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ch a perspec- Socialist Press to seek more P Is needed details of the WSL and its work, itruooles fiahts and to join us in the struggle for 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 'left'--have no perspective to offer those workers prepared to fight in defence of jobs, living standards, social services and democratic rights.

These can only be defended through policies which start from the independent interests of the working class, which, as an international class, has nothing to gain and everything to lose from attempts to restore the profitability of their "own" employing class.

in a period where the contradictions of the anarchic capitalist system force the wholesale and dostration of the forces of society, socialist planned On Monday October 20 the workers at Ayrshire Marine Constructors at Hunterston were starved back to work after eight weeks on strike.

At the meeting in Greenock James Murray, Secretary-Elect of the Boilermakers Society, managed to persuade the workforce by a 145-105 vote to return to work under the most iniquitous conditions, including the following:

1) a reduction in the labour force from 900 to 600 with everyone having to reapply for their jobs.

2) the original agreement on working conditions to remain in force until August when it can be renegotiated 3) sub-contractors to be allowed on to the site whenever the management so desire, thus weakening the possibilities for permanent trade union organisation 4) no back payments for those workers who were involved in the initial cause of the dispute, the unsafe working conditions in the yard 5) procedure to be adhered to at all times and, if anyone breaks this, they face the threat of immediate dismissal.

Murray blustered and threatened throughout the meeting, revealing at one point that even if the meeting did not go his way, he would allow the gates to be opened and scab labour to be employed.

This tenacious struggie carried on by the workers and their stewards should not be underestimated. They were not so much stabbed in the back as repeatedly stabbed in the chest by • the leadership of the trade union movement, especially the General Council of the STUC and the Executive of the Boilermakers Society. economy on a world scale offers a way forward.

To achieve such a perspective a leadership is needed which, in today's struggles fights to advance workers beyond trade union militancy, protest politics and illusions that capitalism can be abolished through parliament.

The Workers Socialist League is a Trotskyist move. ment fighting day in and day out to build such a principled leadership in the working class in Britain.

Internationally, we are affiliated to the newly-formed Trotskyist International Liaison Committee, which fights for the reconstruction of the Fourth International and the building of revolutionary parties in every country to lead the struggle against imperialism and against the parasitic Stalinist bureaucracies in the deformed and Throughout those eight weeks the stewards fought to broaden the basis of support and to compel the trade union leadership to back them. Up to the end of the strike support from trades councils, factories and other working class organisations was pouring into the strike headquarters.

It was the fear of this momentum behind the Hunterston men, fear of it becoming the focus of a real struggle against unemployment that led Milne and the leadership of the STUC, Lambie, the local Labour MP and Murray and the right wing in the Boilermakers Society into their strike breaking stance.

Lobby

When the union's annual conference met at Rothesay the week before the strike ended, 40 of the workers involved mobilised in a lobby of the conference demanding that their struggle be given official sanction.

Pressure from delegates inside the conference also mounted for a discussion on the issue, but the leadership managed to evade the question by the specious argument that a national conference could not give official backing for a "local" dispute.

The stewards who led the fight are determined that the matter shall not rest there. They intend to carry on the fight for their jobs and to take the lessons of the campaign into the trade union and labour movement.

Despite the defeat suffered last Monday, the struggle at Hunterston may yet provide the springboard for the building of a principled socialist leadership in the Boilermakers Society.

Hunterston should also be a •Id scale offers degenerated workers' states. degenerated workers We invite all readers of We invite all Socialist Press to details of the WSL a and to join us in the socialism.

Please send me more details of the Workers Socialist League.

Name . I Address Send to WSL: BM Box 5277, London WC1N 3XX central issue at the projected conference on unemployment in Ayrshire.

The closure of the ICI works at Ardeer with the loss of 750 jobs and the debacle at the Stonefield factory at Cumnock must also be on the agenda of any such conference.

The programme decided upon at the recent Falkirk conférence on unemployment, and reprinted in Socialist Press 220 provides the basis for a discussion on how to unite the labour and trade union movement in a fightback.

*Since the above report was written, we have received news that the Hunterston shop stewards are to call a rally for all shop stewards in the West of Scotland on Monday 17 November in Partick Burgh Hall at 10 am.

They intend to carry out an extensive campaign to make this a major step forward in the struggle. We urge all class conscious workers to make this a success.

The meeting has been given the support of the Clydeside Advisory Committee which consists of representatives from shipbuilding yards and engineering factories.

LIAISON COMMITTEE DISCUSSION BULLETIN No. 2 Price 40p plus 15p p&p from WSL, BM Box 5277, London WCIN 3XX