Lee Jeans: why the occupation is the only way to win

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After 22 weeks of occu-: pation in which they scarcely put a foot wrong, the 170 women fighting the closure of the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock seem likely to make a major error.

They have come under inereasing pressure to transform their sit-in strike into the establishment of a workers' cooperative, competing for a slice of the declining market for jeans and textiles.

The attempts of councillors and STUC bureaucrats to steer the women down this blind alley have now bee reinforced by the offer from the boss of Dickie Dirts jeans supermarkets to place a regular order for jeans from the factory.

Convenor Ellen Monaghan has said:

"It is like a dream come tru."

Talks are being sought between union representatives and the factory's owners, Vanity Fare, on the future of its machinery:

Management seem almost certain to press in exchange for the lifting of the blacking of their goods that has now been imposed throughout European docks and already held up some consignments.

They would look for advantageous terms to sell the necessary machinery and the factory to the workers -who until now have simply taken over and held on to it.

They would then cheerfully continue with their plans to shift production from Greenack to another plant in Ireland.

Employers in Scotland and elsewhere in the textile industry seeking to close factories and continue the never-ending tide of redundancies would in turn breathe a sigh of relief that the Lee Jeans struggle-a beacon in the fight for jobs-was at an end.

What is the alternative?

The occupation has already achieved national prominence. Itr has sec ured regular material support from Scottish shipyard workers, backing from a wide range of unions, and the promise of mass pickets to defend the plant against any attempt to evict the occupation.

It is now backed by dockworkers' blacking action, which will have a cumulative effect. Blacking by transport drivers_can also be fought for, along with action by USDAW members in the main textile warehouses and distribution points to tie up all movement of Vanity Fare goods.

Initial attempts at picketing on retail stores have shown that such pickets can have an impact on Lee Jeans sales-and even force stores to take stocks off display. An appeal to the labour movement in every town to organise such pickets would produce a response that would rapidly slash sales of VF jeans.

Such action, combined with the occupation of the plant and its £1 million worth of stocks could begin seriously to squeeze the employers where it really hurts-on their balance books.

Nor are the Lee Jeans women the only ones facing this situation. Throughout the textile industry short time working, redundancies and closures are rife. Union leaders have so far offered no perspective for a fight.

A national conference called around the Lee Jeans occupation to fight for a conferted programme of industrial action to defend textile jobs could reverse this tide of retreats, and give a lead to sit-ins and supporting strikes in a host of threatened factories.

Such action could then begin to spread to supplier firms, transport firms and wholesalers where jobs are equally threatened by the recession in the trade and the decimation of the workforce through new technology.

From one initial is possible to enviseage a wave of struggles growing which will offer a lead throughout the industry and the whole working class.

In August, Rover workers in the Midlands are to mount a mass campaign of action to halt the closure of their Solihull plant the fight on jobs could extend into the engineering industry.

And in London the occupation of St. Mary's hospital once again puts the fight for action against the cuts at the centre of the stage, with the TGWU now committed to a policy of giving supporting strike action.

In other words resistance until now"apparently isolated in one plant in Scotland could if it stands firm still become the focus of mass resistance to the Tory government.

And it is only with the defeat of the Tory government that there is any prospect that the nationalisation of Lee Jeans and the rest of the textile industry can be forced through as the basis to save the thousands of jobs at risk.

We do not wish offer the courageous women at Lee Jeans the illusion that there is a quick or easy solution to their struggle.

We wish only to underline the fact that they hold in their hands the possibility of extending and broadening • a struggle against the employers and the Tory government-a struggle which, will be the weaker if they accept the hollow promise of saving jobs through establishing a cooperative.

Every previous cooperative - KME on Merseyside, Triumph Meridan and the Scottish Daily News are the clearest examples-has wound up nothing short of a catastrophe, demoralising and eventually making redundant " the " militants who saw them as a solution.

Today an attempt to set up a small jeans coop that will try to compete in the market with the sweated labour of the big combines and the technology of the far Fast is to ignore the fact that Vanity Fare itself and other manufacturers are being forced out of markets by cut-throat competition and the slump in sales.

Levi Jeans plants are on short time; Famers are on a three day week me. Sellers have closed Wherever you look it is clear that ony a drastic change in the whole basis of the industry can save jobs and restore full pay pakcets.

This is why we urge Lee Jeans workers reject the siren voices luring them towards an inevitably doomed and diversionary tive.

Demand more financia and industrial support from your union! Appeal • to other textile unions and the whole labour movement to help organise a fighte back tor jobs in the industry!

and irm against t ory offensive! Demand national labour movement picket Lee Joans stockists and retailers!

"Defend all jobs! For work sharing on full pay!

*For mass action to bring down the Tories! i Nationalise the textile industry without compensation under workers' control.

*Nationalise the banks and major industries: For a planned socialist economy to create new jobs for the unemployed!