The Workers Socialist League

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The Workers Socialist League is a Trotskyist organisation fighting to build a revolutionary leadership in the working class in opposition to the betrayals of both "left" and right wing Labour and trade union leaders and the Communist In the daily struggle to take the demands and principles of Trotsky's Transitional Programme into the trade unions, the WS has been at the forefront of the fight for the sliding scaie of wages, and work sharing on full pay - demands which at. the 1975 T&GWU Conference were the only alternative to Jones' £6 pay plan and the wholesale acceptance of redundancies by the bureaucracy. In today's fight against the TUC's 4%% Pan culling dea with Healey this demand for a sliding scale of wages (rising according to the rising cost of living as assessed by trade union committees is the essentral basis of consistent opposition.

. In the Health Service WSL comrades have led the struggle for a sliding scale of NHS spending, for the start of workers' control of the service (beginning with opening the books of the Health Authorities), along with the fight to end all private practice. Perhaps more important we have led the growing call for strike action to defend the NHS against the cuts and to implement these policies, fighting those like the ASTMS and NUPB leadership who substitute the words for the action.

In London this policy has already won a big response with the one-day action against the closure of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital - when 2,000 hospital workers in the area struck and 400 marched to • In local disputes also, WL comrades have tested and developed the demands of the Transitional Programme, putting forward in every case the only real opposition to the Stalinists and the right-wing. Our struggle for the "open the books" demand in the motor industry and against all At the same time we have. put forward a policy to fight unemployment, calling for unity of employed and unemployed through The WSL is the only movement that fights consistently for transitional demands, going beyond mere trade union militancy to pose In doing this our comrades have been forced also to lead struggles for Stalinists and right-wing. trade union democracy against the bureaucratic manipulation of the But our struggle for the continuity of the principles of Trotskyism is in no way a task confined to Britain. It requires an attention and involvement in the international struggles of the working class and moves to So while many interventions in Britain have developed the League's drive to deepen and enrich the movement's understanding of the history and the present crisis ..of the Trotskyist Fourth international, as an essential part of any serious initiative towards its reconstruction.

We urge all readers who agree on the need for revolutionary leadership and the demands we put forward to find out more about the WL and lobby MPs against the cuts.

the ficht to mobilise the trade union movement.

the political issues to workers.

rebuild the Trotskyist Fourth International.

join our fight in the labour movement.

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Part of the audience of nearly 300 trade unionists at the Wage Control Conference.

The 22-week Trico strike was a victory not just for equal pay, but for the establishment of trade union rights, and represented a blow at the social contract.

This was the message in a strong speech to the conference by Strike Committee member Sally Groves; speaking in a personal capacity.

The strike had taken place in a firm where trade unionists had to start from scratch - there was no history or record of defence of trade union principles in the firm.

DETERMINATION

The strike was held together by the unity and determination of the 450 women, who were driven on to fight not only by the situation at Trico, but also by the all-round