campaign will be used to try to intimidate the shop floor.

On the day after the sackings, the shop stewards at Cowley got a report from the joint inquiry of trade union officials and management that came out Brily Ilail EXPRESS Chr Dailn Erlegraph of the 'washing-up time' strike. This joint report talks about the "political" nature of some shop stewards. It talks about shop stewards not being aware of the kind of increases in productivity necessary.

During the 'washing-up time' strike, the bureaucracy stopped the Cowley Assembly Plant shop stewards putting their opinions to the mass meeting. This was a go-ahead for the current campaign. It was saying to the membership that the stewards should not be listened to.

Right wingers in other unions will try to take up the same cry. Kate Losinska of the CPSA has already spoken on this.

We must refuse to be cowed. Trade union members have a right to be political activists. Left wingers have a right to have a job and be active in their unions. It is not a crime to be a socialist. The press thinks it is a crime, the capitalists and the Tories think it is a crime, the right wing thinks it is a crime to be a socialist in the unions or the Labour Party. We must oppose these witch-hunting ideas, and we must oppose all blacklists ...

streets of Oxford like gangrapists looking for a victim.

One set of neighbours complains of cooking smells. fancy that!

At another house, a reporter manages to peer through the windows. The shelves carry books on Russia! A piece of paper in a typewriter reveals the beginnings of an article, 'Is the Russian Economy in Crisis?' Meanwhile Michael Edwardes, MacGregor, and the rest of the politically-motivated outsiders pumped into industry by right-wing Labour and Tory governments alike to undermine the unions go about their business, unmolested by TV cameras up their nose or reporters searching their dustbins.

Personnel officers are advised to get more training in how to spot militants. A university degree in politics becomes as socially-accepted as a sick-note tor herpes.

BL announces that it never uses outside agencies to screen staff or carry out investigations, and the press prints it seriously and uncritically.

The Sunday Times and the Guardian issue warnings that political discrimination must not be introduced into industrial life (forgetting for the moment about Robinson, Thornett, and the long list of political martyrs).

The crowd, sated by this spectacle of blood and gore, turns its attention back, to sex or athletics.

14 Sun journalists are sacked because they had concealed from the management that they can read.