[al Secretary of the firemen's union calls on…]
Socialist Press1977 1977-11-30Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 1 →
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al Secretary of the firemen's union calls on the Callaghan, to plead for some way out of the strike, his members on the picket lines are growing increasingly determined against any compromise.
Members of the FBU, well into their third week on strike, are beginning to turn their anger against the government Ministers who refuse to allow them to be paid.
Wherever Callaghan travels he is met by lobbies shouting at him to get out. His arrogant replies only serve to stoke up anger against the Lib-Lab government among the firemen.
Need
Now that some of the strikers have learnt that to win their 30% claim, they must get rid of the wage-cutting coalition government, they must now go .further.
They must face up to the need to build a new leadership in the FBU which is prepared to press home the fight and call on every other section of workers to follow the firemen's lead and take action on their own claims.
The leaders of the FBU know that the honeymoon days of the strike are running out fast.
Hostility
Their members can no longer be expected to behave like good lads on the picket.
Hostility has developed towards fire officers who scab on their dispute.
The initial tolerance towards the troops is also beginning to turn into bitterness, though much confusion remains.
Even some militants remain convinced that army scabbing on a firemen's strike is somehow different from them scabbing on other trade union disputes.
In this they reflect the Callaghan inadequacies of their union leadership, who have done nothing to strengthen the strike or spell out to their members the issues involved.
Roundly booed
When Parry rose to speak to the firemen who marched through London at the weekend he was roundly booed. He has opposed the strike from the beginning. Now he is sitting and waiting for it to reach a crisis so that he can move to stifle it.
Firemen are right to boo Parry. They are right to heckle Callaghan.
But they and the whole working class must also turn their attention to the leaders of the other unions with wage claims outstanding.
At the centre of the problem is the 12-month rule designed to prevent workers fighting sheulder to shoulder.
Pieced together
The Lib-Lab coalition was. pieced together in March in a bid to enforce a third round of wage control on the working class.
As union conferences