It is absolutely necessary to step up these actions throughout the trade unions with mass factory and workplace meetings to discuss the claims and how to struggle for them, Local and national conferences of shop stewards representatives should be organised to discuss how to carry forward the struggle-shop stewards quarterlies, combine committees, or important shop steward committees could convene these.
An excellent example of such a step is the call from prominent engineering convenots, supported by the Sheffield District Committee of the AUEW, for a national engineering convenors conference on 14 December. Docks shop stewards are also holding national meetings to discuss the way forward.
In almost all struggles, the tactic of occupation will be vital. Not only isit the best defence against lock outs, scabbing, and police attacks, as dozens of recent struggles have shown, but every occupied plant can become a ferve centre for communications and the organisation of every type of activity.
In the coming struggles militants must fight *mass meetings of workers to explain and prepare the coming struggles. *local, regional and national meetings of shop stewards delegates to plan the struggle. *strikes to be occupation strikes whenever possible *conduct of the struggle at all levels to be in the hands of those engaged in the struggle: clected strike committees on the local, regional and national level. *no secret negotiations: elected representatives of the workers to be present at all negotiations; all negotiations to be regularly reported to mass meetings of workers, who will have the time!.. Yet the nagging doubt remains in the minds of many people that sooner or later this probiem will have to be resolved."
It is quite clear that the coming months will see the most massive attack on picketing rights for decades. If the state can succeed in defeating the picket lines, all hopes of the working class winning the coming battles will be lost. The self defence of picket lines will be one of the most important of all the coming fights. But if the police are making their preparations. the working class has also shown it is perfectly capable of defending its picket lines. When the police savagely attacked the Hill dockers! picket lines in the last docks strike the dockers called in mass reinforcements and fought back with the same weapons as the police. When the police consistently broke the miners' picket line at Saltley, 50,000 engineering workers struck and 10,000 staged a mass picket which sent the police fleeing in disarray. Although it is at present still small, the mobilisation against the Shrewshury trials was given a big boost on 3 October with strikes by Liverpool dockers and building workers across the country. The arrest of pickets in Sheffield was met by a one-day district AUEW strike These types of action must be enormously stepped up, however, if the defence of picketing against the new attacks is to be MCCO SILL *For the formation in every strike of teams of flying pickets under the control of an elected strike committee. *For the organisation of self-defence of picket lines. *For demonstrutions of solidarity with the Shrewsbury 24 in every area; prepure for mass strike action if the 24 are not acquitted. regular meetings, not only of the men in the strike, but their wives as well. Where such active involvement is not possible, then at least regular leaflets and information sheets must be produced to keep the wives informed about the development of the strike, and to counteract the lies of the press, radio and television.
However, in order to win women over to the struggle in a massive way it is necessary to struggle for the rights and interests of women. In fact, the trade unions have such a terrible record even on elementary issues such as equal pay, that it is surprising women ever bother to have anything at all to do with the working class movement. If the support of half the working class is really to be guined for the struggle against Phase 3 the demand for: *Equal pay now has to ccho through the working class this winter.
Ancther group who must be drawn into the struggle are black and immigrant workers. They are one of the most oppressed sections of the working class, are subject to a whole range of restrictions imposed by racist luws, and suffer continual harassment at the hands of racist state authorities, especially the police and the courts.
However racism is not the exclusive possession of the estate -it is deeply implanted in the trade union movement and the working class. This is a serious weakness which the ruling dass will try to use to split and weaken working class struggles. In order to unify the working class in the coming battles we must fight to *Purge the trade unions of all forms of ricem. *End all racist laws: the Immigration Acts, the Alien Acts, the Pakistan Act, Une of the most powertul political tools the ruling class has had to prepare its offensive has been the TUC-Government talks. These talks both implied that the working class has some interest in helping the Tories out of the