Stirling march jobs campaign

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The Central Region Federation of Trades Councils in Scotland have called a demonstration against unemployment to be held in Stirling on the morning of Saturday 7 February.

This demonstration is seen as part of the mobilisation of the labour movement in the Central Region in support of the Campaign Against Unemployment initiated at a Conference in Falkirk last October.

It will also be used to build support for the all-Scotland demonstration called for by the Labour Party in Glasgow on 21 February.

Support for the Campaign Against Unemployment has come from the District Committee of the TGWU, two of the Constituency Labour Parties in the Region, the three trades councils and a number of trade union and Labour Party branches.

A meeting scheduled for 7 January is aimed at pulling in the District organisations of other unions, the District Labour Parties and the other Constituency Labour Parties.

A leafletting: campaign is planned to cover work places and housing estates in the Stirling, Falkirk and Clackmannan districts to advertise the demonstration.

Alongside the mobilisation 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 demo. cratic rights.

These can only be defended through policies which start from the independent interests of the working class, which, as àn international class, has nothing to gain and everything 1o 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 closure and destruction of the productive forces of society; only 'a socialist planned for the demonstration, attempts are being made to organise the unemployed in the Region.

A twofold campaign is being run. Firstly to try and ensure that the unemployed retain their trade union membership and wherever possible, given the present constitutions of the unions, recruit them to a trade union.

Secondly to organise unemployed associations under the auspices of the trades councils and set up unemployed centres.

The unemployed associations and unemployed centres are seen as a way of pulling together unemployed people into one body and giving them a political voice.

The trades councils will be approaching the Labour controlled District Councils and the Regional Council with a view to getting their support for the setting up of unemployed centres.

It is hoped to draw upon the experience of the Claimants Union in Alloa which has already set up such a centre. In Edinburgh the Trades Council have recently set up an unemployed association and centre.

The October conference in Falkirk firmly set the aims of the campaign as being centred on removing the Tory government and spelt out a programme of action for fighting redundancies and the cuts.

Five hundred copies of a report on the conference have been printed and distributed around organisations of the labour movement in the region. (Socialist Press carried a report on the conference in issue 220).

Such localised initiatives will not in themselves bring down the Tory government. However it is equally true that without such work in the localities, , по: mass movement will be büilt.

The campaign so far has also. attempted to put forward a clear political programme on' which to struggle and one which prepares the fight to ensure that a clear political alternative exists when a Labour government is returned to office.

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Tenants' organisations throughout Scotland are being urged to join the Glasgow march against unemployment called by Workers at Rolls Rovce factories in Scotland are showing the way forward by taking action on wages in the first two weeks of January.

Employees of East Kilbride will go on strike on 5 January to bé followed by those at Hillington (Glasgow) on the Monday after.

This is their reply to the management offer of what is described as a 'self-financing productivity deal' which means that the only money on the table is in return for concessions by the workforce, leading to greater exploitation.

The price demanded by the management for any increase is a cut in the labour force New.

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