Stop the Excuses!

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The major excuse of the union leaders for not calling a strike is to say that it is not up to them to do so-that it is the responsibility of the membership "at a local level"

The membership. they claim. are "apathetic" and "don't want to fight the Tories"

But take the question of defending school meals. In union branch meetings up and down the country, the membership, outraged at the attack on jobs and services, have been made "apathetic" by the fact that their union leaders have offered them no perspective for a fight to stop the school meals cuts.

They are told they have to find solutions at a local level and that there is to be no nationally organised campaign.

"Natural Wastage"

This means that instead of mobiling the strength of the whole union the fight is left up to isolated sections already run down to skeleton staff by the union leaders acceptance of "natural wastage", ', and huge rises in school meal prices.

Other members are assured, especially&in NUPE, that there would be no public support for any strike action as we are in the grip of a prejudiced national press who will only portray our actions as inflicting suffering on the helpless!

With leaders like these who needs enemies?

At best the union leaders offer members the gesture of one-day or half-day token strikewhich many members reject as being pointless, and just a straight loss of pay. called by Lambeth Labour Group.

Usually, however, the leadership say that since the rest of the membership won't fight. no strike is better than an unsupported strike.

One way and the other, union members are encouraged to settle for no action.

In many other cases defensive action against the cuts. like the use of strike action, is not even discussed and the local leadership seeking the point of least resistance, fight to get members to accept voluntary redundancy schemes (GMWU Hull, Oxford County NUPE).

Another well known argument familiar to the many women in the membership of the public sector unions is that the only people who suffer from strike action in the public sector are the people we are paid to look after.

A desperate picture is painted of geriatrics abandoned as old peoples' homes go on strike or the sick dying in hospital wards as the heating is cut off.

Strike action presented in this way is therefore immediately dismissed as impossible by the members who care very deeply about the services that they provide.

What is not placed before union members is the whole question of emergency cover, that in strike action the services would not necessarily be withdrawn, but placed under workers' control. The strike committee should decide on what provision had to be made and would decide not to withdraw homehelps, for example, from essential jobs.

We would not be inflicting suffering on the users of the public sector but would be dealing an enormous political blow by taking these services out of management's hands and running them ourselves with the workers deciding on emergency cover.

Such cover was provided during the firemen's national strike and the strikes of ambulance drivers.

The point that is dodged by the national leaderships of NUPE, GWU, and NALGO is that it really shouldn't be left up to the membership in 'caring' sections to take action alone on a local level They never mention the fact that nationally the three public sector unions have the power to bring the country to a standstill. They control our cities, the water works, sewage, waste disposal, our roads, courts and local government offices.

"all-out strike action"

Full all-out strike action, not an odd day's stoppage here and there, could well end Tory rule.

What is needed is a strong lead from a national level. The stakes must be clearly placed before the working class: either we must endure three more years of Tory rule, the end of our social services, the loss of still more jobs and union rights or we fight for national strike action.

Occupations should be established immediately to defend threatened facilities, with full scale back up strike action.

Labour-run local authorities should refuse to implement cuts, not put up rents and rates, repudiate interest charges and in the event of any victimisation call upon immediate supporting strike action.

Enough is enough! Stop the TUC making excuses! Force action now! claimed that these houses up to October 1979 had a better than average fire record —the average being one fire in every 565 council houses per year.

Steel Houses Yet of the 500 steel houses on the estate, no less than six have burnt down in one single year!

The council representatives and fire officers continually avoided questions posed by tenants at the meeting and devoted much of the time to giving fire precaution advice.

Nor is this just a local issue. It is estimated there are 40,000 of these steel houses in various areas of the country.

They were built in 1946 with cheap materials as temporary residences designed to last 15-17 years!

In Hull a tenants' action committee is stepping up the fight to force the council to renovate 150 steel houses.

The campaigners claim that Scunthorpe Council carried out such work on 500 houses. But despite a successful fight to stop the Hull Council from simply demolishing the hazardous bulldings, they have not been successtul in forcing them to carry out the renovation work, the cost of which is estimated at €6,800 per house.

Inquiry

In Leicester a resolution calling for an independent trade union inquiry into the fires has been passed by the Trades Council after an appeal by the residents.

This inquiry must involve both trade unionists and the tenants to investigate the real causes of the fires and the structure of the houses.

Since the issue will inevitably be either a massive renovation or rebuilding programme it must also be taken into the Labour Party and linked with a demand that the Labour-controlled City Council reverse their policy on ending council house building.