The release of the five dockers is a great victory. Massive rank and file solidarity has thrown Heath and the leaders of the capitalist class into their biggest crisis for over 30 years. By last Tuesday any lingering doubts the government may have had about the determination of the working class were smashed. Tens of thousands of workers were joining battle as every hour passed. So the Government had no choice but to free the five or risk everything - the Act, its own future, even the future of its class - in the hurricane of a general strike. Donaldson's NIRC had to free the five, GUARDIAN ANGELS IN THE LORDS The Law Lords also met on Red Wednesday. To feigned surprise they conferred in extreme haste. However, they did have something very clever to offer. Their decision in the Heatons case is intended to do something more than save the Government. It could strengthen the Act. The judges have not simply freed the dockers. They have re-imposed the $ 55,000 fine on the T&GWU. Their lordships understand that their road to victory against trade unionism need not pass through Pentonville Prison. If only the trade union movement will give them time, they are quite prepared to make a detour. GOVERNMENT'S PLANS The events that led to the imprisonment of the dockers have blown the Government off course. When Whitehall officials first drew up the Act they were not so stupid as to believe that victory could be gained by imprisoning individual trade unionists. Such tactics could succeed only after the unions had been greatly weakened. The aim of the Industrial Relations Act was to get the leaders of the trade unions to police their own militants. The way this could be done was by fining the trade unions for the acts of groups of workers in struggle. Thus the NIRC's fining of the T&GWU because of the blacking of lorries. The funds of the unions could be seized. Such a move wou'd be far less likely to lead to a massive response than would imprisonment. Because the union leaderships would reject a militant fight in defence of their funds, they would have no choice but to toughen up their rule books and take action against their shop stewards. In this way the Government would not have to intervene directly but would force the union leaders and rank and file to Bernie Steer's message from prison being read to the Tower Hill rally the day before the five's release. first move. And already their response is markedly different to that of the rank and file. There has been virtually no response to the Lords decision.
WHAT SORT OF RESPONSE? Clearly the central question is the fight against the Act. The focus is now the fine on the T&G. However, this cannot be divorced from the other struggles which are going on. The national docks strike puts great responsibility on the whole working class. The Government and the employers are not only fighting on the overtly political question of the Act. This is only a means to an end for them. It is the means to the end of strengthening the fight to keep wages down, increase redundancies and all those other measures which will ensure bigger rates of profit. Only a combination of the fight on these two fronts gives any chance of coming to grips with the essence of the bourgeoisie's offensive. Any working class leadership which was serious in its struggle against the Government would therefore have to recognise that it is against the bases of capitalist power and not just individual government actions that the real struggle has to be launched. This is the only practical way of defending the trade unions.
LEADERSHIP FOR THE STRUGGLE The last week has proved a severe test for all those using brave words against the Act. Neither Scanlon or Jones said a word - except Jones in unison with Lord Aldington. But we must also ask: where was the Laison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions? A resolute move by this body would have been enough for it to have seized the initiative, but it too was found wanting. It is now necessary for the militants who organised the strikes to join tog. ether to form a unified leadership for the struggle to smash the Act through a national meeting of strikers delegates. The initiative for such a meeting should be taken by such bodies as the National Ports Shop Stewards Committee and the LCDTU.