Massey Ferguson

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After 5 weeks of strike and occupation, Massey Ferguson workers returned to work after an offer of an additional 45p on top of 13%. This amounts to a wage cut and the responsibility for it falls clearly on the trade union leaders.

At the crucial point in the struggle - after the High Court decision to order the end of the occupation - the Birmingham branch of the WSL distributed a statement to Massey Ferguson workers, sections of which are reprinted below. "The decision of a High Court judge on Friday to order the ending of the occupation of the Massey Ferguson tractor plant in Coventry must be resisted. It is an attack not just on the occupation, but on the strike, on the ability of workers at Massey Ferguson to fight the attack on wages. Massey Ferguson had prepared in advance for a long strike; the only way to make the strike effective was to occupy the plant. Following the High Court decision, designed to weaken the strike, the Shop viewards committee nas been shown to be completely correct in boycotting the court hearing. The occupation must be continued in opposition to any legal moves against it.

The attack on the occupation by the courts is only the latest attempt to use the law to break the resistance of workers. We have seen the conspiracy laws of 1875 resurrected for use against pickets - the jailing of the Shrewsbury 2 - the Immig ration Act used to deport militant workers, and recently the use of the police to smash the student occupation at Warwick University. The employers are preparing all these laws for use to discipline and weaken the working class.

In the fight to continue the occupation, workers face not just the opposition of the "law of the land" , and the company, but also the AUEW leadership and district officials. Throug out the strike the District Committee has done nothing to mobilise