April 20- all out to support pay strikes

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AGM "illegal" STRIKES NEEDED .... Cont'd from front page.

As we go to press it seems likely that thousands of workers will take strike action on April 20 as part of the 'Day of Action' called by Leyland stewards.

Every one of those workers will be striking for an end to wage controls and in doing so expressing their willingness to struggle for immediate wage increases, against speed-up and against the cuts in public spending.

RESISTANCE The more massive the show of resistance, the more weight can be brought to bear to force conveners and union officials to lead all-out strike action now to break the existing stage of wage controls, and to give maximum support to those sections-such as the airport maintenance workers and the Port Talbot electricianswho have already taken up this fight.

For this reason we call for the maximum mobilisation of strike action on April 20th.

But this is completely the opposite of the position of those Leyland stewards-dominated by the Communist Party-who have called vaguely for the 'Day of Action' , after watering down a call for a one-day strike.

AFTER JULY For those "leaders' the : 'Day of Action' with its call for 'free section that fights faces the massive pressure of the TUC, government, employers and the press. And if, as happened with the toolmakers, the stewards collapse, workers are again left leaderless.

Militancy is not enough. Leaders today need to be based on a political understanding of the nature of the period, the role of the union leaders, and the coalition politics of the CallaghanSteel government.

Workers need a clear programme in defence of living standards-centring on the fight ent page. guerillas have not been made clear by press reports. The standard description of them as "Katangese gendarmes" who fled from Katanga after Tshombe's ill fated right wing secession attempt in the 1960s and who have since fought as soldiers of fortune for the Portuguese, the FNLA and then the MPLA appears to be largely false.

TOO YOUNG

Many of them are too young to have had such a history though their leader "General" Mbumba is an ex-member of the Katanga They are fighting under the banner of the National Front for the Liberation of the Congo (the previous name of Zaire).

The spokesmen of this movement in Europe say its programme is *to build a new Congolese society to put an end to the neo-colonialist regime, the agent of interrational capitalism"

Both the Angolan and Cuban governments have denied Mobutu's claim that the guerillas are directly supported by them.

Ont collective bargaining after July" is a conscious move to divert workers away from all-out strike iction in support of those already righting Phase 2.

NOT THE START For them the one-day strike is not the start of any mobilisation, but simply the highest point of a campaign to pressurise the TUC leaders to reject a Phase 3.

This is why those conveners who played the leading role in scabbing on the Leyland toolmakers strike have put their names to the April. 20 Day of Action'-intending to appear as if they are actively fighting wage control in order to placate their members on the shop floor.

Workers must reject this sham fight. The strikes on April 20th must go forward to:

#Strikes in support of Port Talbot and airport workers.

*Break Phase 2 now.

*Full catching up increases to compensate for wages lost through the Social Contract.

*A sliding scale of wages in every agreement to compensate automatically for increases in the cost of living as assessed by trade union committees.

SUPPORT PORT TALBOT ELECTRICIANS!

Donations and messages to Wyn Bevan, 43, Hebron Ro:

Clydach, Swansea.

for substantial rises linked to a sliding scale of wages to provide automatic increases to match inflation.

In this way the question of what kind of leadership is necessary to win these struggles brings to the fore the central political question facing the working class today-a thorough break from the class collaboration of the trade union and Labour bureaucracy, and the construction of a new political leadership prepared to mobilise the real strength of the working class in defence of its interests.

This why the war has become a focus for international imperialist and Stalinist rivalries, which have been growing so fast in Central and Southern Africa (see page 2).

The fall of Zaire to a government favourable to Angola and the Soviet Union would be a gigantic blow not only for imperialism but also for the Chinese Stalinist bureaucracy.

It is no surprise, therefore, to find that Mobutu is getting . his material support not only from Washington, Brussels and Paris but also from Peking. This is entirely in keeping with the readiness of the Chinese bureaucracy to line up behind the most reactionary forces (such as Margaret Thatcher) in their campaign against the Soviet Union.

The Soviet bureaucracy itself has yet to make an open move but stands ready to take advantage of an opportunity to extend its growing influence in Africa and to heip any leadership which replaces Mobutu to crush any genuinely revolutionary socialist forces which emerge in the massive unheaval whirh the fall of Mahutn

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the 'Rank and File TUC, convened last week by the