Vauxhall torpedoed

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VAUXHALL TORPEDOED March with Uctober zz LEe. London li8. Printed by East End Offset (TU). Registered as a newspaper at the GPO. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the SOA. THE collapse of the two-day old strike at Vauxhall is painfully reminiscent of the BL strike in 1979 which was also killed by the leadership after two days.

Although - Vauxhall management was clearly shaken and forced to come off the 14 mor th eal, an important wave of miitancy in the Vauxhali plants hi been stabbed in the back.

Terry Duffy was in the vanThornett guard of the sellout. It was his public hostility to the strike as soon as it became a reality which created the situation at Dunstable. Not that the TGWU leaders are any better in reality.

Not a single public statement has been made by IGWU officials supporting the strike, yet such a statement by Moss Evans or Grenville Hawley would have 1lam Embankment London strengthened it considerably.

Members of the AUEW were balloted separately at Dunstable and voted to scab on the strike. That became the vulnerable point. On Tuesday the Dunstable TGWU members met and voted to accept the company's offer under the pressure of AUEW scabbing.

Luton met a few hours later and voted by a 2-1 majority to follow Dunstable and go back to work.

But there was no lead whatsoever from the platform. No recommendation was made to the meeting. The mass meetings were called after only two days of the strike to vote again on a company offer which came nowhere near meeting the claim. It is the same old story. When the leadership is opposed to a strike, call mass meetings at every pretext and the crack is bound to emerge. The workers have to win the vote every time, the management only have to win it once and it's all OVer.

It is little wonder that hundreds; of militant workers were angry and bitter after the Luton meeting. They : were obviously able to see the whole manoeuvre and how it was carried out.

Like Cowley in 1981, Ellesmere Port was left high and dry, having voted overwhelmingly to continue the strike and having proceeded to seek the support of the dockers. Understandably, they decided not to go it alone and voted on Wednesday morning to return to work.

The strike, however, and the limited gains of stopping the 14 month deal shows once again that the working class is prepared to fight when the issues come up, even given the collapse of the TUC and trade union leaders in the post-election period. TUESDAY'S Daily Mail (October 4) carried one of the most vicious press attacks yet on the Labour council in Islington, North London.

women's collective offering aid to prisoners and ex-prisoners from Holloway Prison. Using information she had gathered on the prison while doing a series on it recently as a freelance, she approached the council for money and premises.

The council, well aware of the treatment faced by prisoners in jal, and the difficulties they often have on release, made a favourable initial response.

A council statement points out:

"No money and no accommodation were ever given to this group. Council leader Margaret Hodge hit out at the Mail's irresponsible smear and stressed that the reporter had used a false name, Gloria Murray, when she approached the council, a fact not mentioned by the Mail.

"When Gloria Murray, first spoke to deputy council leader Valerie Veness she did not mention accommodation but merely asked for a grant for a newsletter. Margaret Hodge! added: ^ The council is always extremely careful about investigating fully any request before money resources are handed out.' "

But the Mail journalist did not stick around for the investigation. She pulled out and wrote her two page article "exposing" the council's willingness to consider helping prisoners and ex-prisoners - what she brazenly asserts to be "a clearly crazy cause"

Margaret Hodge commented: Islington will get on with the task of providing homes and jobs for the people of Islington and will not be deflected by this kind of dishonest, disreputable, muck-raking journalism.'"

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