Rail Men Wheighell'

Scan page 8

rail unions are still being held at bay by their leaders Ionow 1 1- C-11 ing the rejection of the British Rail Board's pay offer on May 5th. Sidney Weighell, general secretary of the NUR stated 'unequivocally' that "the union does not accept that the Board's 'ability to pay' is a valid reason for denying railwaymen adequate basic rates of pay."

RESISTANCE Trapped by the resistance of his membership to cuts in their living standards,Wheighell makes his reluctance to fight very obvious in every statement. He pointed out sadly that: "The messages coming to NUR headquarters from all over the country make it abundantly clear that even if the union leaders had been prepared to accept an offer anywhere near the 21.2% suggested the union's trass roots memberChrysler management at the Stoke plant in Coventry attempted unsuccessfully to split the wage strike now in progress by an offer of bogus workers' participation in the style of Wedgewood Benn. This manoeuvre was rejected by a mass meeting and the strike continues.

The Chrysler proposals however had another side to them - they were an overture to Benn preparatory to appealing to the Labour government for a similar scheme to Ryder for Chrysler.

This, along with Stokes' defence of the Ryder Report at the BLMC shareholders meeting and Heseltine's calculation that its implementation would mean 33,000 redundancies, should end all speculation that the kyder Keport 1s anything other than a direct attacl on the working class.

It is to the credit of Chrysler workers that the left diversion of Benn "workers participation" fraud was rejected. This same strength is reflected in the strike of office workers in Dunlop which has shut down almost the whole of BLMC.

These struggles show that given leadership and programme the working class will resist the attacks being launched upon them and are not easily misled by left talk.

From the first edition of Socialist Press, whére we analysed Benn's Industry Bill, under the headline 'Jail For Opening the Books?' , our paper has exposed the betrayals of the reformists, while fighting in practice in the workers' movementh for the demands and principles of the Transitional Programme.

Our paper is already winning a very favourable response from many new readers. To improve it and move towards weekly publication we need your support.

Send donations to our £500 per month development fund to:

Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Pk Hith London NW5 1HR.

Printed and Published by the Workers Socialist League, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NWS 1HR.

by Trade The contrast between the pull hack of the leaders and the movement of the membership is not often so openly admitted. Weighall went on: "There is no way in which the union could sell a 21.2% settlement, or any other settlement in that area to railwaymen at the present time"

OFFER

The Board's offer, which includi consolidation of existing threshhold payments, would only bring the basic rate for railwaymen to £31.10 - far short of the basic rates in other nationalised industries. The Board's justification centres on the claim that its financial state is "disastrous". Their intention is to recoup as much as possible out of their deficit by further exploitation of railwaymen.

H. Farrimond, head of BR industrial relations stated this openly saying that "with such a labour intensive industry, manpower costs must be the prime area for Letter WRP Dear Comrade, weretold - NO WSL at WRP meetings.

fear?

WRP.

Let it be recorded Winsford, economies."

Pressure must be intensified therefore on Wheighall. who in LAIL иди - 3 77 A dear this inflationary period must lead a fight not just for the full claim, but also for a sliding scale of wages clause to defend that settle ment against inflation, compensa: ing for the rising cost of living as assessed by railway trade union committees.

MANAGEMENT

The drive to attack railway jobs must also raise the demand for the abolition of the Rail Board. As part of the fight for this, local regional and national committees of railway trade unionists must demand access to all accounts and information available to BR management, and the right to supervise its actions. This is the necessary beginning to full workers' management of the railways as part of an integrated planned transport system, nationalised under workers' management. This is the only way to defend rail jobs.

May 6th.

Thugs.....cont Out Movement as a way forwar‹ from the demonstration.

The IS mentioned not a wol of politics, their speaker simply saying that the National Front must be smashed.

From the demonstration itself one very clear lesson must be drawn. The Front are prepared to mount brutal unprovokı attacks by trained groups. One hour after the demonstration hac dispersed a group of students who had been on the demonstration were caught in an isolated position by this gang and beaten up.

When action is mobilised agains the National Front this must include organised workers defence squads ready at any moment to defend against this type of attack.

The Oxford demonstration was a protest with a defensive posture and was caught by surprise by the fascist attack. As Trotsky wrote in the Transitional Programme:

"It is necessary to give organised expression to the valid hatred of the workers toward scabs and bands of gangsters and fascists. It is necessary to advance the slogan of a workers' militia as the one serious guarantee for the inviolability of workers' organisations, meetings and press.

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

-500 monthl developme