[1,500 workers at the ICL computer factory at…]

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1,500 workers at the ICL computer factory at Winsford in Cheshire did not wait long before giving their response to the company's plan to close it down.

The closure was announced last Friday. The following Monday, atter a discussion on the plant's Joint Union Committee, shop stewards voted … to occupy the plant for two days to show their determination to They marched to the management offices and asked them to leave the plant-which Stewards then broadcast over the Tannoy system-to a no-doubt surprised workforce -that the factory was occupied.

The decision for a two-day occupation had not arisen without debate: some stewards had strongly argued the case for an immediate all-out occupation to Others had favoured more traditional forms of protest-the kind of gestures that have seen factories closed down by the dozen throughout the North West and industrial Britain.

The advocates of an indefinite occupation: had also pressed for this proposal to be put by the Joint Negotiating Committee to a mass meeting of the plant worktorce the next day, in order fully to involve the membership in the fight.

In the event an amended resolution, calling for a limited occupation, to be announced from above by the JUC, was carried by a 4-1 majority.

But the action, though limited, marks a significant break from the defeatist politics' of union leaders when faced with proposed closures.

If they now go beyond the 2-day occupation to an indefinite sit-in at the plant, and fight from that basis to build supporting action locally and throughout the ICL combine, the Winsford workers can take the only steps open to them to defend their jobs.

Occupation as a key to the defence of jobs is effective only insofar as it goes beyond the stage of being simply a protest action, and its leadership spells out clearly to all concerned that workers are intent upon seizing and holding the property of the capitalist class, and mobilising full scale support for their action.

ICL is not a loss-making company. In the first half of 1980 its pre-tax profits rose 10% to £20.5 million. In the last full year profits rose 22% to a record £45.7 million.

received confirmation or ast tatallvll order for the computerisation of the Inland Revenue PAYE system.

Redundancies

The sackings are simply a new move to turther boost profits by increasing the exploitation of the labour force.

They follow on a programme of redundancies that have already axed 1,600 jobs in the last 12 months.

In Winsford this means that the 500 workers who were willing to "volunteer" for redundancy have already gone.

With factories throughout the area closed or closing, the rest have nothing to lose and everything to gain by mounting a fight to save their jobs.

In their fight for supporting action they should start by calling on the workforce of the threatened Metal Box factory across the road to join them in a coordinated tight, demanding full-scale official backing from the unions concerned.