Birmingham has clearly highlighted what 8th which showed up the official leadership and not interested in action that is effective. The The campaign against the Tory Bill in the rank-and-file militants are up against -both from the Government and employers and from the Labour Party and trade union leadership.
December 8th and the Trades Council When the action on December 8th was announced in November, the Trades Council It was obvious that this call was made to divert the struggle and take it out of the control of the employees had been given notice and the firm rank and file movement. January Ist had no political significance as had December 8th (the holidays, but it helped to confuse the iscue as to dental with the financial position of the firm, exactly who was on strike and who was still recovering from the previous night-a confusion shown the complete mismanagement of the that the mass media took advantage of). The Trades Council also stated that it had decided to call this demonstration so that action against the Bill would be "orderly and respectable".
Stoppages on December 8th were probably sumular to that in the rest of the country generally. But the only demonstration and meeting planned was that of the students of Aston University. Although the demonstration was small (about 400) the action of the students was welcomed by those workers who were on it.
The December 8th action was important in showing the workers how some so-called "left" trade union leaders reacted to such a situation.
With January Ist and January 12th actions. which were both "official" actions, these "eft" leaders were in a good position to weaken the "unofficial action by urguing for support for the other dates-in the interests of "unity" of course in the labour movement.
The Silas Tlyde Affair One very important event resulted from Dec.
also showed, in a limited way, the crisis British capitalism is in at the moment. A small firm of sheet metal workers, Silas Hyde, employing about 100 people, "sacked" 70 workers who had 1926 over 5,000 workers (not even the press gone out on December 8th. It was declared a lock-out by the unions concerned the first in Hirmingham for many years. In the weck before stration was extremely high, and rightly so, Christmas certain facts about the state of the firm came to light which were given a fair counter-acted by calling a strike on Jantary Ist. amount of publicity. Silas Hyde was in the red to the tune of £96,000. The remaining announced that it was either going into liquidalion or was hoping someone would buy it up. day the Bill was published) and more important So now the issue was no longer a lock-out but it was a day of traditional high absenteeism (not of receiving redundancy money the employers that workers should not be "seizing" these extra insisting that the sackings were entirely coinciSince then other information received has firm. Until three vears ago, Silas Hyde was a firm that was making sheet metal. It was small La new boss came on the scene who didn't know too much about the business and decided that buses were more profitable. It didn't matter that the workers didn't know how to make buses or that they didn't really have the right equipment-buses were the thing. And from that time Silas Hyde made a steady loss. (Never the rank and file movement, and not for the was there a more obvious case for opening the But despite the important struggle that these workers are involved in and which raises many important issues; despite the official backings of the unions, the Trades Council has done nothing to help: which makes it all the more hypocritical of them to call the Jan. Ist action against the Bill, when they cannot even defend workers who are in a position many other workers will be in if and when the Bill But any militant who was at the meeting on January ist will know the Trades Council ure demonstration itself was tremendous and much bigger than anyone had expected, It was the largest demonstration in Birmingham since dared call them students this time) marching through the city centre. Morale on that demonfor (in spite of the original reasons why the demonstration had been called for that day) Birmingham, traditionally known as a reactionary city, had produced one of the biggest actions so far against the Bill.
The meeting in the overflowing Town Hall was as expected with Harry Urwin (on the General Council of the TUC) and Eric Heffer. Although we were promised that Urwin would tell us what action we could take aguinst the Bill, all he talked about was the implications ot the Bill-something everyone knew. After all, That's why we were all there. Heffer made a typically demagogic speech and for those milibut the business was quite successful. However, demonstration, it may have seemed disappoint- tants who had perhaps been encouraged by the ing to hear the thunderous applause he received, especially when he talked about fighting the Bill in the committee stage in the House of Cormons. He did mention the need to work outside Parliament, but he didn't go into details, and he also implied that this was for likes of him who would be "struggling" in the House of Commons-a typical load of ParliaThe "Popular From The most significant event of that meeting was the obvious and crude alliance between the Labour Party and Communist Party, Dick Etheridge, Austin convenor, member of the C.P. and well-known Dec. Sth scab, called for the return of a Labour Government-just that with no conditions posed. Although there was a little hostile reaction when Echeridge came on stage to make an appeal for money, it was sad to see how shorl the memory of the Birmingha working class was, as they responded to hus jokes, uppeals and speeches. L1,300 was collec ted for the Trades Council to be used in action against the Bill (rumour has it that £600 will b used to send couches down to London on Feb 21st to hear Wilson in the Albert Hall).
The Need for an Action Committee All these factors makes the setting up of a rank and-file action committee extremely urgent. TI is important that the moverent is not left in the hands of the burcaucrats and C.P.-left The matter is becoming more and more urgent every day. The threat of redundancy is prevalent in all industries in the Midlands. The gas turbine shop at Lucas is being closed down and there have been redundancies. In Coventr redundancies at British Leyland were announce It is essential that these events plus Tory policy in general (such us cuts on the social ser vices, increases in prices, ete.) are seen as an integral part of the Tories' policy. Only in this way will action against the Bill broaden out int 1 general anti-capitalist one, which it has to do if the Tory Government is to be smashed. But this cannot be left in the hands of "left" buresucrats. The rank and file must form an action committes calling for the trade union leadership to take offensive action, and if it doesn't do so (as seems highly likely) then it must take on that responsibility itself.
Although the struggle in Birmingham looks as though it has been defused by the T.U. leadership, Jan. Ist will serve as inspiration to the working class as what the rank and file can achieve in spile of and not because of their "Icadors".
Tessa van Gelderen Birrun glam