Last Monday workers in British Leyland plants in Oxford, Birmingham, Leyland (Lancs.) and Bathgate (West Lothian) came out on a one-day stoppage in solidarity with the occupation at Thornycroft's in Basingstoke. Earlier, combine stewards had organised a mass picket outside the factory, threatened with eventual closure as part of BLMC's rationalisation plans.
A START This is a start, but only a start, in the stewards" campaign to make British Leyland redundancies "stop here". To win against the company's resources requires mobilising the resources of all the BLMC workers. A key component of this is also international solidarity. The Fords strike began to show the way. Link ups at an unofficial level as well as through official channels are necessary to defeat plans worked out at an international level (the recent BLMC take-over of the Italian firm Innocenti is but one example of this last). Solidarity is the keynote of this struggle in more ways than one.
SIT - INS Throughout Britain, since UCS and Plesseys, the struggle against redundancies has been linked with the tactic of sit-ins. In many places this tactic has been successful. One of the most important reasons is that the whole workforce is kept together and involved in the strike.
But the sit-in tactic has progressed. We now have the example of the Briants printworkers. It is no accident that Thornycroft workers have asked Briants to produce their posters and leaflets for them. Throughout the campaing to free the five dockers, Briants acted as a centre for struggle. They have seen their struggle as part of the class struggle A test of the Thornycroft's leadership is how far they have followed up these lessons. The service provided by the Basingstoke Liaison Committee through its publication, The Spark, in examining all the possible tactics for struggle should have been provided by the regional officials of the AUEW and the T&GWU. As shown by the mass meeting which decided to occupy, the solidarity and willingness to fight of the workers is not in doubt.
Yet the resolution to occupy, for example, moved by AUEW regional official Pat Farrelly, opened the way to a division in the workforce with its formulation that those "affected by redundancies" (344 out of 1200 in the first instance) should occupy and "receive support" from their fellow workers. Similarly, most of the workforce has not been kept in touch with the negotiations with BLMC and the buyers of the factory, Eatons of Ohio.
SOLIDARITY The key issue is solidarity. A small factory like Thornycroft's, with little economic strength, relies heavily on solidarity actions from BLMC and the Basingstoke labour movement. Failure to build such a movement will have extremely dangerous consequences. for the sit-in. The fight to put the issues involved at Thornycroft's in front of every worker in Britain must not be ducked. One Basingstoke factory, Marryatt and Scotts, raised £20 in a collection as soon as they heard of the sit-in. Many of the stewards are also fighting hard for the sit-in, Scant to motor far. in the BLMC combine. However, other local 'leaders' are in practice not making a big national fight over the issues. MORNING STAR The clue to this state of affairs lies in an article on Thornycroft's in the Morning Star on 25 August. This makes two major points. First, "their employer had torn up an agreement". In other words, the fight is just against the nasty BLMC management, the redundancies have nothing to do with the whole crisis of the profits system, and so there is no need to involve anyone else! The second point simply confuses the entire struggle. "So a bit more of British industry goes American if the deal goes through", says the Morning Star, even commending the "patriotic" reaction of the workers. In other words, bosses are OK if they re British! It is completely insane to make an issue about their nationality. The question is the struggle against redundancies imposed by any bosses or government. By making the Americans the point of attack, the Morning Star diverts attention from the real nature of the struggle as it did in its campaign against the Common Market, WAY FORWARD The way forward is clear. Thornycroft's workers should use organisations like the Basingstoke Liaison Committee to build solidarity in the local labour movement. They should involve local workers in their struggle as well as fighting hard for the BLMC combine tổ step up its solidarity actions. Thornycroft's is the place where the fight against redundancies is being fought out. Thornycroft's must be seen by all workers as a centre for struggle. in advance any concessions in return. This has prepared the way for the management to try to pick off the weaker and lower paid sections. But the battle is by no means lost, and the need to start production of the ADO 67 early next year will put the stewards in a strong position.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THORNYCROFT'S AND JAGUARS The major struggles within BLMC in the coming months will centre around the two issues of plant closures and redundancy, and the extension of MDW to further sections of The outcome of every fight over both issues will directly affect the rest of the combine.
If combine-wide opposition can be made strong enough to secure the success of the occupation of Thornycroft's, winning the demand for WORK-SHARING WITH NO LOSS OF PAY, then the future of every BLMC employee will be that much more secure. A fighting precedent will be established so that BLMC will be less able to go on responding to each up and down of the market by sacking workers as in the past. The workers must refuse to go on paying with their livelihoods and living standards for the anarchy of capitalist, market production.
The same goes for every dispute over MDW as BLMC want to impose the same rate and conditions throughout the combine and move toward combine-wide bargaining every concession wrung out of them in one place raises the stakes for the rest of the combine. Each settlement becomes the minimum negotiating position for the next. There must be unity of the combine in support of every fight against the extension of MDW, and where MDW has already been imposed, to secure concessions that defeat BLMC's purpose in introducing it.
The basis of the struggle must be:NO REDUNDANCIES IN THE COMBINE WORK SHARING WITH NO LOSS OF PAY. A WORKERS' VETO ON: ALL CHANGES I MANNING LEVELS; ALL CHANGES IN LINE SPEEDS AND WORK SCHEDULES; ALL MOVEMENT OF LABOUR; ALL CHANGES IN WORK PRACTICES (i.e. introduction of new machinery and methods