To Bring Down the Tories!

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The final year of the Labour government's life was marked by a series of tenacious pay strikes in which the political thrust became increasingly apparent. The public sector strikes, though led to defeat by the cowardice and perfidy of the union leaderships, were a damaging blow to a government which had only one claim to govern-that it was capable of reducing class conflict.

The lorry drivers' strike took a high form of class struggle. Picket lines and strike committees brought the movement of supplies under their control, and in many cases broke free of the chains of the bureaucracy. It brought fury to the capitalist class and the forces of the state to see employers lining up in front of strike committees and asking for permission to move supplies.

These strikes underlined the truth of the WSL perspective, which we hart to refend anainet against a variety of political forces. This was that the working class will fight courageously when it sees its material interests at risk, and that these struggles can rapidly take a high level of struggle.

Yet the effect of these struggles was to shift the labour bureaucracy to the right. The Callaghan/Healey government grew increasingly intransigent as its claim to be better placed to ram cuts in' living standards down the throats of the working class grew increasingly hollow. The lefts, though vociferous against the five per cent limit, shunned action which could threaten the government.

PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report