February 2 start for strike CUTS: LAMBETH CALL TO ACTION

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Tabet EVERY

100,000 MARCH AGAINST THATCHER BRING DIOHEN TRE TORIES THIS WINER!

The police and the mass media may have created some confusion as to the precise number who joined tha I ahour Partv's mammoth Liverpool march against unemployment last Saturday.

No worker who. was there could have counted accurately. There may have been as many as 150,000 in the vast tide that streamed from Sefton Park to the Pier Head.

But what was unmistakeable was the mass hostilitv that has developed to this Tory government.

In a week in which the Chancellor Sir Geoffrey Howe had snatched £1 per week from most workers' pay packets, announced new local government cuts, robbed the old age pensioners, and sentenced at least another 100,000 workers to prolonged unemployment, militancy was running hich. FIGHT Labour's new leader Michael Foot was clever enough to play along with the mood.

His call was in fact the same Callaghan's-wait until next election.

Flamboyant

But he wrapped it up in a long, flamboyant sentence that almost suggested Foot favours action to bring the Tories down!

Not so Alan Fisher, the NUPE leader who has done more than most to allow Thatcher to destroy health and •CANTATAO TOTAAC ennial carvinas He called openly for a "General Election"-only to be met by loud calls from the crowd for a General Strike!

Labour Party Young Socialists speaker Tony Saunois, however, drew applause when he called for the unions to use their "full industrial clout to force this government out".

This is the key issue now facing the working class.

Once again Lambeth has emerged in the forefront of the fight to bring a halt to the Thatcher offensive on our public services.

A steering committee set up from a 700-strong delegate conference held in November has issued a call for massive strike action in February.

Already direct labour and AUEW members in Lambeth have ple in mo su poo the strike from February 2". The call has been backed by Lambeth TGWU stewards.

Their stand marks a refreshing contrast with that of union leaders like Alan Fisher, and that of Labour MPs and most Labour councillors, who have done nothing whatever to resist the Tory cuts.

The present Lambeth initiative began when the Labour council took the lead in convening a conference to discuss the way forward in the fight to defend local government services against the cuts.

700 delegates from trade unions, Labour councils and constituency Labour Parties attended and voted overwhelmingly to campaign for:

*No cuts in jobs or services.

*No rate or rent rises to compensate for cuts.

*Reversal of decisions to sell council houses or housing land.

*Removal of Labour councillors who carry out Tory cuts.

*All-out strike action and occupations as soon as any Thatcher's gang may be irritated by protest marches-but they will not change course because of a few windy speeches by labour bureaucrats.

The only way to stop this Tory government is to bring it down. The Liverpool march contirms that 100,000 workers are ready to fight: but that their Sunday December 7 at 1.00 pm. Assemble Speakers Corner Labour council faces receivers or commissioners or is surcharged for refusing to implement cuts. Occupation and supporting strikes to defend facilities threatened by the cuts.

Debt charges

*A call for support to public sector unions from industrial and private sector trade unionists.

*Cancellation of council debt charges, the opening of the books ot local councils to expose the profiteering of banks and private contractors, and the nationalisation of supply industries without compensation under workers' control.

*The TUC to "prepare a plan for a general strike in protection of working class interests and living standards" The steering committee elected from the conference has now met. It has fixed a recall conference for January 17-and urged maximum labour movement support.

And it has called on trade unionists and Labour councillors across the country to support the call for a 2-week strike from February 2.

This is the most developed call yet for action to stop the cuts. It must be fully supported by socialists throughout the labour movement. Union leaders must be forced to give it active *All out February 2!

*Stop the cuts; bring the Tories!

*Defend all jobs services!

Youth march against Tories leaders are far from ready to lead.

Now is the time to build a new, revolutionary leadership in the workers' movement to defend hard-won rights and living standards and carry through a real struggle for socialism.

'Join us in this task! jobs and

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Wednesday With, the border area free of neutral troops and direct control re-established, the Salvadorean guerrillas will be deprived of a critical refuge.

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STRIKERS *POLITICAL STATUS NOW! *TROOPS OUT OF IRELAND!