REJECT PAPER OFFER! loin Firemen on TUC

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We are again on target this month with a total of £256.27 received and still not half way through the month. But there can be no room for complacency. December is an even more expensive month than most and it is vital if we are to complete our fund that the full £600 is raised Donations received in the last seven days include: Oxford car workers £15.05; Central London £18; NHS workers £50; Islington £15; Sheffield £10; Hackney £13; Hull £2.10; East London £12; Manchester £2; West London the country will be responding to the call of the London Brigades for a lobby of the TUC on December 21.

The meeting of the TUC General Council will hear the disgraceful report by the Economic Committee which calls on the firemen to return to work and recommends no supporting action.

This recommendation is central to the TUC plans to isolate the FBU and support the Government strategy of defeating one section after another.

Wide support

- The lobby against this proposal has already been supported by the Greater London Association of Trades Councils and many other union bodies.

The meeting and lobby come at an important time as employers and Government have presented plan designed to con firemen into a return to work.

The only tangible element in this plan is for a rise of 10% now-preserving the pay limits intact.

Top quarter

This would, in theory, be followed by rises over the next two • years that would bring firemen into the top paid quarter of skilled manual before the Christmas period begins.

E7; Liverpool £0.89.

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The Government is undertaking that this will be paid irrespective of pay controls then in existence.

This scheme is even more dubious than it sounds. If it went ahead it would fix firemen rigidly into a position in the wages 'league' No guarantee This guarantees nothing. It Phase 3 is lett intact, then the looming prospect of a Phase 4 and permanent wage controls would ensure that firemen's real wages would fall by the same amount as every other section of workers.

And in terms of cash it means no more than pathetic £8.71 increase spread over two years, in addition to these average' FUND 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR. increases.

It would almost certainly be tied to rigid no-strike stipulations-to prevent the firemen getting out of step in the new pay 'league' And the proposals for a cut in the working week would increase workloads through a 'productivity' deal.

To cap it all, the chances are that if a Tory government were re-elected the whole scheme would be aborted, with the firemen left to fight again from scratch.

Sown confusion

Faced by such a phony deal, the FBU leadership should have clearly rejected it. Instead, they have sown confusion by 'not recommending' it, while putting it for general discussion.

Some smaller brigades have been taken in by it, though the major, more militant brigades such as Scotland are solidly against it.

It seems clear as we go to press that despite the warnings of Parry and the FBU leaders-who from the very outset have opposed the strike-the deal will be rejected and the FBU delegate conference will not be recalled.

Defeat

The right wing FBU officials are all too aware that they cannot afford another damaging defeat at the hands of a delegate conference.

But this enthusiasm to preserve the Lib-Lab coalition is no less strong than that of their cronies on the TUC Economic Committee-and firemen must watch for the •+ T 1791 first signs of a sell-out.

Meanwhile workers must demand those 'left' wing MPs that claim to support the firemen while hedging their bets on the 10% pay limit and the Lib-Lab government transform their vague words into positive action.

'Left' Eric Heffer If they really support this strike, they must declare their outright opposition to all forms of wage control, and their refusal to vote contidence in the Lib-Lab coalition.

They must launch an all-out campaign throughout the Labour and trade union movement to remove the Callaghan/Healey leadership, and the right wing TUC leaders who are its mainstay of support.

Anything short of such a tight at this point must expose the 'Lefts' talk of 'support' to the firemen as so much hot air.

While the 'Lefts' decide which side of the fence to jump down on, firemen must press ahead with their full claim. Merlyn Rees-offered fake "puarantees» It is not enough simply to reject the offer. The fight must be stepped up.

Parry has refused to put Fisher of NUPE or other public sector union leaders on the spot-though they are continuing to hold back their own members' claims, leaving the firemen isolated and the 10% limit intact.

The December 21 lobby must redress this balance.

It m ust be the biggest possible lobby, demanding that the full TUC rejects the Economic Committee's report, and that NUPE and other unions come out on strike alongside the firemen.

In every area FBU branches must fight for the establishment of Councils of' Action designed to strengthen and spread their strike.

Such Councils of Action STILL AVAILABLE "The Hotel StrikesLessons for unionisation"

Price 35p plus 10p p&p From the Hotel and Caterg National Action Comtee, 21, Scala St., London W1P 1LU must invite delegates from trade union bodies, tenants' associations and all working class political organisations.

In this way they can become organisations within which a leadership can be developed capable of opposing both government and TUC attacks and betrayals.

Every TUC delegate, every 'left' Labour MP,; every local union official involved in pay claims must be asked this question: Do you put the survival of this rotten Lib-Lab coalition above the interests of the working class?

Those that answer "no' must be forced to bring out their members. Those that answer 'yes' must be forced out of office.

LEAGUE

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