Extend civil service stike
Socialist Press1981 1981-04-23Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 12 →
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Yet again last week the half million unionised workers in the civil service gave a clear answer to the latest example of government provocation.
With the dispute in its sixth week Thatcher decided to deploy the navy as a strike-breaking force to refit the Polaris nuclear submarine at Faslane, where key civil servants have been on indefinite strike since March The following day every area of the government machine was paralysed as over 400.000 workers walked out.
The key demand must now be to extend the periods of all out strike action.
Rank and file members are becoming more and more conscious of the limitations of half-day and one-day protests.
They can see that the Tories are unlikely to be moved by such limited walkouts or by the campaign of selective indefinite strikes.
If the leadership of the nine civil service unions does not call widespread all out action within the nest two weeks then there must be a clear danger of demoralisation setting in.
This would obviously create 10 ex conditions for the bureaucracy to sell out the fight by accepting the 7%6 in return for vague promises of future pay agreements.
One of the major effects of the pay campaign so far has been the massive increase in confidence shown by the membership in areas of the civil service trade unions not normally known for their militancy -the IRSF (Inland Revenue Staff Federation) is probably the prime example.
The lessons of the campaign so far have hit home to whole new layer of activists and young low-paid workers.
Well established groupings such as the Broad Left in the CPSA must seek to build permanent links with militants in the other unions and fight to draw in fresh forces.
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This is particularly important at the moment with the CPSA (the largest union) moving into the annual election period.
Ken Thomas, the General Secretary of the CPSA, has already made an abject plea to all members to suppress any criticism of the union's right wing leadership whilst the pay campaign is on.
This talk of sham "unity" must be firmly rejected.
Broad Left speakers at branch meetings over the next two weeks must fight to expose the inadequacies of leadership shown up the pay campaign so far.
Kick out the right wing!
Fight to extend the strikes!
No sell-out nAD nA v wing murder squads undr the protection of the juni continue to slaughter up 1 a thousand workers and le wingers every month.