[digest THE Civil Service has been cut back…]

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digest THE Civil Service has been cut back by more than 100,000 employees since the Tories came to government in 1979, according to a Treasury analysis published last week.

The reduction - to its smallest size since World War 2 of about 630,000 - is being achieved principally through the dropping of some functions, saving £54 millions, and providing lower standards of service in others, saving £52 millions (1982-3 financial year). This is in line with lory plans of an employee target of 593,000 by April 1988.

Some of the savings noted by the Treasury were achieved by privatisation, hiving off, or contracting-out from the public to the private sector, notably in the Ministry of Defence and in the Property Services Agency.

Seafield THE three week strike at Scotland's largest pit, the Seafield colliery at Kirkcaldy, ended this week when the 340 craft workers voted to return to work.

Talks are now to be held with the National Coal Board over the downgrading of a craft worker which led to the dispute and on the introduction of new shift working.

Share-owning

A RECENT report by the Institute of Directors reveals the thinking • of leading company bosses in the field of industrial relations. The message is that all employees should own shares in the company they work for.

The reason, of course, is that a worker who is also a shareholder will be less likely to disrupt production, and thus the possible share value in the company. Or as the report puts it: 'The propensity to regard labour and capital as two implacably opposed adversaries will be correspondingly reduced.".

The guidelines for company directors come a week before the Budget which is expected to ontain proposals for legisla ion on emolovee snare oodo schemes.

Polmaise

A RALLY of 500 miners and their supporters in Stirling on Monday night heard Arthur Scargill stress the unity of purpose of the NUM in fighting pit closures.

He reaffirmed NUM support for the miners at Polmaise colliery near Stirling, which is threatened with closure. Polmaise miners are currently on strike against this closure threat.

Scargill claimed the NUM officials were giving positive leadership in the struggle and that the 17-week overtime ban was beginning to bite. The Coal Board had suffered nine million tons of lost production.

At the end of the meeting, Mick McGahey, President of the Scottish Area NUM, referred to the decision of the 60,000 Yorkshire miners to strike from Friday. He said that the call would be going out to all Scottish miners to take similar action, starting on Friday night.

(T'he200 Where ag we stand Ter Socialist lor Fighl ORGANISER Locas!

Two pamphlets for 45p, including postage, from Socia List Organiser, 28 Middle Lane London N8. MILLIONS of workers took action on February 28 against the Tories' union ban at GCHQ. Half a million civil servants alone were out on official strike.

LONDON 40,000 took part in a demonstration through the centre of London.

In Southwark all health workers were out for the whole day, and factories all over the city came to a standstill. Tube services stopped for an hour, and some commuter services were hit. 40 out of 60 London Transport bus garages took some action. The National Union of Teachers shut ten London secondary schools, and 10,000 school students were sent home.

SCOTLAND The entire machinery of central government in Scotland came to a halt. 6,000 people attended the rally in Glasgow, 6,000 in Edinburgh and some 2,500 in Dundee. In the Glasgow area, 11 hospitals had stoppages with emergency cover only, whilst nine bus garages took action, and Glasgow district council was closed. Railway workshops, sewage works, post office engineering depots and the Govan and Yarrow shipyards all saw actron. From midday there were no trains in or out of Glasgow.

On Clydeside strikes took place at Rolls Royce, Wears of Cathcart and Wills Tobacco. In Dundee there were strikes at Timex, Bonar Long, Kestrel and other workplaces, as well as a strike of district council workers.

Rosyth naval dockyard was closed, and for the first time, 40 clerical and administration workers in Scottish Command Army HQ walked out. Action was taken at Torness nuclear power station, East Lothian.

WALES Buses and trains were disrupted and 1,500 joined a demonstration. In Swansea, TGWU dockers came out to support the demonstration, and there were strikes on the buses. A number of factories came out throughout Wales.

MIDLANDS BL Longbridge stopped work, and 5,000 people att ended the rally in Birmingha m. In Coventry there was strike action at Jaguar, GEC, Rolls Royce and Talbot.

YORKSHIRE The majority of Manpower Services Commission workers, along with town hall workers, joined the stoppage in Sheffield. 2,000 construction workers took action at Drax, and 1,000 dockers were on strike in Hull. 100,000 were out the Merseyside area. All buses were stopped, along with government offices and parts of industry including Cammel Laird. Civil servants, transport workers and dockers joined å march of thousands.

In the Manchester area there were strikes at GEC Upenshaw, Massey Ferguson, Chloride, Shell Carrington, on the railways and in the dirrect works department. The Free Trade Hall was packed in a rally addressed by Alistair Graham.

DERBYSHIRE Miners took action at four pits, and in Chesterf eld most factories were out, : nd Tony Benn spoke to ral y of 2,000.

NEWCASTLE Newcastle saw a hundr d per cent turn out in the local shipyards, and action in many engineering companies.

Elsewhere, British Aerospace workers took action in various places. In Northern Ireland, Shorts Aircraft and Harland and Wolff joined civil servants taking action. Action taken at Vauxhall, Ellesmere Port and at Luton, reportedly lost the company £3 million in production: Austin Rover, Oxford, decided to come out. There was a response by 50,000 workers in Nottingham. The National Union of Seamen were on strike for half a day at Felixstowe.

Stand Dy collea Demonstrators in London

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