Why Communist PartJ backs Evans' betrayal

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SOLIDARITY Evans (right) with CP leader Gordon McLennan behind his shoulder Jack At the very point when he has become most despised and hated by British Leyland workers for his pay-and-strings package, Moss Evans has fallen back on the support of his most devoted friends-the Stalinists of the Communist The CP has itself played a crucial role in the betrayal of BL workers in the face of the bosses' offensive. Party members hold senior positions in several BL plants-most notably the convenorship of the giant Longbridge complex.

The Stalinist alliance with Evans is therefore of far more than propaganda importance.

And it emerged into the open in the most brazen fashion:

The day after Evans' capitulation BL negotiator Horrocks the capitalist press was cock-a-hoop. The Daily Mail headlined it as a "Complete Surrender": • The Sun waxed ebstatic about "Mighty Mick" Edwardes.

The only contrary note was struck by the Stalinist daily Morning Star. As workers cursed Evans and .. the employers laughed all the way to the bank, the CP astoundingly proclaimed Evans' deal to be a victory!

Under the headline "Climbdown by Leyland on sack threat" • the Stalinist General Secretary of the Sheetmetal Workers union George Guy was quoted as saying:

'This is a trade union victory for the restoration of trade union rights of mutual 'agreement."

Saturday's Morning Star followed this up by attempting the thankless task of explaining away the fact that the whole capitalist class was exultant at Edwardes' victory.

Under the headline "They CAN be stopped!", , the Star declared:

"How the establishment "hates to admit when its beat."!

Describing Michael Edwardes riding into town as in a Western the article goes on:

"On Thursday night he slipped out quietly, his posse frightened off by the firm stand of the trade unions."

Such an account would be an amusing piece of fiction if the subject matter were not so deadly serious-the collaboration of union leaders in the dismantling of hard-won agreements throughout BL. ur r .-..

The Star proclaims that, despite the reports in the capitalist press, "Leyland was stopped by united action-something that Fleet Street could not bring itself to admit."

How did they escape these "facts"? The Star claims that the press ignored the following "key words" in Evans' sordid "Subject to such resumption of normal working the Company undertakes not to proceed with the action announced in the Statement to all employees ot BL Cars datea 10 ArI 190V, n.... J_e_ul 10 Anilanon and to restore all entitlements."

But this is no change from the 16 April statement-which always declared that the sacking threat only applied to those workers who did not resume normal working by April 23.

The clause quoted by the Morning Star proves only that the company did not withdraw this threat: they only reworded But why has the CP engaged in such desperate lies-in each case a front page lead articleto cover up for Evans' sell-out?

The fact is that on the following Monday: BL Senior Stewards, including several prominent Stalinists, were to meet and decide what position to take on Evans' sell-out: whether to recommend a return to work or an all-out fight against the company.

Not mentioned The Morning Star significantly does not even mention the latter possibility. The CP had no intention of fighting for such action.

If BL workers had stayed out it would have piled pressure on CP convenors in plants not on strike, and exposed Evans still further in the eyes of the workforce.

By extending the fight in defence of trade unionism in BL they would create conditions to bring out other plants.

Yet the CP has consistently opposed such a perspective. At the convenors meeting on April 2, Jack Adams, Derek Robinson's Stalinist replacement at Longbridge, announced that he was telling his members to comply with Edwardes' ultimatum and clock in on April 8-no matter what any other plant was doing!

This was music to the ears of Evans and the TGWU leadership. They wanted to posture as standing to the left of Duffy and the extreme right wing AUEW leadership-while at the same time avoiding any real fight!

Limited

By leaving the decision on whether or not to take a stand against Edwardes up to individual plants, and simply offering support for those that came out on strike, they hoped that the action would be limited and peter out.

Keeping Longbridge at work was vital in creating this hoped-for demoralisation.

But the plan mistired. Isolated action at Jaguar and at the Sherpa Plant at Common Lane spread to Rover and other plants. Soon 18,000 were out, with a mass meeting planned for the Cowley Assembly plant on the Monday.

Most of these strikes broke out when the company took steps to enforce the 92 page document of strings. The only plant where this document was enforced without strike action was Longbridge-where workers" on the Mini were laid off without pay.

In reality there was a growing mood for action throughout BL, which grew enormously following the sacking threat made on the Wednesday. What was the CP response to this actual "unity in action" in Leyland?

They relegated all news of the developing strikes to smail reports, without comment, in the Morning Star.

'And as calls for all-out action grew in Longbridge, Adams put the same position as the right wing leadership in another vital plant, the Cowley Body Plant.

Mass meetings

They argued against mass day and Thursday, they told sections who wanted to strike to hold their fire-since Moss Evans was "about to call us all out anyway"

From that point on leading Stalinists such as George Guy began to argue in favour of the sell-out, since they recognised that the only alternative was an all-out battle with BL management. • Like Evans, the Stalinists realise the company is on the brink of bankruptcy.;

And, like Evans, the reformist politics of the Communist Party's British Road to Socialism offers only one way out of such a dilemma-concessions on the part of the working class to enable the capitalist class to make BL "viable" and profit-

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cynical sell-out of their struggle against Edwardes'