[Teachers on 4,000-strong protest against cuts in Oxford…]

Scan page 11

Teachers on 4,000-strong protest against cuts in Oxford last Teachers leadership is now members in Oxford City schools for two weeks.

• This may well provoke a lockout on the part of the Council which will prolong and deepen the dispute throughout the Summer holiday.

Since schools returned from the half term break NUT members Throughout the county have been operating sanctions-at first withdrawing from voluntary dinner time supervision and then action against oversized classes.

The response from the Council, headed by Brigadier Streatfield who says he "cannot accept that any section of the community has the right to make life difficult for our children" has been to grant emergency powers to fight the teachers.

Of course it is true that extreme Tories (cynically arguing that the May local election results give them a clear mandate for cuts) are using government policy to decimate public services such as education and health.

But the NUT must be challenged on their argument that "the cuts proposed by Oxfordshire are not in keeping with the government's guidelines on local expenditure."

The truth is that these cuts are part of the £3000 million package of cuts legislated by the Labour government in March 1976 and endorsed by the TUC in May of that year when it accepted the renewal of the Social Contract and Phase 2.

When the NUT argues that "Oxfordshire can afford it" it fails to say that "no cuts" is not in line with government policy. leads simply to negotiations and the danger of a deal being cooked up over the summer holidays can by no means be ruled out.

This dispute must also be fought against public spending cuts as a whole.

Yet NUPE Divisional Officer, Stalinist George Anderson has publicly argued that teachers' actions in withdrawing their voluntary assistance with school meals is "threatening" his members' jobs.

Anderson is using this as pretext for refusing to organise support until a "joint policy" is agreed on. In reality his statements mean nothing except that Anderson himself is not prepared to put up any fight to save his members' or join together to demand that the Tory councils open up the ful plans and accounts to trade union inspection.

This will bring to light all "reserve" , ana contingency funds, along with profits made by school building firms and suppliers.

No agreement can be made to end the dispute except withdrawal of all cuts-the education service must be protected from inflation and the capitalist crisis by a sliding scale of public expenditure.

The strike call must be extended to cover the whole of Oxfordshire. And plans must now be laid for renewed action next term if victory has not been won.

The strike at Northern England Newspapers, now into its third week in defence of a closed shop, has posed the sharpest possible questions for the National Union of Journalists. Already the strike has spread to London.

Following every rule in the book and after every effort to avoid a strike, more than 100 members of the union at Darlington are now in Many more sections of workers would join this struggle if given a clear call by officials.

The mass pickets must be increased. Build another Saltley! Shut down Grunwick until total victory!

* Police and courts, the weapons of the capitalist class, must be challenged. Drop the charges against the arrested pickets!

* Extend the postal blacking. EETPU must black power. GMWU must cut water-supplies.

* If any trade unionist is taken to court, general strike action must force their release.

The Grunwick strike can be won. No. concessions to court, NAFF, Tories or employer!

NIGHT Strikers holding out at the Trust House Forte 'Night Out' night club in Birmingham are steeling themselves for a probable sell out as we go to press.

TGWU Regional Officer Alan Law, who has held personal control of the dispute is known to have had a copy of an ACAS report on it in his possession since last Friday -though he has made no move to inform strikers of its contents.

Today (Monday) Law was due to meet THF management. It is thought certain some form of deal will be imposed upon the strikers in time for Law to take a threeweek holiday beginning on Thursday.

Another ominous sign is that the strikers' union branch, the 5/35 Branch of which Law is the leadership, is not due to meet for the next three months.

This would clearly provide time for anger over a sellout to dissipate.

The labour movement Birmingham must prepare for the possibility of an urgent call for support if the Night Out strikers have to fiøht a betraval action against one of the toughest managements in newspapers-Westminster Press.

Journalists in the London Office of Westminister Press who refused to strike break on Darlington by sending copy to the non-union executives still working were sus pended without pay. The London office has since come out on strike and is picketing, with minimal support from Fleet Street.

After years of backtracking on the issue the NUJ national leaders have come up against their worst nightmare-a determined united chapel digging in for the closed shop and a determined management which says it would rather go out of business than concede one.

Much more sharply than any sterile debate could have done, the Darlington action has brought to the boil the issue of a closed shop for journalists.

All print unions have closed shops but for years right wingers in the union have aided employers by arguing against one for all the usual spurious reasons-the freedom of the press and the freedom of the individual.

Meanwhile the freedom of the employer to keep wages down has gone unchecked as Westminster Press has led the campaign to help the IOJ develop into a powerful anti-union force.

The editorial director of the group has responded to the strike by sending a letter to every journalist in Westminster Press (at a cost to the company of £1,500) witch-hunting Darlington and attempting to sow doubts about whether a fight on the issue would succeed.

The letter was sent to home addresses of most journalists, a well tried technique in Leyland for example, to try to isolate workers.

PICKETING Picketing at Darlington, which started off as a polite gesture, has now become highly effective and thousands of copies of the Northern Echo have been lost.

All 106 journalists are actively picketing and there are no signs of cracks in the chapel's ranks.

But if the dispute is to be won the question of support from printers is essential. A lobby is to be held this Thursday (June 23) of the Printing Industries Committee of the TUC to persuade them to instruct members not to cross official picket lines and not to handle blacked copy.

Other Westminister Press chapels have organised a f2 a head levy, asked fot strike pay to be raised to £40 a week and have called for the complete blacking of London Office and Press Association in an attempt to stop strikebreaking at Darlington.

SYMPATHY ACTION

The Westminister Press group chapel will meet in a little over tro weeks when sympathy strikes will be very much on the agenda. Some chapels, notably Bedford Swindon have already called fox sympathy strikes, and mores are being made to get speakers to all other offices in the group.

Editorial Director Herbert, bo has declared "implacable opposition to giving any single body the right to control access to newspapers" (except employes) also said in his letter.

«We know that once joined, battles of this kind can be long and costly but we are very defimitely committed to seeing it through.

Even greater determination mu need to be shown by not only the NUl but also the print unions if this strike is to be won

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

acting on the massive vote for strike action and calling out

AY LATER SUnN