[-TRADES COUNCIL For the capitalist press, the NVT…]

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-TRADES COUNCIL For the capitalist press, the NVT factory in stories and the struggle bund them well deserve tention as an example of the hievements of the Labour vernment and the trade ion leaders.

With their assistance, 3000 jobs i been destroyed to date and a ither 1,000 workers drawn into a operative scheme which has iced through massive speed-up • still leaves their jobs hanging by read.

BENN Despite these negative results a bade mythology about the refits of cooperatives has been it around the Meriden struggle, a rthology in which Wedgewood a occupies a principle role. For me reasons, it is timely to review • effect of the events of the last *e years on motorcycle workers the Midlands.

By 1973, the British motor-cycle destry was confined to two firms ¡BSA and Norton Villiers (a *diary of Manganese Bronze "dings). Both were operating ancient machinery and racing out-dated models barily for the US 'super-bike' ket where their position was ag strongly challenged by their HULL ¡Boosted by the continued rayals of the local and itional trade union leaders, employment in Hull, at 1,000, now stands at nearly mable last year's level -ithout including the number factories now imposing ort time on their workforce. This level was not reached thout sharp resistance by workers most notably the 19-vreek cupation of Imperial Typewriters # year. But every move from the pp floor confronts the conscious botage of full time union officials • the political inadequacies of tory leaderships.

The Imperials fight was Iberately isolated from the rest : the labour movement by the GWU bureaucracy, while a hole series of reformist diversions șik of "cooperatives" , the search r another employer etc. - were zd to divert from the all-out pit to force nationalisation VARLEY And the death blow was ministered by Labour Minister ¡dey who gave the factory's zes, Litton Industries, the rahead to sell off plant and *sipment. | Yet even after this betrayal the tal right wing blamed the defeat i the working class - claiming that isy had "not raised enough Dacy" to finance the sit-in!

More recently the attempted peare of the Drypool Shipbuilding bap has figured prominently in • Bets. The yards are based in 1, Selby and Beverley - Hull ig the largest.

Drypool faces bankruptcy a of fired nice contracts in competitors.

In capitalist terms, the 'viability" of both was in question. The intensifying battle for profits on the world market was demanding the destruction of small and relatively unproductive companies. BSA was threatened with bankruptcy and Norton Villiers, though recording a profit was in a weak position.

Benn At this point the Tory government intervened to try and back up their profits. A £4.8 million grant was handed out to ensure the merger of Norton Villiers and BSA to form Norton Villiers Triumph. The government took 51% shareholding and the rest was retained by MBH which also took the profitable non-motorcycle interests of BSA.

Following the logic of capitalism 1120-% #p-1821-5.24%33 can only be lunacy in the uncontrolled inflationary crisis confronting British capitalism.

The local AUEW, though verbally campaigning for nationalisation of the yards, have at the same time allowed a run-down in the labour to begin, while the District Committee has organised only the most half-hearted opposition to closure.

This took the form of a request (not even an instruction)

branches to participate in a 2 hour meeting at City Hall, addressed by local Labour MPs - after which members were expected to return back to work!

WITHDRAWN

But the Drypool crisis exposes also the reactionary role of the Labour government. Originally down for nationalisation under the Shipbuilding Industries Nationalisation Bil, Drypool was withdrawn from the list when bankruntev was declared and the the first move of the new company was to close down the Meriden plant in the hope of saving its profits by rationalising production onto the OUIC factories in Bırmingham and Wolverhampton. The workers at Meriden resisted and immediately occupied the plant to defend jobs.

Operating within a reformist framework, the Meriden workers' resistance to the closure was combined with faith in finding a viable 'solution' within capitalisma. Their campaign identified saving jobs with saving the industry and the Triumph name.

'VIABLE'

The incompetence of the management (whose record at Meriden was indeed appalling) was seen as the sole cause of the problems. The hopes of the workers were pinned on a workers' cooperative which would make the industry 'viable' again.

The union leaders seized on this as an ideal solution, since it directed the resistance of the workforce away from any fundamental conflict with capitalism and let them off the hook.

When Labour returned to office, Benn too adopted the idea and with Benn's blessing the Meriden cooperative was born.

It was soon shown that the cooperative was not so ideal for the Meriden workers. The absence of the capitalist did not abolish the laws of the capitalist economy The Drypool yard in Hull 1975.

Now local Labour MPs have agreed to try to amend the Bill to include Drypool, attempting to substitute Parliamentary maneouvIes for the necessary struggle by workers in the yards to force nationalisation.

Against this background of betrayal and political bankruptcy the 10/76A T&GWU Branch based on Hollis Sawmills (itself engaged in struggles OVeI i job security)

submitted a resolution to Hull Trades Council calling for an all-out fight against unemployment - to include demonstrations and public meetings.

Though the resolution was adopted by Trades Council last July a lengthy period elapsed before the EC circulated a draft statement consisting of a twelve point programme - thoroughly relormist in character. For instance, point y read: in Socialist Press No 2: "The labour force was halved from 1750 to 870, all demarcation was ended, and wages are at a flat rate of £50 a week - lower than the general average in the area"

Exploitation was intensified to maintain the profits of the supplying companies and pay off interest to the banks.

Today • the fate of the cooperative still hangs in the balance with international competition intensifying and their marketing arrangements threatened by the collapse of NVT - which is also demanding compensation for its blueprints and its copyright of the 'Triumph' name.

Varley In July 1975, the financial collapse of NVT itself was to axe the jobs of another 3,000 workers. At Wolverhampton where the workers, whose wages had been held down for the previous three years to 'save the industry', had occupied, the union leaders once again refused to offer any This time even a cooperative was scarcely considered. Benn's left rhetoric had been dispensed with as the Labour government turned directly to creating unemployment and Varley's decision was to wash his hands of any responsibility for workers in NVT. cooperate with their employers in every way that is reasonsable and proper, to avoid redundancies and unemployment"

Hard to see any employers objecting to that proposal! In fact the cringing keynote of the draft statement was set by point 2: "That normal manpower wastage should as far as possible be replaced" and by the conclusion which stressed the need for "all classes in Britain" to make "sacrifices" to enable the "nation" to survive while making flabby appeals to the Labour government to reduce unemployment.

AMENDMENT:

WSL members fought consistently in their union branches during the discussion on the statements for transitional demands to be moved as amendments in opposition to the reactionary politics of the draft, and at the 50-strong Trades Council meeting on January 15th most of the amendments submitted originated from this fight.

Among the points of programme adopted as a result of this intervention were calls that: 1. Normal manpower wastage be replaced. 2. To avoid redundancies there should be work sharing on full pay. 3. A general ban on overtime should be implemented. 4. That trade unions must have a veto on hiring, firing and the control of manning levels.

DELETED

The 's reactionary temi was deleted a occupation to its fate. With no lead from the unions and a weak reformist leadership in the plant, a fight for nationalisation though discussed was not acted on.

The occupation continued with no perspective, other than the hope of finding another employer to buy up NVT's assets. The responsibility for this dead end policy must rest with the union leaders and the Labour government.

CHALLENGE

For the outcome at NVI was by no means inevitable: an entirely different avenue of struggle was open, one which challenged the right of capitalism to destroy jobs and to tie the fate of workers to the 'viability' of the industry.

As we pointed out in Socialist Press No 15: "Poore claims that Wolverhampton has £2 million debts - yet most of this is owed to the parent company NVT. What financial fiddles have gone on to transfer funds elsewhere? What has happened to the £18 million given government loans and grants? ... The books of both Manganese Bronze and NVT must be opened to the inspection of trade union committees.

On the basis of such information a plan can be drawn up to maintain jobs after nationalisation through state contracts and the provision of alternative work".

This direction of struggle was blocked by the union leaders who not only refused to fight for nationalisation, but would not even think of calling for the veil of secrecy which surrounds NVT's operations to be raised.

At the centre of both these struggles has been the issue of leadership. Workers in the motor cycle industry have been deliberately demoralised and led into the blind alley of searching for 'viable' solutions by the union leaders and 'lefts' alike.

From this bitter experience must be drawn the need to forge a new leadership in the struggle to resist Labour's attacks. though inadequate at stre! sing link between the policy adop and the development of a planned economy, was still considerable improvement.

SUB-COMMITTEE

A further motion from the 10/76A Branch, calling for the setting up of a Trades Council unemployment sub-committee was agreed and the committee appointed. It is already Trades Council policy that unions where possible recruit unemployed workers.

In developing the fight after these advances in Hull the need is to ensure that these policies are taken in to all struggles against dead to fored the opthe forther books of the employers to elected trade union committees is also brought forward as a bridge between workers resistence to redundancy and the all out fight for On this programme it is to begin to resolve the wO rking class leadership PUBLIC MEET iebruary Ist, 7.30 The Mail Coach West Street the ted possible risis of in Hull.

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SOCIALIST PRESS •Wednesday January 28th 1976 Police carry off Cammel Laird picket The struggle of the Birkenhead building workers which began in 1974 and ended in the courts this month is rich in lessons for the labour movement. The building workers were employed by Peter Lind to construct a slipway for Cammel Laird in 1974 and in the autumn of that year struck and stayed out for five weeks until a pay dispute over tide manning was satisfactorily concluded.

They had only been back at work six days when Cammel Laird's own crane men and boilermakers came out at the end of October. In solidarity the Peter Lind workers refused to cross the Cammel Laird picket line or use their own entrance gate to the works.

By now Cammel Laird management had some notion of the kind of building workers they had contracted and applied to the courts to rescind the contract with Peter Lind. The building contractors Peter Lind checked this move by applying for an injunction but eventually Cammel Laird were allowed by the court to rescind the contract and Peter Lind pulled out.

Determined to defend their jobs whoever had the contract the men formed an action committee, occupied and impounded the plant. Straightaway the crane hire firm served writs on the leaders of the occupation, but when police attempts to enforce the writs failed, a more personal approach was attempted.

SYMPATHY

The owner of the cranes, a Mr. Goodfellow, arrived, declared his sympathy with the aims of the occupation; an aim which he felt was in no way advanced by retaining possession of his cranes. To show his declaration was no empty gesture he claimed membership of the Communist Party, asked to see the member of the strike committee who shared his political outlook and waving a £10 note offered it to buy "drinks for the lads".

The drink was gratefully consumed but the cranes stayed put, and meeting with no success on this peaceful road Mr. Goodfellow resorted to the methods of the classical period of Stalinism and turned up the next day with a gang of heavies.

The contract was eventually given to Wimpey who refused to take on any of the Peter Lind men, claiming that they had all the men they needed. It was at this point that the trade union bureaucrats of the TGWU and UCATT attempted to turn a principled struggle against management in defence of jobs into an "inter-union dispute"

LOGIC

According to their logic the Peter Lind men in the Liverpool TGWU and UCATT districts were keeping Manchester TGWU and UCATT members (who Wimpey were trying to bring in) from their work.

So a picket in defence of jobs was denounced by union officials from Manchester as a lock-out against jobs!

This divisive position of the union officials was soon exposed. The mass picket stopped the coaches that Wimpey were trying to bring in and the police, seeing the size of the picket, acquiesced to the picket's demand to speak to the occupants.

Inside they discovered not regular Wimpey workers but reCently recruited Irishmen who still had their suitcases with them In the face of this exposure Wim pey retreated and agreed to take or . 30 of the 100 or so Peter Lind men.

The list of 30 that the action committee proposed was not at all to the liking of Wimpey who tried unsuccessfully to invite by telegram and personal entreaty 30 workers more to their taste. The workers' plan was that the selected 30 would fight for all the jobs from the inside.

In an attempt to keep Wimpey to their own agreement the TGWU offices were lobbied for support. No support was forthcoming and by deserting their members in this way the union bureaucrats gave the green light to the police attack that was being prepared on the picket.

At eight in the morning, half an hour before the coaches were due, 35 pickets found themselves confronted by 70 policemen who drove the pickets from the gate and formed a line to allow the coaches (escorted by police cars from the Mersey tunnel to the gate) unimpeded access.

In the attack various arrests were made, leading to 11 pickets being charged with assault and making an affray. Trial by jury was refused and the case was eventually heard in front of 2 magistrates at Bromborough instead - with curious results.

The magistrates found the picket Robertson guilty as charged despite the tact that when the police witness was asked to point to the perpetrator of Robertson's crime he pointed to another defendant, Sprotswood, instead.

This. regrettable 'confusion" which the magistrates in their wisdom overlooked probably arose from the fact that at the committal in Birkenhead the defendants were lined up in the dock on the order on the charge sheet, while in Bromborough Sprotswood was standing were Robertson 'ought' to have been.

As the "trial" proceeded, PC Pugh's vivid and entirely convincing description of Bob Christian's "savage attack" on a policeman was brought to an abrupt end when he was told he was on the wrong case!

As his sergeant glowered at him Pugh buried his head in his hands and although he returned again for the right case, try as he might the persuasive power of his initial per ormance seemed , to escape hin REMARKABLE No less remarkable was Georg Hall's conviction for assaulting P Bate. Two policemen testifie that Hall lowered his head, charge PC_Bate like a bull and felled hir to the ground where the two me: rolled around in a ferociou embrace. But when PC Bate wa called to the witness stand he wa adamant that he had stayed on hi feet and the closest George Hall ha got to assault was to point a tinge in the vicinity of his chest.

PC Bate admitted that on th previous day's picketing he ha "taken a hammerine" but o neither occasion had he require medical attention. In findin George Hall guilty the magistrate must have concluded that by th second day PC Bate was too punc drunk to know whether he wa rolling around on the ground o not!

Of the eleven charged, six wer found guilty of various offence like obstruction and assault. Fine ranging from £10 to £50 wer imposed and both TGWU an UCATT refused to provide lega representation, maintaining that th dispute was between two groups o workers. By this definition an attempt to keep out scab labou during a strike is a disput "between two groups of workers' The bureaucracy now take on th role of open apologists for strike breaking.

OFFICIALS

The trial of the Merseysid pickets was a further display of thi real support of the capitalist state -the police and the judiciary whi only moved when they got the no from the trade union bureaucracy So while Shrewsbury picket De Warren is still allowed to rot in jai by the parasitic bureaucracy in the TUC, local and regional officials ar opening the door to more lega attacks on picket lines.

Trade unionists have begun a fight back in East London in defence of jobs and social services.

----- pull-quotes -----

orkers' cooperative at triden and the occupation of

overhampton are no longer sworthy. Yet these two