this factory existed in the past is because of cheap labour. It paid them to bring all the castings and raw materials down from the Midlands, have it machined and assembled here, and then sent back to DunWhat did he think of the Government's scheme? 'It's going to divide the workers and plants. It's going to break the union - they are trying the same tactic in the British Steel Corporation now. I don't think we've got much hope, but you just can't sit back and take it. Even if you go down fighting it has made somebody sit His view was shared by Frances Stephchison, one or tweve women auw mem bers in the factory, which makes airengines. Unemployment has doubled to conaluonine units and recondinons more than 2,000 in Maidstone in the past year, and there have been large redundancies in nearby paper and cement works.
Mrs Stephenson is herself facing redundancy for the second time in two years. *Why should we lose our jobs in Maidstone? The jobs aren't redundant - we are! It's a bit late, but we have to do what we can. My 16-year old son had a Job to get work, so now do mey expece Unfortunately there is little hope that leadership for any struggle will come from the local union and plant leadership. The only leaflet distributed came from the local Tory MP, and the purpose of the march was to back up a delegation from the unions Action Committee to the Tory mavor. The local industrial chap lain trailed along too - no doubt offerma spitual consolaton for the comms MRS FRANCES STEPHENSON Any hope of launching a national struggle now seems to rest with the white-collar workers of ASTMS, which is the only union to have rejected the deal on a national scale. Local Divisonal Officer Hugh Glass told me that the possibility of moving towards linking Chrysler and Leyland had been looked at in a paper producca by tne union.
*British Leyland was having a lot of trouble in the truck and land-rover div isions, which cannot keep up with the demand, and we were looking into the possibility of using spare capacity at Chrysler to help British Leyland in this paracular export market Red Weekly has long campaigned for a single integrated nationalised car industry operating under workers control. The implementation of the Ryder Report and 20,000 redundancies in British Leyland over the past year and now the Chrysler masco have shown onlv too painfully the need for a new strategy to detend jobs and living standards. I next week's Red Weekly we will be Workers' Control conference on the car industry and explaining just what our strategy of nationalisation under workers control means for car workers.
MICK GOSLING