Teachers strike to stop school sale St George's work-in shows the way

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On Thursday 24 January the whole, manual staff at the heating and air conditioning firm of F.H. Biddles Ltd., Nuneaton walked out on indefinite strike in support of a 25% pay claim.

This followed protracted negotiations over a three month period, during which the same 15½% offer was put three times to mass meetings-and rejected. • A management attempt to ballot the workforce failed when, in spite of a recommendation from the shop stewards committee, the workforce showed their contempt for the offer by tearing up their ballot slips.

The company, without any agreement, implemented their offer from the review date, 1 January.

An external conference on Wednesday failed to move the company.

At the following mass meeting Bro. Roy. Howells, TGWU District Officer again put the same offer.

When this again resulted in an overwhelming rejection he urged a seven-day. "cooling off period" • and another mass meeting tó allow the company to think about it.

When it was pointed out from the floor that the firm had already had three months to think about it, the meeting voted by 86 to 9 to reject the Official's advice and strike from four o'clock that afternoon.

The other Nuneaton factory at Tuttle Hill have followed the main works and joined the strike.

Six issues.....

One year (50 issues) ..

EUROPE ted by because the new hospital in Tooting is opening on Monday January 28.

The occupation at St. George's must be seen • as a rallying point for the fight against hospital closures in the London area.

Follawing on from St. Benedict's, St. George's is the second hospital to be occupied against closure in the recent period.

As the savage Tory cash limits are translated into cuts, the list of closures and ambulance branches in pledging to continue to bring patients to the casualty department if it is occupied.

Despite the opposition, Camden and Islington AHA are determined to go ahead with the closure and have so far brushed aside a compromise proposal of keeping the casualty open during weekdays only.

The main danger facing these occupations is isolation. No matter how strong is the local organisation, St. George's and The answer to such isolation lies in the hands of the public sector trade union leadership.

The recent inactivity of NUPE-especially the London Division-is nothing short of treacherous.

Militants in all threatened hospitals must begin the fight to force the trade union leadership to prepare a programme of national strike action alongside the steelworkers to reverse all public spending cuts. Please 9 of the Loague. Name.

Address.

Sond. mouth NW5 1 "no-cover" action has been in force for some time, and the borough wide strike on January 22 was widely followed.

The local NUSS backed up the teachers' stand, leafleting a number of schools calling for support to the strike and the mass meeting, and nailing the blame firmly on the Tory government's £380 million cuts in education spending. • Indeed it was NUSS speaker Neil James who offered the only perspective for a fight to the meeting.

His speech followed on a With workers by the thousand taking to the streets to oppose Tory policies there is plainly no lack of militancy in the organised working class.

Yet the existing trade union bureaucrats and Labour leaders -whether right or 'eft'-have no perspactive to offer thosa workers prepared to fight in defence of jobs, living stan. dards, social servicas and demo. cratic rights.

These can onty-be defended through policies which start from the independent interosts of the working class, which, as an international class, has nothing, to gain and everythict to lose from attempts to restore the profitability of their "Orn" omploying class.

In a period where the contra. dictions of the anarchic. capital. ist system force the wholesale closure and destruction of the productive forces of socioty, only a socialist planned aconamy on a world scale offers a way forward.

To achieve such To schiave such o porspec. tino a leadership is raedad me t arker to: WSL nk Hi HI R Union's conference.

*2,000 redundancios amongst school ancillary staff and teachers are threatened by Leicestershire County Council's decision to axe the education budget by £6 million.

*In Dundee 1,500 teachers staged a one-day strike in protest against aducation cuts which have axed 100 teaching jobs.

"Teachers in Trafford, Man. chester are to undertake a programme of selective strikes to provent a cuts package costing • 90 jobs.

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