Poly sit-in snubs unions

Scan page 11

Within hours of the High Court issuing a temporary injunction against the NGA for blacking advertisers who use the Nottingham Evening Post, the NGA general secretary, Joe Wade, was sending desperate telegrammes to his members throughout the country instructing them to call off their action.

The injunction is clearly a prelude to a permanent ban on what is being called 'secondary blacking' and is the latest example in a series of decisions from the High Court and Court of Appeal aimed at drastically curbing the right to take industrial action in support workers.

It is therefore vital 1 hat this action is challenged-by keeping the blacking on.

Recognition

Blacking was ordered as part of an NGA/SLADE campaign for union recognition rights at the Nottingham Evening Post. The campaign was also being linked to the sacking there of 28 journalists for taking part in the provincial journalists' seven week pay strike.

The blacking first took place on national newspapers and the Newspaper Publishers Association immediately reached for its lawyers.

Then the provincial newspapers-which is the logical Provincial newspaper joined the court action the NGA.

Without such blacking action, backed up by NUJ strike action, the jobs of the 28 journalists at Nottingham are sunk, and the chances of union recognition for any of the print unions are non existent.

For years the print union leaderships have held back from taking any action against the T. Bailey Foreman management.

Now their first shots. have hardly been fired when they are retreating from the battle field on the orders of a capitalist judge.

If this ruling is not challenged by the trade union movement by the only method that counts-defying the courtthen rights to black or strike in support of other workers will quickly be removed.

Strike

Any attempt to sequester PHOTO: Laurie Sparham, IFL.

As. the countdown to slosure ticks relentlessly on, The vote at last week's student union meeting at North East London Polytechnic to continue the occupation in protest against overseas students quotas is an indication of the strength of feeling amongst students on that issue.

But the way the occupation has been fought for and the hostility it has provoked among other unions show all the problems of SWP politics.

All the Poly unions are pledged to oppose quotas, which are intended to reduce overseas students numbers to 1975/6 levels...

Last year when a student occupation produced a violent backlash among other Poly trade unionists, apjoint union procedure for occupations was agreed on.

This said that students must give 24 hours notice of an occupation and consult other unions on its organisation.

This would mean strategic parts of the administration would be occupied with minimum disruption to NALGO members and: that proper cleaning up would be organised to avoid an extra workload for GMWU members.

This year, the Socialist Worker Student Society, the driving force behind the occupation, completely flouted the joint union agreement. NALGO members were so angry that they asked the Director to close the whole precinct.

SWP members say the 24 hour agreement was only ever intended by NALGO as a means of destroying any occupation.

They deny the sincerity of the NALGO secretary's assurances in the Joint Union Liaison Committee that agreement for an occupation of, for instance, assistant directors offices" would have been possible, that this could have been reached in much less than 24 hours and that the management need not have been given forewarning of which offices were to be occupied.

This arbitrary decision to ignore 5 agreed upon procedure and the refusal to fight the issues at the level of union leadership, in order to test out leaders in their members' eyes is typical of the SWP.

It has resulted in an inter-union dispute which plays directly into the hands of management and in which the issue of quotas gets lost from view.

It is extremely important that the campaigns continue and that they. expose' the way in which Labour politicians are using outright racist policies to effect cuts in higher education:

A THREATENING LETTER? VOTE WHAT'Y THAT ARTHURYES!!

OFISHALL MORE BLOODY LEFTIES WANTING ME TO KICK OUT ROY MASON AS OUR MP.

(1KNOW-PLL.JUST SIGN THEIR PETION. THATLL KEEP EVERYAPY HAPPY!!