Workers Socialist League

Socialist Press, Trotskyism Today and the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee, 1975–1984

Garners: a Major Blow at Tgwu Saboteurs

Socialist Press no. 121, 18 October 1978 · scan p. 4 · about 523 words

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union bureaucracy.

The appearance of Ms Desai of Grunwicks and Phil Gillatt from the 18 month Sanderson strike at the rally demonstrated to the embarassment of TGWU bureaucrats the continuity of independent class struggle on the one side and TGWU sabotage on the other that has characterised the Grunwick, Sandersons and Garners strikes.

The events in Northumber. land Avenue were adequately descriped in last week's Socialist Press; the overwhelming majority of the march did indeed follow the WSL back to the picket line, leaving a small rump of bureaucrats, Stalinists and WRP members to follow the Region 1 float into oblivion.

This break from the bureaucracy in which members of the strike committee played a leading role was an alarming reminder for Region 1 officials that a leadership exists within this strike which is prepared to take the necessary actions to win the strike, even if it means an open fight against the union The full effects of the Day of Action and the mass picketing on the strike have yet to be seen.

The morale of the scabs has been damaged.

And, as we predicted, it has meant that the strike has gained materially, as fresh forces have been drawn to support the strike.

Over £100 a day was arriving at strike headquarters last week.

Wandsworth Trades Cauncil has taken the important step of sponsoring an emergency fund for the costs of those arrested.

The police have been more tentative on picketing restric. tions.

But what is crucial is that although it now becomes vital for the bureaucracy to kill the strike, they will find it much more difficult after the Day of Action.

This change in the balance of forces was reflected this week In fact the picket took place as a result of a clear break from the march-leaving the Region 1 float and a handful of hangers-on travelling on alone up Northumberland Avenue.

LIE No. 4: The Newsline claims that there were no policies put forward on the march. in a number of positions taken by the strike committee. They are issuing a call for the Regional Committee to support and organise a national TGWU delegato conference to discuss ways of supporting the strike committee's policy.

And they are also calling on all trade unionists, especially TGWU branches, to lobby the next Regional Committee meeting.

We must call on all labour movement bodies to support these initiatives.

Yours fraternally, GS London. refusal to offer any practical or political lead in workers' daily struggles.

TGWU officials Shorter and Staden and SE region TUC 'left' Jack Dromey will not be too ecstatic about their new-found friends in Newsline, however.

Cynical

Shorter the Garners Strike Committe on October 7 publiciy registered their bitter hostility to the bureaucratic sabotage of the strike, and exposed the officials' isolation from the rank and file.

The WSL declares itself, as ever, unequivocally on the side of these workers and the inde-. pendent mobilisation of the working class.

Only on this basis can the fight be carried through for the construction of a revolutionary party capable of leading the struggle for power.

berners steak House

← Contents of Socialist Press no. 121, 18 October 1978