May 26-day of Action

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Liverpool demonstration against unemployment on May 26th. Ten thousand trades unionists marched through the town on the protest called by the Trades Council, Mersęyside Joint Construction Unions and the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions.

This massive response was despite almost total lack of leadership even by those who ostensibly were organising the demonstration. The demonstration included contingents from Fords, Halewood, Shotton steelworks, dudents from teacher training colleges under occupation and a large contingent of giris from the Tate and Lyle refinery which is under threat At the meeting afterwards, speakers from the local trade union leadership together with left MP Eddie Loyden were unable to put forward any minht hanim tn dirant the atrenoth of snrking ciess Tens of thousands of workers throughout the country took part in demonstrations and strikes on the May 26th Day of Action against unemployment.

In London 5,000 workers of closure. marched from Tower Hill to a lobby of Parliament. In Liverpool police estimated the demonstration as 10,000-strong, while in Scotland thousands marched in Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh.

These actions are a clear indication of the readiness of the most Enced layers of workers io fight a even the most limited ead.

PROTEST The Day of Action, decided on at the 3,000 strong Assembly on Unemployment was called simply as a protest - with no programme to fight unemployment at factory level and no demands other than "reflation" of the capitalist economy and the reactionary nationalist demand of "import controls" backed by the Communist Party and 'left' reformists.

For these people of course the Day of Action was simply an elaborate finale to this year's show of opposition to the policies of the Callaghan government.

THREAT

But for the thousands of workers facing the threat of unemployment through spending cuts and TUC-policed speed up and closures, May 26th showed a willingness to respond and a search for a way to defend jobs and living standards.

In these conditions, the struggle by the WSL throughout the labour and trade union movement for new leadership to stand on principle and fight for occupations in detence of threatened jobs, work sharing on place of redundancy the opening of the books of "bankrupt" firms to prove the case for their nationalisation, is essential in preparing the way forward from the Day of Action.

The next step in the fight for these policies must be the biggest possible lobby of the TUC Congress on June 16th.

Education minister Fred Mulley was correctly booed at the conference of the further education teachers' union NATFHE, when ne repeated Fowler's crocodile tears and said 'if they can't find a job in teaching they will have to find a job in something else' Like the other 1¼ million unemployed, perhaps?