[Thousands of workers have downed tools in support…]

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Thousands of workers have downed tools in support of it.

Tens of thousands more have joined in it or attended its rallies and meetings.

Its finale in London expected to attract up 100,000 people.

Millions more endorse its call for action to end mass unemployment.

But once the People's March is over, what perspective do its organisers have for a fight against the Tory This question must be confronted as the two main legs of the march meet up in Northampton and set off on the final stages to London.

The March has tapped a vast reservoir of anger and frustration at the reactionary policies of the Thatcher government, which have thrown 3 million onto the dole in a bid to drive up the profits of a handful of capitalists, bankers and assetstrippers.

The March has demonstrated: the militancy of working class youth, the solidarity of trade unionists with the unemployed brothers and sisters, and the broad scope of opposition to the Tory offensive.

Will the 100 or So Unemployed Workers' Centres being set up by the TUC be bases for militant campaigning under the control of the unemployed themselves? Or will they turn out to be tea and sympathy emporiums designed to channel the frustration of unemployed people into passive acceptance of their fate?

The outcome will depend on whether the TUC succeeds in implementing its "guidelines" on the centres and in placing them firmly under the control of councillors, the Manpower Services Commission and full-time union officials.

In Newcastle, where the Trades Council took the initiative in setting a dn But from the very outset the right wing and Communist Party union officials who have dominated the organisation of the March have set out to avoid giving. any political content to the campaign.

They have set out to portray unemployment as some kind of moral evil rather than the calculated outcome of a deliberate policy implemented by the Tory government.

Repressed

The red banner of socialism has been buried behind a sea of inoffensive green. Political debate has been firmly repressed among the marchers-and marchers forbidden to speak from political platforms (other than those of the Communist Party).

Church leaders, employers and even Tories have been urged io participate and offered the change to speak from the platform.

While church halls and facilities from Tory councils might be thought useful for the progress of the march, such tactics in reality lead away from the central issue: mobilising the strength and resources of the labour movement in action against the Thatcher government.

For while Tories, employers and bishops may centre before the TUC announced its plans, the emphasis was on active campaigning-leafletting dole queues, supporting unemployed workers fighting redundancy, demanding free public transport for the unemployed, agitating for an unemployed workers' union and so forth.

Last January, the Newastle centre called a conference in incuss senting up a national federation oi upezployed centres. One oi tre leading Newcastle activists told us, "The response was good. We had delegates from all over the country, as far afield as Cornwall.

'But we also had a man called Peter Ashby from the TUC, armed with 50 copies of a letter dated 29 January (the previous day), setting occasionally wring their hands over the unemployment which their system has created, it is only the workers' movement that can carry through the policies necessary to end unemployment.

Only the organised working class can carry out the occupation of threatened factories to prevent their closure; only the power of the unions can mobilise mass action to defend threatened public services.

Only the defeat of the Tories and the fight for alternative socialist policies can lay the basis for the neces3 million jobs for the unemployed.

Only with socialist policies can the squandering of millions on the arms budget be brought to an end, homelessness be eliminated and public services expanded to meet the needs of the vast majority.

New direction If any small shopkeepers, small capitalists or religious people wish to join in such a fight by the working classso much the better.

But in no way must the fight against unemployment be restricted to fit in with the politics of "left" Tories, bishops and capitalists. out the TUC Guidelines.

"These strictly limited what we were allowed to do, and were clearly designed to head off any chance of a militant, national unemployed movement developing.

"Now we've been told that unless we toe the line, abide by the Guidelines' and break off our relation with the unemployed workers union that was being set up in the area, the TUC General Council will recommend that the funds (from the MSC and the local authority) be cut off.

niel be campaigning at Annual Conference c: Trades Councils to gei these gutielines thrown out as 1lconceived and negative and to curb the TUC's dictatorial powers over the centres."

The 'guidelines' (agreed between the TUC and the MSC) limit the obiectives of In the aftermath of the People's March, the support it has generated must be given new direction and impetus.

*There must be an immediate turn to organise the unemployed in every area into Unemployed Workers Unions.

*Every redundancy, every closure must be opposed by strike action, occupation and supporting blacking action. Defend every job! For work sharing without loss of pay!

*Take up the fight in the unions and the Labour Party for socialist policies to meet the crisis! Reject the "alternative economic strategy" with its pipedreams of a "planned" "controlled" capitalism: fight for a policy of nationalising the banks and major corporations without compensation under workers' management! For action now to bring down the Tories!

*Build a new leadership in the workers' movement prepared to fight for these policies against the right wing and the Communist the centres to: "counselling and advice". "opportunities for training" "channelling requests for assistance to tribunals". "educational classes" and "promoting schemes under the MSC The management committees of the centres must comprise 50% from the local authority and 50% from the TUC Regional Council. "Other groups (presumably meaning voluntary organis ations and charities), can send observers and-finally -•I: #ill also be important io include representatives of the unemployed".

Clearly we have to waze a campain to get these guidelines' torn up, to place the centres under the control of the unemployed themselves. and to ensure that funds from local authorities and the MSC have no strings attached.

'At the same time we need to fight for Unemployed Workers Unions to provide a focus for organising the unemployed in struggle-both around their own immediate concerns (free travel, improved benefits, useful public works schemes, eic) ana around broader issues like support for picket lines, occupations, and anti-racist detence squads.

The Unemployed Workers Unions could thus establish their place within the labour movement, and provide orxanisation necessary for the unemploved to right for their rights within the existing unions and for control over the unemployed workers' centres.

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In the coming period we will undoubtedly see struggles for real wage rises, defence of jobs and the fight for better workthat they are not trainine. but merely working for their dole money.

Spontaneous strikes have developed up and down the country not on particular ¡Peoples match for iobs

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sary crash programme of useful public works to create