Workers Socialist League

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

All Out Strike

Socialist Press no. 136, 7 February 1979 · scan p. 1 · about 752 words

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(WHAT.!! IN ELECTION YEAR?. THATS AGAINST witnout causing turther massive manitesto tor the 19/9 General cutbacks in service, it is neces- Election, planks of government economic have to be based on mobilising policy: wage control and public the working class to carry The longer public sector union bureaucrats succeed in restricting the struggle for the £60/35 hour week claim to a series of "selective" and "sectional" strikes, the greater the danger that the potential strength of this pay struggle will be dissipated.

That is the clear message from a week in which manual workers in local authorities and the health service have time and again shown their willingness to respond to a call for all-out action.

Defying propaganda Defying a torrent of vicious anti-union propaganda in the press and. mass media, tens of thousands of public sector workers have stepped up their action and pressed their leaders to call an all out indefinite stoppage.

But NUPE and other leaders have instead strained every muscle to restrict strikes to divisive sectional stoppages.

Even where their own feeble plan of selective action has been met by management victimisations-as at London's Westminster Hospital-NUPE leaders. have moved in not to strengthen but to call off strikes in defence of those suspended and divert the case to ACAS.

Yet despite this sabotage the strength of the public sector workers is unmistakeable. It prompted Callaghan on the weekend to admit the total collapse of government pay policy when he conceded that pay settlements could go as high as 10%.

Cuts in service

But this is far short of the £60 claim. If that is to be won sary to confront two central PHOTO: Chris Davies, Report spending cuts.

Indeed the fact that public sector workers have been forced to shoulder the burden of speed-up and job loss in cuts so far is a major factor in their present militant pay battle.

Kick out Callaghan

To win such a callagnan-Healey leadership, NATI who have set out from the outset to boost the profits of private employers through their attacks on workers living standards, must be removed from office.

Those 'left' MPs and union leaders who pose as opponents of the Labour government's anti-working class policies must be forced to take a public stand for or against an active campaign to kick out Callaghan and Healey, and to adopt a socialist 4A9A Such a programme would Fisher through the nationalisation of major industry without compensation under workers' management and the establishment of a planned socialist economy.

But it is clear that at present none of the existing leaders of the labour movement have any stomach for such a confrontation.

Stony silence

Fisher, Spanswick, Basnett and Evans are holding back their membership, hoping desperately for some compromise formula to get them off the hook, while the Tribune group of MPs maintain a stony silence even on Callaghan's most brazen strikebreaking speeches.

But among public sector workers there is the determination and the power to. carry through an all-out struggle for the full claim.

Sections of London dust men last week began indefinite strike action and elected strike committees to spread the action throughout their areas.

These strike committees must meet together to discuss a common fight against the sabotage of union officials and common plans to mobilise the membership who have not been called out.

All-out strikes, combined with emergency cover under the control of strike committees (on condition that no scabbing is organised by the employers) must be fought for in every area.

Councils of action

Public sector workers must call on local union branches, stewards committees and workers' political organisations to send delegates to local councils of action in order to strengthen, spread, and organise the strikes and the picketing.

Within these councils of action revolutionaries will fight for the programme necessary to win and defend the basic interests of the working class, and for those demands which can reveal the real nature of workers' existing leadership:

*E60 minimum for a 35 hour week. Defend wages against inflation through cost of living clauses.

*No to the cuts! For a sliding scale of public expenditure.

*Demand a recall Labour Party conference! Remove the Callaghan-Healey cabinet! For a socialist manifesto!

The Iris Mail Train Hounslow Hospital.

Political Revolution:

H Block propaganda Y TED • HEATH 1970 74.

WHY DONT YOU BURY HIM?

HE'S A HEALTH HAZARD!

TIN Who can OUR CODE OF CONDUCT!!! •pp.6-7

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← Contents of Socialist Press no. 136, 7 February 1979