Garners sell out: proves officials cannot win rights

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Time and again Garners strikers lobbied Region 1 demanding sunnort This week-end trade union delegates and observers will attend the London Conference called by the Garners Strike Committee.

The strike-betrayed and knifed by the bureaucracy of TGWU Region 1 (see last week's Socialist Press)-should be studied by every worker facing the prospect of struggle for the defence and extension of union rights.

The record and lessons are clear.

When the Garners workers struck in January 1978 against Garners' boss Margolis, they were well aware of the gamble.

Immediate sacking came as no surprise. The battle would be for reinstatement as well as recognition.

Hardship

But from the beginning their readiness to suffer hardship financially and on the picket lines stood in stark contrast to their official leaders' desire to be rid of a potentially serious struggle-while the Grunwick strike stilt continued-under their beloved Labour government.

By March the TGWU Record could report a treacherous offer to Margolis from the union "for members to return to work on the basis of reinstatement, no victimisation and acceptance of the right of ACAS to carry out a normal enquiry."

Drawing upon the lessons of bureaucratic betrayal at Grunwick, Desoutter, Trust House Forte and elsewhere, Socialist Press never ceased to warn the strikers and their supporters about the nature of their leadership.

Week by week each new turn was carefully followed by members of the WSL fighting consistently on the picket lines and throughout the labour movement, particularly in London.

Corruption

The Garners strike was not merely 'another small strike' but another key stage in the defence of union rights, and an 'exampie of the utter corruption of a bureaucracy-now incapable of leading a struggle to build the organisation upon which it depends for its comfortable existence..

It was largely due to this principled struggle, which found UNION DUES a real response among members of the Strike Committee, that a host of fake 'lefts' proved incapable of getting their hands on the struggle and ensuring an early end to the dispute.

Jack Dromey, still able to play on his ill deserved reputation at Grunwick, appeared in the early days of the strike-and left!

Quick retreat.

Brian Nicholson, TGWU Executive member, was able to parade with empty promises of 'six hundred dockers' on the picket line-but quickly retreated in face of the demand that he translate his speeches into action.

The Garners strike showed clearly where people stood. At countless lobbies and at several demonstrations the Region 1 bureaucrats were faced with the basic demands of the Strike Committee for the TGWU to* mobilise the picketing, finance and blacking necessary to win the struggle. Time and time again they refused.

The high point of the bureaucratic betrayal can perhaps best be understood by recalling the main developments over the period of summer 1978 —in many ways a turning point for the strike. WE'VE WON OUT AT GARNERS!.

AND JUST IN TIME FOR OUR B.D.C!

AND WHILE LES HERE KEPT NEARLY ALL OUR 500,000 MEMBERS AWAY.

Support was never stronger than during this period, with powerful: picket lines on the main Garners establishments.

It has been revealed that during that time the employer, Cyril Margolis, made approaches to the union offering to take back 13 of the strikers and give £8,000 to the remainder.

At a time when such a concession clearly reflected the paralysis and weakness of the boss, and the strikers rejected the offer out of hand, ready to press on to victory, the bureaucrats not only recommended acceptance but delayed for months before sanctioning a Strike Committee call for a labour movement demonstration in London.

Hope for employer

It is no surprise that from that point onwards the employer was able to regain some confidence and hope for defeat of the strike.

With the Biennial Delegate Conference of the TGWU coming. up in July-with a platitudinous resolution on unionising the catering industry on the agenda (Moss Evans having personally ruled out an amendment on Garners)-the lessons of the strike must be taken into the whole of the ...THEY KEPT GOING EVEN WHEN SID AGREED TO ¡ POLICE LIMITS OF SIX PICKETS PER RESTAURANT22.10 11 union and the traitors account.

Particular attention must be paid to the role of the Stalinists of the Communist Party whose members and supporters in the union officialdom have played a key role in the betrayal of this strike-particularly Sid Staden, the Region 1 Secretary and Les Shorter, who, in the last Garners conference in June 1978, drew the hatred of the audience by openly attacking the Strike Committee's call for mass pickets to close Garners and provide protection against police harassment.

The conclusion from any serious study of the Garners strike must be clear-especially when seen in the context of the continuing marathon struggles for recognition in the TGWU at Sandersons Forklifts in Skegness and the Economist bookshop in London.

An all-out struggle must be waged against the treachery of the TGWU bureaucracy and the struggle taken up for a leadership prepared to challenge the law of the ruling class on picketing and blacking in industrial disputes.

*A full report of Saturday's Garners Conference will appear in next week's Socialist Press.

IT'S TAKEN US 17 MONTA.. 5, ITS BEEN HARD...

LAN TAKEN WITHONIH• WE'VE DONE WHAT!

BUT WEVE WON THROUGH!

MAJORITY OF STRIKERS

TO CALL IT OFF!

HOORAY!! MUSTORANISE CHELENE END SCAB VIOLENCE REGION 1 PICKETS NOW!

The bureaucracy of the London Region of the FBU are attempting to kill any vestiges of democracy in the union.

This follows their acceptance of massive cuts in the fire service (a withdrawal of 45-50 fire fighting appliances in the London area alone) as strings attached to the implementation of the 42 hour week.

About twenty firemen responded in an unofficial circular calling for a meeting to discuss problems and developments in the fire service.

This open forum held at Brixton on May 9 was considered a useful exchange for issues difficult to discuss within the usual FBU framework.

However, last week, those in attendance began to receive letters from. the London Region's Treasurer announcing a Committee of Inquiry seeking details of this meeting, and instructing recipients to attend a Committee of Inquiry meeting at an unspecified time in the future, where they will no doubt be forced to defend themselves against unspecified charges.

Firemen must defend their right to meet and discuss anywhere they choose, by refusing to cooperate with this bureaucratic witch-hunt which can only serve the purposes of management.

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Ofeball AT THE TOP. WE DID IT!!