Anatomy of a Witch-hunt

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For any workers who had illusions in the "independence' or 'freedom' of the press, the completely coordinated and united witch-hunt directed by seven national daily papers and three television networks for a week leading up to the recent elections in British Leyland's Assembly Plant should be an eyeopener.

Not a single paper stepped out of line or at any point attempted to question the combination of lies and distortions fed to them by the local union bureaucrats and directly by British Leyland management.

Indeed the coordination of the witch-hunt shows clearly that behind-the-scenes briefings and manipulation daily predominates over such minor questions as facts and objective analysis in industrial coverage - and clearly must also decide the coverage on political and international questions.

NEWS AGENCIES The way it works is this - the main bones of the story are fed into the main news agencies from management and the trade union burueacracy. Reporters have direct access to the bureaucracy at any time - though of course trade union members (particularly if in dispute) can find it impossible to contact officials for weeks at a time. The 'reporters' then seek out their local "colour" - which makes their reports marginally different in certain details and gives the impression of individual treatment.

This is why many of the reports during the Cowley witch-hunt seemed to be the outcome of a game of 'Chinese whispers' - in which the participants sit in a circle and repeat a story round and roun getting details more and more garbled while the main lines stay the same. Out of the garble therefore, the same insinuations, lies and slanders emerge in unison.

Let us take a simple instance -the issue of the election as Chairman of the 5/293 T&GWU Branch of Alan Thornett (who two years ago some unknown Sunday Times reporter for no apparent reason decided should be called 'The Mole' starting a craze throughout Fleet St.).

The Oxford Mail, knowing its readers have some idea of what goes on in Cowley, had to admit that the attendance at the Branch meeting (which • was the highest ever of those held outside working hours) was "by branch standards a good attendance* BIG BOYS But the big boys in London don't feel so inhibited and let loose some grand distortions. Thus the Times argued that his vote was only 1.4% of the total voting strength and that there had been a strike in the plant, drawing the bogus conclusion:

"On the day the election took place, most of the voters were at home because of the strike"

The Telegraph goes even further, though omitting to mention the strike, which they replace with:

maintenance breakdown [which]_led to all but 141 of the 3,500 I! being sent home."

The Mirror uses the strike story to much greater effect, however. creating suspicions as to 'extremist' involvement:

*Since then there have been fears that the dispute was started to coincide with the election"

But while the Mirror just refers to 1,600 being sent home, the Guardian suggests the real position was much worse, telling readers all 1,600 were "unable to vote".

"EXTREMISTS"

Amazing how much strength these papers attribute to Thornett locked up in their houses, barring them from attending a branch meeting held after working hours and outside the plant! Naturally, every paper has to ignore the fact that these people never attend branch meetings!

Of course every accusation and insinuation in a witch-hunt against a militant is cumulative in the Tory press - the technique is to heap smear upon smear in the hope that workers who do not accept one argument will be bowled over by sheer weight of propaganda.

In this witch-hunt all papers returned again therefore to the previous witch-hunt in 1974 which centred on Leyland's withdrawal of recognition from Thornett as deputy convenor and their unsuccessful attempt to withdraw his recognition as shop steward. admit that a Times, T&GWU Regional The Times, while forced . to Enquiry exonerated Thornett from the charges levelled by managemen still digs them up again and makes them the centre of its coverage.

SCURRILOUS

The Mail, then and now one of the most scurrilous of Fleet St. rags, distorted the past still more, claiming that "Mr. Thornett was voted out of office by fellow stewards 18 months ago after an 18 day strike", • But as Cowley workers know, a major consequence of that confrontation was that the T&GWU bureaucracy took from Cowley stewards the right to elect their convenor.

Once the witch-hunt gets under way of course, any old angle will do, and the most ordinary actions are trumpeted as evidence of dark doings by the 'extremists" • The Express sounds the warning*The Mole and his colleagues from other extreme left wing groups 1] are making a concerted effort to win the poll."

The same argument is taken up in the Mail. How outrageous! People standing_ in elections, and trying to win? - How despicable and undemocratic!

According to the Express these 'wreckers" and 'militants' even had the cheek to accuse the "moderates' of starting a witch-hunt! The Mail however, quotes Parsons saying with pride that he is running a witch-hunt!

As for Peter Boyles, the militant who pointed out in the press that Parsons should not be stabbing trade unionists in the back, but fighting management - he is castigated by the press because he complained after the right-wing "lost" his nomination papers.

"The moderates are very suspicious of such left-wing manoeuvres" , says the Telegraph.

How devious this chap Boyles must have been! "Manoeuvring so that the right-wing lose your nomination is really an amazing trick!

Indeed the manipulations of the extremists also involved taking advantage of management's well-intentioned introduction of speed up!

"The speed-up was seen by the militants as a ready-made excuse to stage lightening strikes. They hoped practically to shut the plant for a day", ', reports the Telegraph.

Apparently then the stock response of workers to speed-up ought to be to welcome it with open arms! Of course the press are at pains to make it clear that the 'extremists' are not interested in defending jobs and wages against management attack, but in "wreckand "disrupting' w1 DuuLLU! "shutting down the plant, and al the other dire things extremists are supposed to want. The Express is clearest of all:

"The militants want to smash society and pick up the pieces for themselves".

WHITE

Strangely coordinated, then, was the press support for one supposed 'extremists' , Tom White, a leading member of the Workers Revolutionary Party. White had been selected by Parsons as a tame left' to complete his right-wing anti-communist slate, and so all the press with one voice separated White from the "moderate, "militants' describing ; him OI 'acceptable Parsons' And with one voice every paper for the last few days up to the deputies elections advertised Parson's slate of candidates, bombarding workers on every side with the need to vote for these 'moderate men, and whipping every right-winger into participating in the ballot.

Indeed it was this rallying of the right-wing, together with the personalised threat by Leyland that they would still refuse recognition to Thornett if he were elected which alone secured the 'moderate landslide' in the election.

ELECTED

Bob Fryer, regarded as a Trotskyist, who had come within 200 votes of defeating Parsons for convenor, consolidated his vote which increased from 900 to 1,001 securing his election as deputy. Cy Blake, another militant in opposit. ion to the Parsons slate, was also elected with over 1,000 votes.

And Alan Thornett, whose election was thought to be the signal for indefinite strike action for recognition, came 10th out of 34 candidates, winning 526 votes. Without the blatant, organised and vicious intervention of Leyland, the press and trade union bureaucrats, this result would have been very different.

Workers must take note of these press techniques. They are more refined at the art of witch-hunting, more coordinated and mole conscious than ever before. They are now the basis used directly as a weapon in the hands of the ruling class to dictate the results of union elections and the policies the unions themselves adopt.

The demand that any union election or decision which is sub jected to such intervention by the Tory press and TV must be deferred until this interference ceases must therefore now be fought for in every union branch and shop stewards committee.

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SOCIALIST I which dictated speed-up, wage cuts and redundancy. As we pointed out :22722 'RESS, Wednesday January 28th, 1976 ronowing tne government s ieau, П - 11 - dha- mantis land... the union leaders abandonned the

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and the 'extremists' - apparently "moderates a ble , to keep 1,600