Lesson of steel strike: NEW LEADERS NEEDED!

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Published by Folrose Ltd for the Workers Socialist League, BM Box 5277, London WCIV 6XX. Printed by Anvil Printers Ltd., London. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Workers Socialist League.

The sheer dimension of the sell-out moves by union officials in the steel industry and in British Leyland sum up the harsh political problems now faced by the British working class in the struggle against Thatcher's bosses' government.

Five years of TUC collaboration with wage-cutting Labour governments; five years of arguing that workers must sacrifice jobs, living standards and social services in order to restore the "viability" of British capitalism; five years of steadfast opposition to independent struggles by the working class, have driven the trade union bureaucracy even further to the right than any period since the war.

If any worker had seriously believed that those union leaders who refused to detend their members under a Labour government would suddenly begin to lead struggles against the Tories, the first nine months of Tory rule and the outcome of the longest national strike since 1926 should provide a bitter answer.

Opposed

The TUC leaders who once argued against action under the slogan "save the Labour government" are equally opposed to action against Thatcher. Their commitment is in no way to any notion of socialism, but to the negotiation of petty reforms and concessions within the framework of capitalism. In a period of world-wide capitalist recession and crisis, in which the drive for profits forces employers onto the offensive against the working class, this search for reforms within the system turns into an all out struggle to preserve the system itsell-and the government that defends it.

Sirs Could there be a clearer example of such behaviour than the steel strike? As soon as it began in January it became clear that in South Wales and other areas it was possible to extend and generalise the struggle beyond the wages issue to link up with the defence of jobs in the industry and the growing anti-Tory militancy within the working class as a whole.

„Yet the TUC leaders saw this not as an opportunity, but as a threat to their control of the membership, on which their own power and privileges rest.

So for 14 weeks they ensured that the strike remained isolated. They blocked growing demands for a General Strike to defeat the Tory offensive on pay and jobs; they connived at wholesale, massive scabbing on the strike by dockers, transport workers and others; and they allowed steel pickets to focus their energies on private steel plants and stockholders rather than on stopping production at the big engineering and automotive plants.

Yet as soon as a strike call by BL union negotiators offered a real chance of another section of workers joining the steel strike in struggle against the Tories, union leaders on all sides moved like greased lightning.

Renegade

A phony commission of inquiry, headed by millionaire Labourite Lord Lever, and staffed by print union leader Bill Keyes and renegade ex-Labour minister Richard Marsh was set up.

It offered a few pence more than BSC's 'final offer".

Meanwhile in BL TGWU leaders held back politely while the extreme right wing AUEW Executive knifed the strike call -declaring their confidence in Michael Edwardes and BL management not to "abuse" the 92-page package of anti-union strings to be imposed on the BL workforce.

It was, appropriately enough, on April Fool's Day that Bill Sirs took up the fight to force the Lever Commission's proposals through meetings of the ISTC negotiating committee and Executive.

Instruction

There were pockets of resistance in many areas. But the official instruction to return to work brought the ending of the steel strike.

Yet, as subsequent struggles on blacking of scab suppliers and on payment of back wages have shown, the steel strikers have returned not defeated and crushed but betrayed by a leadership that is incapable of defending their interests. dafandina thair interecte In BL, too, despite years of betrayals and every effort by union leaders to avoid strike action, the feeling on the shop floor against Edwardes' unionJoseph Not crushed: steel strikers busting moves has brought a resurgence of strike action from what appeared to be the ashes of a successful sell-out.

While workers remain determined to fight, there is the possibility of defeating the employers and the Tory government. But at the same time it is necessary to recognise the acute crisis of leadership that has weakened the struggles so far and stands as a threat for the future.

Repeated betrayals-though they may not actually crush the working class-can have a cumulative effect. They spread demoralisation, and open the door to actual defeats and setbacks.

The Tories have successfully sat out the steel strike: but they have yet to inflict the kind of historic defeat on the working class which they must achieve in order to establish the levels of exploitation they seek.