Follow haulage drivers FINISH OFF CALLAGHANI

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IMG moves to discuss history First wave on the high tide of wages struggle-the Ford strike The Callaghan-Healey leadership of the Labour Party now hangs like a dead albatross round the neck of the workers' movement.

Its policies are contemptuously thrown aside by millions of workers now in struggle over pay; hopelessly discredited among the 1½ million workers and youth on the dole; and rejected by both TUC and Labour Party conferences.

If not overthrown, these policies will pave the way to a certain defeat for the Labour Party in the coming General Election and the return of a Thatcher government which is already threatening vicious attacks on trade union rights.

Closeted

Yet on Monday, while 70,000 lorry drivers dug in for their third week of strike action, 1½ million public sector workers stopped work, and a massive 60,000-strong demon -stration formed up to march on the Houses of Parliament demanding an end to poverty wages in the public sector, TUC leaders were to be found closeted once more with Callaghan.

The talks that took place, however, point more to the wretchedness of the TUC leaders than to any possible salvage operation to restore the authority of this government.

The succession of retreats and defeats it has suffered on the imposition of Phase 4 has escalated rapidly.

Collapsed

Last week alone, in a desperate effort to head off the growing militancy of the public sector workers, and to ease the way for a settlement of the road haulage strike, the government collapsed on three major fronts:

*Callaghan declared that the 5% limit would be waived in the case of low paid workers on less than £70 per week-and replaced by a f3.50 (8%) minimum increase.

*As this concession failed, the National Water Council offered water workers a 14% pay deal.

*And, as industry began to grind to a halt, Prices Secretary Hattersley conceded that Road Hauliers Association employers would not be penalised for paying the full TGWU claim to the striking drivers.

But these concessions have not stemmed the flood of wages militancy-and millions move workers are waiting on the outcome of the present struggles before their claims fall due.

Nor can the TUC leaders feel confident that they can control this growing movement.

Whether it be the unofficial tanker drivers' strike, the emergence of powerful unofficial strike committees in the lorry drivers' strike, the unofficial walk-out by Manchester water workers, or the refusal of ambulance crews to man a free emergency service for hospital management, again and again the working class is showing its independent strength and tending to brush aside those official "leaders" that try to stand in its way.

Tory support

This situation frightens the wits out of the Tories. The last thing Thatcher's reactionary crew of NAFF-style union busters wish to confront is a tidal wave of working class militancy on their election to office.

This is why Thatcher, for all her rabble-rousing, has steered well clear of any calls on Callaghan to resign-instead offering full Tory support for any anti-union legislation introduced by Labour's scab cabinet, while the Tory press and mass media bulge to bursting point with hysterical anti-union propaganda designed to whip the middle class into a frenzy.

As sections of public sector workers continue to clamour for all-out indefinite strike action for their £60/35 hour week claim (in place of Fisher's bankrupt plan for "selective" regional stoppages) the battle lines are drawn for major induştrial and political battles.

Conference

The Callaghan cabinet has time and again clearly shown itself to stand on the employers side of the barricades.

In fighting now to destroy the remnants of Phase 4, and win a decent standard of living, public sector workers and every section of the trade union movement must demand that trade union leaders and left-wing' Labour MPs launch an immediate campaign for the removal of the Callaghan-Healey leadership.

An Emergency Labour Party Conference must be convened to dispose of these right wing traitors and adopt a programme of socialist policies on which to fight the General Election.

Power

But there should be reliance on the willingness such reluctant leaders to fight.

The haulage drivers' strike has already demonstrated beyond doubt the power of the working class to conduct its own struggles: the emergence of local strike committees which have controlled the passage of only selected supplies through "TOO"" picket lines points the way forward for other sections of workers in struggle.

Any attempt by union officials to wind up or bureaucratically control these committees must be rejected; and in fighting for all-out action on their pay claim, public sector workers must also elect committees to control the provision of emergency cover-subject to the condition that troops are kept out of this dispute.

These strike committees should also take the initiative to invite delegates from local stewards committees, union branches and working class political parties to join with them in forming councils of action to organise mass picketing and the supervision of emergency services and supplies.

Those 'left' Labour MPs who claim to oppose Callaghan must be called upon by strikers and trade unionists to assist the fight for such councils of action, and to take up the demands raised by them.

Those 'lefts' that refuse to take up such a fight effectively line up in support of Callaghan, and must bear equal responsibility for opening the door to the return of a Tory government.

The crying need in this situation is for the construction of a principled, revolutionary leadership in the working classa task the Workers Socialist League has set itself. Teamster gangster leaders CACTL under attack. ... •pp.6-7

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PHOTO: Carlos Augustino IFL TRT