Jan 22: Come Out and Stay Out for the Full Claim!
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end up in The more branches that to form saying that he didn't expect to Callaghan come out on indefinite strike of action win the full claim "all in one full-scale go"-which means he is already RR SOLD OUT Published by Folrose Ltd for the Workers Socialist League, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London Throughout. the country, branch after branch of NUPE, COHSE, TGWU and GMWU is voting unanimously for a complete stoppage on the 22nd, and the demonstration in London promises to attract tens of thousands of workers.
As workers who provide essential services to the community in local councils the health service and education we have suffered a drastic fall in living standards over the last four years through successive rounds of pay policy.
But now that Fords and other sections have fought the pay policy and won, we can see the 5% limit at its weakest stage.
We can win This is why we all know, that our combined strength can win a decent wage: and smash through government pay restraint once and for all.
But this wave of militancy conceals many dangers and presents a clear choice to all serious trade unionists and militants in the public sector.
Is the 22nd going to be a token show of strength, a carnival day out in London with a few drinks and lots of rousing speeches?
Or is it to be the start of a determined programme of strike action to win the full claim for a £60 minimum basic wage and a 35 hour week?
Every worker who has observed developments during the firemen's strike and at Grunwicks knows that the Callaghan-Healey government can easily survive through a series of one-day stoppages and demonstrations.
Emotional speeches Along will come the usuai Labour MPs with emotional militant left wing speeches FUN Another good week for the fund with £132.50 arriving in the office in the last week to bring the total for January so far to £235.63.
However, the tendency is for the momentum to begin to wane as the month proceeds, so let's see if this month we can maintain the momentum and collect the full £600.
All donations should be sent to:
Socialist Press Monthly Fund 31, Dartmouth Park Hill London NW5 1HR RESTORE DI CUTS and SAVE JOBS BREAKth the which somehow never any real fight against or Healey.
But at the same time the government is preparing massive strike-breaking force of uniformed army scabs and "volunteers" to man ambulances, maintain services and phyiscally attack picket lines.
Token stoppages and half measures are not sufficient to break the resolve of the Callaghan-Healey government and the powers of the state.
We must make preparations now for an all-out strike of all sections beginning on the 22nd. rates of 1.8%.
This is a 5% offer which has the increase in overtime rates taken out of it.
•The 1,500 workers at Barnoldswick who have been on strike for eight weeks have now been ordered back to work; and the rest of the work-force who have been on an overtime ban in their support have been ordered to lift it.
The Executive has said decisive will be the victory.
committees Striking branches must combine to form local strike committees to organise picketing and raise money on a local basis.
These strike committees should fight for support from local Trades Councils, Labour Parties and every workers' organisation.
They must combine with striking lorry drivers, journalists that this is the "highest" increase that can be won in a firm that relies on government orders.
It is quite noticeable that there has been no press outcry at the decision of seven men to accept on behalf of 30,500.
This because the decision goes the bosses' way.
It goes along with the televised statements of John Boyd, the General Secretary of the AUEW, who said that all strikers should get back to work-no matter what their claims. and social workers independent councils in preparation for a general strike.
Moves along these lines are already being made in areas of London.
Those Labour MPs who claim to support us must be called upon to put their words into practice and lead a fight in the Labour Party to drive out the Callaghan-Healey leadership which is determined to smash our strike.
That way those are only pretending to support us can quickly be exposed.
Our own leaders
But the biggest danger to such a public sector strike lies in our own leadership. !
The Executive bodies of NUPE and the other three unions have been forced to call a Day of Action on the 22hd through fear of losing control over the membership.
Yet at this very moment when workers are responding to their call in enormous marches, they are preparing a historic sell out.
They have refused to make the 22nd an official national strike, and have made no preparations for action after the 22nd.
They are also refusing to pay more than the usual £6 strike pay to sections who remain on strike-despite the raising of levies and the much publicised injection of funds into the so-called "Low Pay Campaign".
The most ominous sign of betrayal came when Alan Fisher prepared to settle at the first offer above 5%.
All for 50p?
So, if he is allowed to succeed the whole strike could end up winning an increase of about £2 a week-only 50p more than the £1.50 already offered!
Make no mistake. The public sector union officials are already writing their future speeches blaming the failure of the strike, and the miserable settlement they have in mind, on us, the membership!
There is only one way for us to fight this treachery.
There must be all-out strike action on the 22nd with no return to work until the full claim is met!
Build local strike committees and councils of action!
The strike against low pay is a strike against the cuts, and a victory will be the turning point in the fight to maintain health and social services.
The role of Fisher and other top union bureaucrats in holding back this pay fight spells out more clearly than ever the need to build a principled socialist leadership in the public sector with policies to defend both the interests of the membership and the public services themselves, against the cuts and attacks carried out by the Labour See also: Cartoon, p.11 and Labour Party, p.5. More industrial news, page 11. strike call on the first day.
If that is true it suggests that the CGTP leaders may have called the strike off to avoid getting into a situation where the working class would be challenging the very life of the military dictatorship itself along with its nationalist allies of APRA.
It was the government which from a week before the strike recognised it as a question of life and death for its dictatorship.
The already practically mythical individual rights which remained were completely abolished.
Union leaders at all levels -possibly as many as 800were arrested in the days before the strike, including the CGTP General Secretary Gustavo Espinosa and the president of the Maoist-led parliamentary group, the UDP, as well as numerous local militants.
And the government brought its troops onto the streets and announced it would shoot down all demonstrators, in which category would almost certainly be included strike pickets.
Several deaths of workers and numerous injuries were reported on day one of the strike on January 11.
Toes stakes, Monstituent isations and Assembly" elections of last year showed that the politically and financially bankrupt military junta was close to collapse-that given decisive revolutionary leadership the mass movement could destroy it.
Last week's events make it clear at least that such revolutionary leadership has not yet been sufficiently built.
But the regime cannot draw much comfort from the events.
In its search of international loans it will be forced to go on introducing profoundly unpopular policies such as the sharp rise in the petrol price which nominally sparked off last week's general strike.
Within a few months it will face the choice of fulfilling its promise to give way to a democratically elected president or to reimpose a new military dictatorship which could be based on nothing but a bloodbath.
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Last Monday the AUEW accepted on behalf of their 30,500 members at Rolls Royce an increase on basic
By WSL Public Sector workers SOCIAL CONTRACT NURE action, the quicker and móre
appeared on television last week SE