Grunwick-postmen Show the Way Retreat Before Blacking

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accepted on the nod by the 37 member Executive with not so much as a thought for the views of TGWU members.

ENDORSED

Jones knows the Executiveright wing, 'left' wing and Communist Party members alike-have already endorsed his call for an "orderly return" (essentially meaning more controls).

But it may be harder to fool the conference as a whole.

A large number of resolutions indicative of the mood on the shop floor call for an end to wage controls and several call for a clear alternative-a sliding scale of wages.

Meanwhile NUM leaders, too, are involved in a struggle in which wording is crucial The Yorkshine delegation, which last year crumbled in front of a right wing manoeuvre which turned their bold £100 a week demand into an empty siate of hope and a miserable f4 a week rise are this year attempting to reverse the situation.

It seems possible the NUM will throw out the 12 month rule. It is essential this is done by all unions. Far from annual increases, workers need virtually weekly increases simply to keep pace with today's inflation.

The mechanism for this must be for substantial increases to be tied to a sliding scale of wages according to an index of inflation as assessed by committees of trade unionists and housewives.

As new claims are drawn up workers must ensure this demand is included and fought for.

Postal workers blacking Grunwick mail at the Cricklewood sorting office have given the clearest possible reply to the attacks and threats against the trade union movement by the They i have refused to bow down beneath the threats from George Ward, John Gorst and the National Association for Freedom that the full weight of the law would be used against them if they carried on blacking the mail.

COURAGEOUS

At the same time they have refused to bow down before the attack by their own General Secretary, Tom Jackson, in supporting management threats to suspend them.

The decision on Tuesday to continue blacking Grunwick mail is the latest in a two week series of courageous stands in support of Grunwicks and the whole trade union' movement.

SHARP CONTRAST

And their defiance of the threat from the courts has been in sharp contrast to the pathetic subservience of Jackson and the rest of the trade union bureaucracy-who throw every trade union principle and aim overboard at the first approach of a writ or the first glimpse of a judicial wig.

The most important lesson to emerge from their stand is that none of the threats of legal action against them have so far been carried out. For two weeks Jackson, Gorst, Ward and every Labour Minister who could get to his or her feet have condemned the postal blacking as "illegal"

The Tories are using Grunwick to prepare anti-strike and picket legislation. Involved is the response of all the trade union movement to these threats. Most trade union leaders have followed Grantham and Jackson and Jones with support for the 'law' , i.e. this will be their attitude to Tory laws.

But the response from postal workers all over the country has prevented this legal attack from taking place. Postal branches have sent telegrams of support telling the Cricklewood workers clearly -if they victimise you, we come out on strike.

NO WAY Last week, defying the suspension threat, the Cricklewood branch sevretary, David Dodd said:

"There is no way we are going to handle any Grunwick mail. As far as we are concerned we are talking about the right of people to join a trade union and be represented by it. We must stand up and be counted."

The possibility is now raised of a national strike throughout the Union of Postal Workers, as much against their own strike breaking Executive as the Post Office and the Tories.

The Post Office has now been handed the same free ticket as British Leyland were by Scanlon during the toolmakers' strikefull permission to victimise the membership.

The first threats against the postal workers came from Jackson himself. He sent a telegram on June saying: "Work normally. Do not break the law."

Jackson's own record speaks for itself. In January he called off proposed telephone blacking against South Africa after NAFF took out an injunction. In November he ordered the blacking of Grunwick to be called off after threats of legal action were made.

WRIT

The next threat came from John Gorst, the Tory MP acting as the public face of extortion for the management of Grunwick Last week he announced a hatful of legal actions planned in conjunction with George Ward. Central to these actions was a writ against the Cricklewood postal workers, and against the Post Office!

IMPOTENT

The legal advice for these threats came from the Na ional Association for Freedom and both Gouriet's organisation and runwick now the same lawyers. Those lawyers have been proved impotent against the weight of workers determined not to yield to the courts.

Ironically the postal workers have the verbal backing of every other union bureaucrat, since the TUC has called for blacking of Grunwicks. But none of this verbal support is being directed towards this single group of workers actually putting it into effect. None of these union leaders have carried out the action which would close Grunwicks tomorrow-the blacking of electricity and water.

in this period with mass arrests a feature not only at Grunwicks but also in Darlington and Desoutters engineering works, the crucial question of the crisis of leadership of the working class can emerge from a straightforward trade union dispute.

GROUNDWORK

The Grunwick dispute started 11 months ago over a relatively straightforward trade union issue of recognition. It has developed into a major battle against attacks on trade union rights, in which the Tories are attempting to lay the groundwork for making any form of effective picketing a criminal offence, and the Labour politicians have been attempting to outbid them.

The court of inquiry with its sickening composition of reactionary Tories and right wing bureaucrats is a major move by the coalition government to start a witch-hunt against the left. The court should be boycotted by all trade unionists.

At the first sign of victimsation of a single postal worker all UPW members should call a national strike throughour their union and should be supported by workers in other unions backing the right to take action Miners' leaders have called for a mass picket on July 11 and the TUC have called a supporting demonstration. There must be a mass mobilisation to picket Grunwick on that date and to close the factory. But the central demand from that date must be the immediate imposition of blacking of all post services, delivery vehicles, water and elec tricity.

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RATS ABANDON SINKING SHIP The rece invasions of Mozambique and Zambian increase in economic pressure on the urban blacks will spread the