THE FORMER CLAY CROSS councillors are being threatened with court action to collect the £7,000 surcharge" levied against them because of their heroic resistance to the Tories Housing Finance Act.
One of the former councillors. Charlie Bunting, has suggested that the Labour Government might like to approach the "Mr. X" who bailed them out during the Engineers clash with the NIRC to give a hand here.
The opportunity to organise the sort of mass response that will bring the "Mr. Ns out of the woodwork: will come on 8 June when the conference of the labour movement called by Clay Cross Labour Party meets in London.
The conference is receiving widewas also organised in Newcastle the next day.
spread support. Over 500 delegates credentials have already been issued, and the national executive of the engincering white-collar union, TASS.
has circulated all its branches inform ing them of the conterence and urging them to send delegates.
While the defence of the Clay Cross councillors is top of the agenda, the conterence will also take up other key questions facing the workers' movement: Chile, the Shrewsbury 6, and the ALEW's fight against the NIRC.
This conference will be an impor tant opportunity to study and apply the lessons of the Clay Cross fightthe effectiveness of militant, direet action, and the uselessness of relying on the leadership of the Labour Party for solutions to workers' problems.
A picket outside Durham Prison last Saturday was held to call for the repatriation of the Price sisters to Ireland and oppose their suggested transfer to 'E' wing of the prison. A successful public meeting on the same theme serving as un instrument of the capitalist class in their offensive against workers" living standards, and doing attack on workers ability to organise leaders have trussed themselves up in the bonds of the 'social contract.
Just as at Clay Cross, workers' interests can only be defended by those prepared to curry on the strug gle independently of the existing. bureaucratic leaderships of the workers' movement. The success of the 8 June Conference will depend on its readiness to take the first steps towards organising a workers' counTer-offensive, regardless of what the crats are prepared to do about the situation.
Today the Labour Government is almost nothing to block the capitslist instatement.
cies.
Labour Party and trade union bureaudurds FORCE FEEDING TORTURE stupe. he back to Direet Rule
Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the chosen representative of big business, has been elected struggle grew to embrace several hundred thousand hank worker throughoul the whole of the banking system. Significantly, the bank workers had hardly been affected hy the May But Lip had taught the bank workers a number of things Frem the very beginning the Credit Lyonnais workers met in general assemblies to decide amongst the mass of workers the course of the strike. Strike conmittees were elected from such meetings, which linked up first on an area basis and then nationally to The strike committees had the task of preputing the assembly meetings, organising demonstrabions, winning support for the strug occupations, and so on. They represented both unionised and non-unionised workers-which in France (lhe trade unions are political ha From the strike committees were set up a whele series of commissions modelled on Lip which drew the vast majority of workers into the active running of the strikes. These At Credit Lyonnais there was one which was set up to investigate the whole role of the banking system under capitalism, another studied the role of hanks in inflation; a third took up the investigation of a number of
----- pull-quotes -----
NTENNATIONAL MARXIST GROU TYLE SIDE OF