Fighting Tory Attacks in

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jobs and wages With the official government figures showing 241,267 unemployed in Scotland (10.7%) pressure is mounting in the Labour Party Scottish Executive and • the Scottish Trades Union Congress to give some leadership in the fight against the Tory government.

The Labour Party are to hold a conference on the cuts on October 18 for delegates from local authority Labour Groups and from CLPs.

•The Labour Party hold a large majority of the Parliamentary seats in Scotland, controlling the main Regional Councils in industrial Central Scotland.

They swept the board in the last District Council elections.

The question which should be posed on October 18 is how to unite these forces in a campaign of no cuts, no rent rises, and no rates rises in. defiance of the Tory government.

However the choice being posed is between policies of cuts-albeit slower than the wants-which Strathclyde Regional Council and Central Regional Council If 340 deep sea dockers in Belfast are now entering their fifth week on strike.

In September 1978 members of the same workforce staged a major strike against the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

The strike ' occured when three members of the ITGWU were detained under this reactionary law when travelling to England on a routine training course.

Cleared Their names had previously been cleared with the RUC by the union.

Following the detention of the dockers the strikers marched through the centre of Belfast demanding their release.

While two were released, the third, Paddy Kelly, an exinternee, was still detained.

This inspired the dockers to more militant action-for two hours they laid seige to Stormont Castle-the former home of the unionist government and now British imperialism's headquarters in the six counties.

They blocked the entrance to the Belfast Harbour and sealed off roads to the city.

The militancy and strength of the dockers is again reflected in this current strike.

The strike began at a time of an upsurge of militancy among Catholic working class youth manifested in fierce rioting and attacks on the British army and the RUC.

Demands The two principal demands of the dockers are for a £25 per day basic wage and against a return to the system of casual dock labour.

With the announcement on August 11 of the bankruptcy of the workers employing are carrying out; and the 'lett' policy of "no cuts but put up the rates" as advocated by Dundee District, Stirling District and Lothian Regional Councils. Sitting on the sidelines are the Scottish National Party with Jim Sillars and the 79 Group within them.

The 19 Group argue tor a more positive SNP intervention on the question of unemployment and the cuts.

Inability

They want to campaign on Labour's inability to defend the Scottish people against the Tories and argue that therefore what is needed is self government.

The SNP after a massive growth were discredited in practice but still maintain a 20% share of the electorate.

If the labour movement fail to. solve their problems of leadership, fail to tackle the Tory government, then the bourgeois SNP party threaten to make a comeback.

The Tory party continue to push forward with their attacks on the working class. They are insisting that council house rents must double over the next three years or they will cut local agency-The Dockers' Employers' Pay Organisation (DEPO)-dockers faced the end of a guaranteed weekly wage and a return to the cattlemarket system of casual labour.

Daily queue

This would involve the dockers having to queue up each day to be viewed by the stevedores who could then choose who they would allow to work that day.

DEPO was formed by seven major Irish grain importers (many of whom have multi-million pound turnovers).

The agency employed the dockers, allocated them to particular jobs and then charged the shipping companies.

While the dockers were paid any money earned in excess of a basic daily wage of £17.20 this, after DEPO had extracted its share, was set aside to pay authority support housing grants.

The Labour controlled local authorities have only two options: bow to the Tories and carry out their policies or unite and fight.

The General Council of the STUC have announced they will be organising an all-Scottish conference on unemployment in December to discuss ways of "easing the disastrous situation"

Going by past experience this probably means the broadest fronts with Tory controlled local authorities and the SNP being invited.

If this proves the case, the STUC will not mobilise the Scottish trade union movement against the Tories but will instead diffuse any opposition which is building up into a talking shop.

Wasted energy

Past conferences of this nature have led to delegates wasting energy on bickering with the Tories and SNP rather than hammering out a plan of action for the labour movement.

There are some signs that the grass roots of the movement are not willing to wait for a lead ck DOCK STRIKE the dockers at times when there was no work.

Guaranteed wage

Through this scheme they were guaranteed a weekly wage of £86 per week.

The collapse of DEPO occurred after the bosses had been trying to push through 100 voluntary redundancies.

Even if these redundancies are pushed through there is no guarantee that the remainder of the workforce will get enough work to sustain their weekly basic wage.

Before the strike the dockers were reduced to two days work per week, which if it were to be continued after a return to work and in the absence of DEPO would reduce the dockers weekly take home pay to £34.40.

return to the casual system of dock labour which ISTOR TO which might not come.

Following on from the recent meetings of the Labour Coordinating Committee in Stirling and the Rank and File Mobilising Committee in Edinburgh there has been the Cuts Conference in Glasgow and Cumbernauld Trades Council have called a demonstration through the town against unemployment on Saturday 20 September.

In the Central Region a Scottish workers on a march agains!

was abolished in 1972 threatens all the gains made by the workers.

The deep sea dockers have traditionally been a majority Catholic workforce, and if the bosses were allowed to pick and choose on a daily basis, opportunities for discriminating against Catholic workers would obviously increase.

The threat of religious discrimination is increased by the current increases in lay offs and redundancies among Protestant workers.

Unemployment This is a very serious threat with the current rate of unemployment among Catholic workers being 23.3% as opposed to 9.35% among the Protestant working class.

Although dockers in Derry, Larne, Carrickfergus and Warrenpoint are blacking cargo normally handled by the Belfast ference on unemployment has been arranged in Falkirk.

As of yet there has been no major successful struggle against the Tory government but the signs of opposition äre growing.

The Falkirk Conference against unemployment on Sunday 12 October has been organised by the Central Region Federation of Trades Councils at the request of the Grangemouth Area District Committee SUPPORT OFFICIAL DOCK STRIKE of the TGWU.

The intention is to give the Labour and trade union movement in the Central "Region some perspectives for mounting a fight against the Tory government and the rising tide of unemployment.

The conference is being arranged around a programme of action which has the following headings:

*Organise the unemployed.

*United action to fight redundancies.

*No cuts in local services.

*To defend living standards.

*Companies to open their books when in trouble.

*Fightback against redundancies.

*Work sharing, abolish overtime, and re-training.

*An alternative economic programme for the labour movement.

Major With the support of the Federation of Trades Councils attempting to pull in the other unions and the Labour Party branches, the Conference lays the basis in one area at least for united action against the Tories.

However the real test will be whether a united fight can be organised in the factories and workplaces where redundancies are being announced and in the Labour-controlled local authorities in the Region.

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COUNCI -BEANCH

TGWU, which is the major union in the area, and with the