STOP CALLAGHAN'S TROOPS SCABBING! Build councils of action!

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An Open Letter to NUJ strikers have rehearsed picket-busting during the Grunwick mass Buses halted by shortage of fuel League.

For the second winter running it looks as if the government will resort to the use of army scabbing to break a wages strike.

Lorry drivers by the thousand are still joining the growing national stoppage in support of their £65/35 hour week claim, even while petrol shortages from the tanker drivers' pay fight continue in much of the country.

The road transport strike, coupled to militant picketing of docks, factories and depots is bringing industry grinding to a halt.

The lorry drivers action once more shows workers the potential strength of the trade union movement that has been held back by TUC leaders through three years of wage Strike breaking And it confronts Callaghan and Healey with the need to use the army once more in its role of an organised strikebreaking force if they are to have a hope of stemming the wages struggle and holding millions of public sector workers within the 5% limit.

Since the eruption of strike action in Fords last year forced the union bureaucracy hastily to make an official strike call, the 5% pay limit and the trade union officials who have policed Phases 1, 2 and 3, have been under continuous pressure.

In the TGWU the growing frustration of lorry drivers met a response from the leadership, who called a national delegate conference on December 19. This conference decided that if a satisfactory offer were not made by the employers by 2 January, then strikes would begin on January 3.

Right wing officials The subseyuent movement has shown this militant decision working its way through the TGWU's largely right wing bureaucracy, threatening any who try to stand in its way.

Seeing these moves underway, TGWU leader Moss Evans who had attacked the unofficial action by Texaco tanker drivers, has dropped his talk of "responPHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report sible collective bargaining" and made militant statements confused on the role of the supporting the haulage drivers. troops, and generally did little But Evans is stoking up to prevent them crossing picket lines, the lorry drivers' strike further problems for himself.

Because the more effective the strike is in shutting down the altogether.

British economy the more Callaghan will feel duty bound general being maintained now to use troops to scab on the action. mittees. Troops would be The firemen's strike, and the brought in and forced to cross development and training of the picket lines in a move that could police Special Patrol Group as a only be seen as strikebreaking.d specialist picket-busting squad (as seen and tested at Grunwick) are evidence that Callaghan will ously sat back while army scabs not shrink from direct strikebreaking. men's strike, will be forced to take a clear position.

New level New the army is allowed to be used But army scabbing on the successfully in such an industrial lorry drivers' strike would raise the struggle to a new level.

pickets While many firemen were troops also against any strike by public sector workers.

But the TGWU alone with two million members has the power to defeat such moves, a different situation and should already be planning to enlist the aid of every other Essential supplies are in union in defence of the right to strike. by lorry drivers' strike comBlacking Public sector manual workers and other sections with Evans, along with the other claims outstanding must be TUC bureaucrats who scandal- called on to come out now alongside the lorry drivers. attempted to break the fire- Any so-called "essential supplies" transported by army scabs must be blacked in every There can be no mistake. If factory and workplace, and solidarity strikes and mass pickets called in preparation for dispute, the government has a general strike if the troops are made no secret of plans to use not withdrawn.

But already there are unmistakeable signs that the TUC leaders would once again stand back and allow a Labour government to use troops against the unions.

Leaders of NUPE, representing 700,000 public sector workers have pulled back even from calling a one-day strike on their January 22 "Day of Action"* And progress on their £60/ 35 hour week claim-due to be settled last November-will not be discussed again until next. month!

This leaves the lorry drivers isolated in the front line-just as NUPE leader Fisher left the Under Fives (part 2) Interview with Keith Hau ige National firemen to fight alone last winter.

Workers must place no reliance on such leaders to defend them from army blacklegs. Steps must be taken on a local level to coordinate the most effective fight of those in struggle on pay.

In each area strike committees of lorry drivers, journalists and social workers should issue an appeal for delegates from union branches-particularly those in the public sector-stewards committees, trades PHOTO: Mark Rusher Thatcher councils, workers' political parties and other working class bodies, to form local councils of action.

Through such councils of action moves can be made to strengthen and extend the pay strikes, to organise mass picketing and set up joint committees to control the distribution Veness Secretary Jack Ashwell of food and supplies to essential services.

Journalists and strikers should also collaborate on the production of workers' papers to counter the lies peddled each day in the Tory press and reaching fever pitch at the present time as newspaper editors give vent to their hatred for workers striking to defend their living standards.

This Tory press offensive has linked up with Thatcher's latest efforts to whip up the middle class into a pre-election anti-strike frenzy.

Within the councils of action, revolutionaries would argue for policies that both develop the struggle and expose the role of the trade union and Labour leaders, whether right wing or "left".

In particular those "left" MPs such as Dennis Skinner that claim TO- support the pay struggle must be called upon not only to lend their weight to the fight for councils of action, but also to lead within the Labour Party a campaign for the removal of the strikebreaking Callaghan-Healey leadership.

Such demands show workers in practice the stark contrast between the left talk of these Labour opportunists and their refusal to fight the right wing.

As such they point to the need for the building of a principled, revolutionary party in the working class, as fought for by the Workers Socialist

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President Carter has given Callaghan permission to sell Harrier jump jets to the People's Republic of Callaghan has been allowed to announce this from his jaunt in Guadaloupe.

This wil! please such peacelovers as Sir Frederick Bennett (Tory MP), Lords Chalfont and George-Brown (friends of the Shah of Iran) and Julian Amery who have set up a new club called the "Drunken Hare" pos defenders of capitalism. and should be answerable to and recallable by the workers:

"No functionary should have a wage higher than that of a simple worker ...

"Thus the expenses of office of the mandarins will disappear Daily recently called for an atmosphere in which the people dare to speak, criticise and debate:

'China's four modernisations must be accomplished by

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IMG and Unity PHOTO: Mark Rusher. IFL