Meriden-scene of a marathon 18 month work-in.
The crisis brought about by this sharp reversal of Government policy has mgangarca all une weaknesses or workers co-ops, both as a solution' to unemployment and a method of struggle. The workers at Meriden have just voted themselves a wage-cut in order to make "their' company viable on the capitalist While in occupation the Meriden workers carried out unpaid modifications on the major product, the Triumph Bonneville 750 'twin", to allow sales on the American market. Now only 350 workers are employed arte co-op, less than a quarter of the old work-torce At the same ume te bikes produced are sold not by the co-op but by NVT itself under a two-year agreement.
Of course, now that other NV workers lace tne sack, te co-op workers can take no action for fear of jeopardising their own jobs. This can only heighten the growing divisions between Meriden and the workers emploved at NVs Small Heath, Birmingham plant. As many as 5,000 workers in the Midlands motorbike industry face the dole queue as a result of the decision of Eric Varley, the Industry Secretary, to end all Government aid to tie ailing motorcycle company Norton Villiers Triumph. Already NVT's Wolverhampton factory -employing 1,600 workers-has been put into liquidation. Bit with talk of a work-in rife, one of the likely victims of Varley's decision is the workers' co-op at Far from providing a working class answer to unemployment, the NVT fiasco has shown that co-ops are a a short-term road to disaster, getting workers to take responsibillity for the fortunes of bankrupt capitalist industries, and isolating the people working in co-ops from their fellow workers in struggle.
At a time when a million are already out of work, with all industrial surveys predicting a further unprecedented rate of growth in unemployment over the next months, the Varley announcement also demonstrates the Labour Government's willingness to let unemployment rise still higher in Ils eltorts to bail out cabitalism After pouring £18 million into NVT itself without an iota of control over the activities of the firm, the Labour Government is now quite happy to torce the workers onto the dole queue. With the picket lines out at Wolverhampton, the demand must go up throughout the labour movement tot nationansanion or the motor cycle