Nec Backs 10% Limit - Not Firemen

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The National Executive of the Labour Party refused to give support to the firemen last week and instead called for urgent talks with the Prime Minister, Callaghan and the Chancellor, Healey, limit Th e starting point for these talks is complete subservie nce to the pay policy Ruled out A motion put by the Young Socialists executive member, Nick Bradley' was ruled out of order.

It was a mild enough motion. It did not even specifically call for the money to be paid.

It simply expressed 'concern' and said the FBU claim was "justified by the terrible drop in living standards that working people have suffered in the last few years."

In its search for a reasonable' defence of the firemen the motion even pointed to the electoral support that paying the claim would bring.

It was all in all the sort of motion that even right wing are prepared to But it was much too strong meat for the Labour executive The motion was not accepted as an emergency because the FBU had not asked the NEC to intervene.

Hailed

So, despite the fact that a position in favour of the strikers •would have been hailed by every fireman on every picket line, this gave the executive chaired by 'left' talking Minister Joan A wounded shark is in severe danger of being torn to pieces by its fellow hunters, should it happen to get wounded while they are feeding.

Much the same casual butchery is also the practice of Fleet Street.

The Mirror Group has shown what sharp teeth it has by sacking every single one of its 420 journalists over their pay claim.

But the dispute has made a wound in the soft underbelly of the IPC paper, and the blood has drawn the other Fleet Street papers towards the kill.

Most of the nationals are covered by a sort of cannibal gentlemen's agreement that they will not increase their own print run when one of the other papers is off the streets due to a strike.

But since the Mirror Group left the security net of the Newspaper Publishers Association its fellow carniLestor, bureaucratic a way out.

Instead Norman Atkinson, searching into the depths of his 'left' reputation to come up with something, proposed that an NEC deputationLestor and General Secretary Ron Hayward-meet Callaghan and Healey in private.

This motion was hailed with relief. All bar three members of the executive voted for it, and those that opposed it (including Shirley Williams) were all hardened right wingers.

If the 'lefts' that generally dominate Labour's NEC are not prepared to come out in full support of the firemen then there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that will force them to break from complete support for the coalition and its policy of wage cuts, job cuts and cuts in public spending.

The Tribune Group has just increased its affiliation fee by 50%. Neither this, nor cosy chats with Callaghan are able to save them from complete and utter political bankruptcy•

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over the 'rigid applica- tion' of the ten percent