Bosses' vandalism fuels socia workers' milital icy

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ORGANISER Party ORGANISER Fight the ini the witchabout hant for 3 months; £8.50 for 6 months; and £16 Please send me... months' sub, I enclose £ To: Socialist Organiser, 28, Middle Lane, London N8 8PI #set OUR 4-07 BL's long-running purge of socialists continues. Last Wednesday, two workers were sacked simultaneously from the Cowley Body Plant and the Longbridge plant.

Like the 15 so-called moles sacked from the Cowley Assembly Plant recently, both were supporters of Socialist Action starters Like the 15, the Cowley Body Plant victim was a recent new starter, with little prospect of defending himself. Although workers on his section were prepared to take action against the sacking, this was thwarted by the convenors.

The Longbridge victim was Grant Kier, a well-established shop steward who had worked at the plant for over three years.

By Jim Denham BL's decisio 1 to sack him was clearly a more risky and audacious move and will bee seen as a more ominous development by other socialists and militants at BL.

The Longbridge Works Committee decided that the victimisation could not be fought because of the lurid publicity surrounding the Cowley 'moles' case. The joint shop stewards voted by a fairly narrow majority to back the Works Committee view, and when Grant's appeal to an extended Plant Conference predictably failed, his sacking was confirmed.

Grant told us, "I see my victimisation not just as a continuation of BL's persecution of socialists. It's also specifically aimed at softening up the organisation in preparation for the big redundancies that are coming in the power and train area at Longbridge.

"I suspect that management also want to demonstrate their determination to clear out militants in order to reassure Honda that closer collaboration with the BL operation in Britain would be a good idea."

Stronger lead

Clearly if more sackings of socialists and militants are to be prevented, stronger leadership is needed than that offered by the Longbridge Works Committee. The failure of the plant leadership to call for any action in defence of Grant Kier can only encourage BL to continue its campaign of victimisation.

By Amanda Barnes ACTION in support of residential social workers in Southwark has been stepped up this week. This results from events which have led to the worsening of NALGO's relations with Southwark's Labour council and the breakdown of local negotiations.

Events over the last two weeks can be briefly summarised as follows:

Monday 24 October, morning, 32 residential social workers were suspended for following official national instructions to refuse redeployment.

Monday 24 October, midday, NALGO members in all sections of the council walked out on indefinite strike, demanding reinstatement of the suspended 32.

Monday October 24, evening, Labour Group decided to reinstate the 32 and to commence "meaningful local negotiations' following a mass lobby by NALGO members.

Tuesday October 25, the strikers returned to work and negotiations commenced. Labour Group's so-called meaningful negotiations included the demand that cover be arranged in children's homes while negotiations proceeded.

This was agreed, but NALGO received further demands that NALGO members would not be disciplined for breaking industrial action and that NUPE, which has consistently scabbed on NALGO action, be given a seat on the negotiating table.

Wednesday October 26, evening, the offer was withdrawn.

Retreated

Thursday 27 October, children in the Hollies residential home were seen to be removed by management scabs. Management retreated to their office and a stone was thrown through their window by one of the children in care.

Within half an hour of this incident, eight van loads of instant response unit police, the new SPG, arrived on the scene and forcibly removed the kids and their possessions, leaving the Hollies wrecked.

Further vandalism by management rendered the whole building uninhabitable. It is not certain what happened to the kids but several were taken into custody at Bexley police station.

Two of the girls allege that they were strip-searched by police in the absence of a responsible adult. 13 of the kids escaped from the clutches of the police and went missing for two days. The Hollies has now effectively closed down. This preempts council proposals for the home to be closed some time in the future.

Enquiry Southwark NALGO is now demanding an independent inquiry into events at the Hollies. Given that Southwark's manifesto clearly opposes the use of the SPG, it has demanded that the council's police committee meet NALGO representatives to look into this matter.

A special branch meeting on phones and reception will not operate, unsocial hours will not be worked by council employees, and councillors will not receive their attendance allowances.

The branch further resolved to hold a one-day walk-out on November 9 culminating in a mass lobby of Labour Group that evenIn the event of any NALGO member being suspended, it was agreed that all members will immediately walk out for 24 hours, during which time a meeting will be held to decide on further action. All sections will hold urgent meetings to decide how best to increase their pressure on the council to settle the long-outstanding claim of the residential social workers.

In Bury, where residential workers had been locked out of three children's homes, and the children distributed across a wide spread of local towns, a provisional agreement has been reached to reopen the closed facilities and return 27 children.

50 local strikers have also been reinstated by management, while the national dispute continues.

IN Glasgow, 11 POEU members at the Baird GsC have been called out on strike as part of the struggle against privatisation. Baird is a major exchange for the Glasgow area, and the strike has halted work on trunk maintenance, creating a backlog of traffic through the exchange.

Other members in Baird are working to rule and refusing to touch equipment normally worked by the strikers.

One non-union member has been used by management in an effort to break the strike, but with little success, and his future work has been "blacked": by the Local response to the collection of the second levy to support the union's strike fund has met a willing response from the membership.

LAST week's article on Ben Tillett was wrongly credited. It was written by John Mollroy, not Noel Hibbert. Apologies to both of them.

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