[Sunday's march shows basis for fight to set…]

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Sunday's march shows basis for fight to set up defence squads Within days of the gigantic 80,000 strong Carnival held by the Anti Nazi League, two murders and a shotgun ATTACKS squads, with th the aim of driving the fascists off the But Anti Nazi League -whose programme tailored to coexistence with Liberals and trade union bureaucrats dedicated to preventing independent action by the workers' movement-is incapable of putting There will be no moves by union officials to improve redundancy payments for 3,000 British Leyland car workers at the doomed Triumph. plant at Speke.

This final act of treachery last week by the Executive of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions puts the cap on one of the most despicable betrayals yet carried out in a redundancy fight.

Speke workers who at a mass meeting last month had rallied enthusiastically to the call to resist closure of the plant were consciously headed off from adopting a policy of plant occupation, opening Leyland's books, and fighting for work-sharing on full pay.

They were persuaded, chiefly by Stalinist Longbridge convenor Derek Robinson, to endorse vague resolution refusing to accept the closure and defending the right to work.

While this decision left the shop floor struggle in limbo, Confed officials met and decided not to fight the ciosure but merely to seek better pay off terms to compensate workers for the prospect of decades on the Merseyside dole queue.

Under these conditions recall mass meeting, blackmailed by Leyland management and offered no alternative policy by Speke or Leyland combine stewards, voted 3-2 not to resist the closure-but to seek improved redundancy pay.

Seizing on this weakness they themselves had created Confed leaders last week wound up the fight completely, arguing that the negotiators had obtained "the best possible deal' for the Spoke workets.

And they called on all 19 affiliated unions not to obstruct Leyland management's plans to shift TR7 production from Speke to Coventry.

NUJ SELL-OUT

THOMSON journalists at several provincial . centres returned to work bitter and angry last week after a two week pay strike.

Arbitration and a promise of talks was all that they achieved. The negotiating team headed by NUJ General Secretary, Ken Ashton, recommended the sell out and a vote on the Thomson Group Chapel had pitted nonstriking chapels against those on strike and laid off.

The dispute started when Hemel Hempstead journalists were sacked for imposing sanctions in pursuit of a house agreement. Journalists at Cardiff, Reading. and Middlesborough struck in This cynical betrayal is a stark warning to the entire Leyland workforce of the urgency of constructing a new leadership equipped with a clear programme and a recognition of the need to break the class collaborationist 'worker participation' set-up and defeat the Edwardes' plan for rationalisation and speed-up throughout Leyland.

*Fair weather friends' of the Speke struggle promptly abandoned it last week in the wake of the mass meeting betrayal by Speke stewards.

Most conspicuous in this was the about-face by the 'rank and file' opportunists of the Socialist Worker. They had headlined the Speke vote to fight closure in their April 22 edition as "A Match to Fire the Mersey". . (They also - uncritically reported Robinson's diversionary speech to that meeting).

But when Robinson completed his task two weeks later they failed even to mention the sell-out at the subsequent mass meeting.

As foremost opponents of the clear programme of occupation and opening Leyland's books, fought for throughout by the WSL, the SWP had done nothing to offer any perspective to the Speke workforce-and could draw no lessons from the sell out.

And the SWP's opportunist stable-mates, the . International Marxist Group, reacted to the Speke sell-out by relegațing the issue from front-page news to a small, confused note at the foot of page six!

Fund We have done better this week-£67 arrived over the last seven days but we still need to raise over E100 a week if we are to reach the target on time. Our total so far is £849.27.

With over £1700 of the £2,000 target now pledged we remain confident that we will go well over the top by the time the fund closes at the end of July.

But, as we frequently point out, it is important that this money arrives regularly in this office to finance the publishing projects we have undertaken.

All contributions should be sent to:

WSL Special Fund 31, Dartmouth Park Hill London NW5 1HR