South London AUEW members offer to physically defend their union headquarters from bailiffs who may try to enforce a court judgement for £2,800 made against the Engineers' Union under the Industrial Relations Act. National This frustration is approaching an explosive level. Militants in many industries are preparing to fight for wage claims which will bust Tory Government policy wide open. This will be the match that sets off the explosion.
POLICIES NEEDED The occasion of the TUC is an opportunity for militants to consider the type of policies necessary to lead the movement forward the sort of policies which the TUC would adopt were it really concerned with fighting for the needs of the mass of workers. However, given the fact that the TUC is dominated by trade union bureaucrats who do not really represent working class interests, it will be up to rank-and-file militants themselves to take the steps necessary to develop and carry out such policies.
The first task must be to ensure that the forces of the working class movement are in top shape for the coming fight. TUC-Government. talks, which sow confusion throughout the working class and strengthen the hand of the Government, must be stopped. It is not through negotiations but through struggle that working class interests will be served. The job now is to devote all energies to preparing that struggle.
The capitalist state is trying to weaken the working class movement before the key battles begin. This must be blocked. The full force of the trade union movement should be placed behind the 24 building workers who are on trial in Shrewsbury* over their picketing activities, in order to assure their acquittal and the protection of this crucial instrument of working class struggle from legal attack.
CAPITALIST MANOEUVRES The unity of the working class will be essential in the months ahead But such unity cannot be forged as long as white workers are infected by racist ideas and black workers can be Blackpool. It will be meeting at a crucial turning point for the There is tremendous frustration throughout the working class today, caused by the never-ending wearing down of living standards under the Tories' wage and price policy, and the thousand-and-one ways in which capitalist exploitation grinds down the working class: redundancies, speed-up, the need to work long hours to victimised by racist laws. A decisive blow would be struck against racism and for working class unity by purging racism from the trade union movement and mobilising the power of the trade unions against all racist laws the Immigration Act, the Aliens Acts, and the Pakistan Act. Ireland is a testing ground for new techniques and weapons of repression. The army is being toughened up there for the dirty work it will soon have to carry out against the British working class. A major blow must be struck now against these manoeuvres of the ruling class in Ireland. What is needed is a campaign throughout the working class for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Ireland and in support of the right of the whole Irish nation to self-determination.
SOLIDARITY The widest possible solidarity must be developed throughout the trade union movement with any group of workers which launches a struggle against the Government, But such solidarity must be prepared, and fall workers convinced of the need for common strug gle. A systematic campaign of education should be launched along with the setting up by all trades councils and shop stewards committees of local delegate bodies to plan the practical organisation of solidarity This would assure that the struggle of any single group of workers against the Government would be met with an organisea wave or sondarity iron the rest of the working class. Such a powerful movement would soon go beyond solidarity actions and begin to put forward its own demands on the bosses and the Government. It would rapidly reach the scale of a general strike GENERAL STRIKE A general strike movement would challenge the very ability of the Tory Government to rule the country and by calling for the downfall of this hated Government, could draw into struggle every group that has suffered from Tory policies: trade HORSES would be joined by the mass of students, housewives, unbe needed if the coming struggles are to be seriously fought and won. organised workers, pensioners, and many professional workers and small traders.
The general strike is the form of struggle that can most successfully unite the working class and its allies and, at the same time, most effectively undermine the power of the ruling class and its state machine. It would not have to content itself with tampering with this or that policy of the Tory government, but could kick out that government along with all its pro-capitalist policies. The way would then be clear for the working class to establish its own policies over important matters of concern to the mass of people, such as prices.
There is little chance that the TUC will take up questions such as these but a number of very important ques tions will be discussed at the TUC, including the future of the TUC-Government talks. It is vitally important that the important victory won by the left at the AUEW conference be followed up, and the engineers' resolution calling off the talks be carried at the TUC If this happens, it will be all the easier for the mass of rank-and-file militants to work out and put into action a -strategy and plan of practical organisation for the battles ahead. But whatever happens. steps must be taken immediately to create the understanding and organisation among the mass of workers that can develop and extend future struggles, and lay the basis for a general strike to kick out the Tory Government. President Hugh Scanion refused their offer, in line with the AUEW leadership's policy of passive 'non-cooperation' with the Act. However, positive action - such as this excellent initiative by South London militants - are what will
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development of working class struggle in this country. make up for low pay, etc.