Fords crack on 5% NO COMPROMISE ON LIVING STANDARDS! Press ahead with full claims!

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paralysing Ford's entire British operation, has demonstrated the colossal strength of the organised workers' movement, if given only the hint of firm The confrontation strategy of Ford management and the Callaghan government has crumbled within a fortnight.

The strike itself reflected the seething militancy within the working class as a whole on the wages issue.

There is no doubt that under these conditions determined action could drive a coach and horses through government pay policy and launch a major struggle to restore lost living standards.

Obstacle

But even as Fords back down there are signs that the major obstacle to such a fight is going to be the same trade union leaders who have loudly declared their opposition to wage controls.

On Tuesday Labour ministers will meet TUC leaders. Both sides in the talks are alarmed at the massive movement on wages, and the way it has been stimulated by the Fords struggle.

Though there seems little likelihood of agreement over Victims of the Shah's barbarism TT** rT** Evans-sounding the retreat?

any new figure for Phase 4, the very decision to discuss pay policy at a time when strike action has defeated it indicates the wish of union leaders to hold back their members outside Fords.

TGWU General Secretary Moss Evans has already begun to sound the retreat-rebuking National Officer John Miller for threatening that pay talks in British Oxygen could go just like Fords'. '. Speaking to the Guardian reporter he said:

"I speak for the executive," insisted Evans, "and when we have discussed in executive and reached a decision on how we bargain, will make a statement."

"Responsible"

Evans went on to stress that the judgement would be whether each particular employer had "bargained fairly* Throughout the whole argument over the 5% pay limit Evans has laid heavy stress on "responsible" bargaining in each case.

This means drawing up claims and pressing them not on the basis of defending the living standards of the TGWU's 2 million members but on the profits of a particular capitalist employer.

The effect of this is to accept that workers should carry the cost of the -crisis of any weak section of capitalism.

The fruits of such a policy can be seen at Vauxhalls, where declared profits are less than in Fords, and where TGWU negotiators have led the pay talks down the dangerous dead end of productivity dealing, rather than strike against the 5% pay offer.

There is no doubt that productivity deals-which cut jobs, and erode hard-won conditions and manning levels-will play a major role in attempts by union leaders in coming months to head off pressure on wages.

In the public sector, where spending cuts are already slashing thousands of jobs and vital services, such a deal would spell disaster for the one million local authority workers, whose claim for a £60 minimum wage is due for settlement in November.

Alan Fisher of NUPE has already talked of breaking the 5% limit. won. Now is not the time for the slightest compromise on workers' legitimate pay demands.

Strike committees must be elected at once at Fords to fight any attempt by officials at a miserable 7-8% sell-out.

All-out strike Where employers reject these demands or offer squalid compromises and productivity deals, the answer must be, as at Fords, all-out strike action until the claim is met.

In the struggle for this approach workers will see in practice where their trade union and Labour leaders stand on the issue of defence of living standards.

And increasing numbers will see the necessity to construct a principled, revolutionary leadership to spearhead the fight against both the employers and the bureaucratic leaders who fear nothing so much as the independent strength of their members.

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