[The Ad Hoc Committee of class collaborators who…]

Scan page 1

The Ad Hoc Committee of class collaborators who have been used for the past year to railroad the policies of British Leyland management onto the shop floor has received a heavy rebuff from Leyland workers.

The Committee, whose members were appointed by the national officials of the various unions, was set up to co-ordinate the introduction of the Ryder "participation' plan, Consisting of right wing convenors from several Leyland plants, and dominated by Statists of the Communist Party, the Committee was kept in existence by management and trade union bureaucrats who saw it as the embryo of a National Joint. Negotiating Committee ready for the day when they can end plant bargaining and establish a corporate structure.

The "fringe benefit" diversion - motivated by those who want to avoid confrontation with the government and the TUC over wages policy - was tailor made for this Committee.

Negotiations on a fringe benefit package were opened with management, over the heads of the individual plants, at corporation level.

This developed into the most important management threat against car workers since the battles over the ending of piecework and the introduction of Measured Day Work - a move which has substantially reduced wages and worsened the conditions of Leyland workers.

KEEP WO 'ING'

Faced r a Committee which, unde hi articipation' had become a pa management; which acceptea nat the 'viability of the company was the primary question; which backed Jones and Scanion in their Keep Working at all Costs' statement in Leyland's Company journal, management can hardly be blamed for taking full advantage.

WORSE The first draft of the proposals (which were enthusiastically accepted by Derek Robinson, Stalinist convenor of the Longbridge complex and chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee attacked virtually every existing procedure agreement. It established no-strike penalty clauses; brought senior stewards into the discipline structure on the management side; gave management the right to redeploy workers between the various plants; and established corporation-wide bargaining which would abolish the indepen dence of individual groups of workers to fight for wages and conditions.

After lengthy negotiations the Committee ended up with a revised document arguably worse than the first draft. This was accepted by a 3 to 1 majority at a full meeting of convenors from all Cars Division plants, and recommended back to the labour force.

MISCALCULATION This move was a major miscalculation by the right-wing. The mood of the working class -angry and frustrated over wage control, price increases, spending cuts and unemployment, made itself forcefully felt.

In the Cowley complex crucial to the scheme - right wing years. convenors holding key positions on the Ad Hoc Committee enthus- once again showed its readiness to iastically supported the proposals fight with all necessary means to - yet out of the 500 shop throw off Spanish fascism, its stewards in the complex only Stalinist and reformist leaders three supported the document! lined up with the fascist governThe massive shift among the stewards - quickly, followed by ment. similar decisions in other factories. national reconciliation and a "peaceful road" to democracy Cont'd Back Page, Col 4. through a negotiated pact with the fascists has never been more dramatically exposed than in the last ten days.

developed with astonishing speed. during a demonstration in Madrid in support of amnesty for all political prisoners, a student was killed, shot in the back probably by members of the Warriors of Christ the King, one of the fascist terror gangs to which the government has given virtually complete freedom of action.

demonstration assembled to protest against this killing. The police attacked the demonstrators with exceptional violence - and in doing so murdered another student whose head was blown apart by an exploding tear Leyland convenors gas cannister. But while the working class The same day, General Villaescua, head of the military court was kidnapped. Responsibility was later claimed by "GRAPO" (the "First of October Anti-fascist Group"), the same organisation wnich claims to have held the Their criminal policy of head of the Council of State, Oriol, for the last two months.

Late the same night, an armed terror gang broke into a law office and murdered three Communist Party lawyers; six others were wounded and two of those later The present political crisis died in hospital.

CRIMINAL STEP On Sunday January 23rd It was at this point that the "democratic opposition" which groups together the Communist Party, Socialist Party and the Christian took the criminal stepmor signing a joint declaration with the fascist ". expressing their identity of views condemning political BLOWN APART extremism which, through The next morning another violence, is trying to halt the ongoing process towards democratic normalisation in Spain."

This opened the way for the government to activate the vicious Anti-terrorism Act which allows "suspects" to be held for ten days without charge and grants the police virtually uncontrolled freeCarrillo - police bodyguard dom of search.

Though the governmen claimed this was directed agains the extreme right, the almos exclusive use of such measures it Spain has been against thi workers' movement.

Asked the next day, at thi funeral of the murdered lawyers to comment on these steps, Cr leader Santiago Carrillo, (himself along with the CP Central Com mittee, now protected by a police bodyguard) backed them to thi hilt:

"I think the government ough to be supported and pushed on ir order to avoid these acts of gangsterism and there is no roos for the slightest doubt that have complete confidence in the goodwill of Prime Minister Suarez and the members of the govern ment".

On Friday 28th the police were Cont'd Back J Page, Col

Scan page 2

LIES 'SOCIALIST PRI Vednesday zna rebruary, 1srr