T&G Convenor at CAV. For the last seven weeks workers at the Lucas-combine CAV factory, in Fazakerley, Liverpool, have been occupying their site in a fight against management plans to "rationalise" the factory out of existence. As promised, we are continuing our coverage of the CAV workers' struggle through an interview with Franny Martin, Transport & General Workers' Union convenor at CAV.
Franny offers up to date information on the conduct of the struggle and the support it has received so far. He also makes a very important point which does much to clarify the nature of struggles like this one.
LINKS A factory is not only a place which workers go to in order to sell their labour power and be exploited by the capitalist system; it is also the centre of a very important set of links built up among the workers themselves in the fight against this very exploitation and the oppressive conditions under whichit takes place. Thus a struggle like that at CAV is not only about the "right to work" a "right" the capitalist class has long ago recognised, provided it is on their terms. Such struggles are also about the workers' need to preserve those links that allow them to combat capitalist exploitation and oppression what Franny at one point calls the "right to belong".
It is only when we understand this that we can understand the significance of occupations: they are the highest expression of the links formed by workers in their struggle, on a local level. That is, within the factory the social relationships of the workers involved in an occupation are used to smash the power of management (the managers are expelled and their offices taken over, foremen either leave or lose their special authority, etc.) and these relationships then beoome the basis for a new authority, based directly upon the needs of the workers themselves. Thus a factory occupation is a sort of tiny rehearsal of the socialist revolution itself: not in the sense that it can lead to "socialism in one factory", but in the sense that just as workers within one factory are forced, in order to meet their basic class needs, to smash the authority of capitalist management and establish their own institutions in its place (mass meetings, occupation committees, administrative committees etc.) so will the whole working class eventually be forced by the logic of their fight to smash the authority of the capitalist state and set up new institutions based upon the social relations, and serving the needs, of the whole working class. This, a sort of occupation of the whole capitalist system by the entire working class, will be the socialist revolution: and when it happens it will be just as real and just as necessary for the mass of workers as is the CAV occupation to that single group of workers. There is a widespread capitalist "rationalisation" of British industry at the present time. What part do you think this has had in your problems here at CAV? Over the last two and a half years Lucas have reorganised the whole combine into three production areas (electrical, aerospace, and fuel injection equipment). Fuel injection equipment, of which we are a part, is now mainly situated in factories in the SouthEast. These are all combine factories located, in our opinion, with an eye on the Common Market. They've also got a Spanish factory, Condiesel So Lucas are extending their control and at the same time, rationalizing their operations. This has enabled them to cut down their labour force from 76,000 to 62,000 according to the latest figures we've seen. So, through their rationalisation programme, they ve reduced the labour force by 14,000 people.
I think the whole question of rationalisation by multinational combines is geared purely to the aim of reaching higher profits. The problems affecting workers are only given secondary importance these combines take care of their own particular interests first. We think that our task is to break down.the communication barrier and get across with the message that only the working class will support the working class: we can't expect anything from those who live on our backs.
How do you plan to carry on the struggle from this point?
Our main intention, obviously, is to get support from our fellow workers in the group, and to black Lucas products. We've had an important success here on this site already by stopping the operation of Lucas Industrial equipment. They employed 350 people on this site, but we've forced them to close down now, so Lucas have lost all their electrical production from here. We have also imprisoned all of Lucas' transport on this site -and that controls the destiny of Victor Works, part of the aerospace division. So very soon we will see the acrospace operations in Liverpool being forced to shut down. We've been given assurances that the work normally carried out by the transport from this site, from Birmingham to Standard's and to Ford's, will cease. We did have an immediate blacking in Birmingham, but this was relaxed because of the union's attitude in that particular area. But the communications have now been put right, and we should now see a very successful escalation of this dispute. Joseph Lucas will definitely have to come to this factory and talk about reopening it very soon.
Actually, Lucas obtained this site at the cost of only about £800,000 in 196l. The machinery has all been paid for by government loans of 60%. This factory will remain here, and we will remain with this factory: we will never be moved by anybody until they start production again in this particular factory. I hold no particular loyalty - I don't believe any of my fellow-workers do - to Joseph Lucas. But we do owe a loyalty to the movement we all belong to. We're concerned, not out of ambition but out of pure necessity, to win the right to work, whether here or anywhere else. But this is the factory where we were employed, where we negotiated, where we gained confidence in one another, and where we were able to win improved conditions and higher wages for this site, We're prepared to continue his occupation for ever if necessary. One thing's sure:
if Joseph Lucas doesn't reopen production, this factory will never be used for anything else.
What have you been able to do about gaining support from other groups of workers on Merseyside, nationally and internationally?
We've been.to the London factories and they have told us they will not undertake any work normally done on this site. So the management's plans to increase their production down there by 33 per cent with the work normally done in Fazakerley are going to run into trouble. We know that the pressure of our unions" membership as well as some small offerings from the officials, will make this a success.
Recently we had a discussion with Tariq Ali when he visited the site, and he offered assistance in getting our message across to the combine factories in France and Spain. We appreciate this offer of help and will take it up. We don't know exactly what it will be possible to do, but appreciate that this is a genuine effort to put some pressure on the management.
We've had many meetings recently with the Trades Council and we're attending a meeting tonight. We hope that this meeting will agree on a one-day demonstration, mot only in support of the people at CAV, but also on the questions of unemployment and working conditions in Merseyside. We hope this demonstration will take place in the near future. The Trades Council are definitely concerned about the amount of threatened closures and high unemployment on Merseyside.
We would like to congratulate the workers in Vauxhalls, Fords, Fisher-Bendix, the docks, and many of the main industries around, for their wonderful support. We've got financial support and we appreciate it. But that alone will not win our struggle. -Do you think that problems like the ones you are facing will affect other groups of workers on Merseyside in the future? I think Merseyside is going to be one of the areas most hit by the Common Market entry, along with the North-East and possibly Scotland, because workers on Merseyside are not willing to accept a cutting back of the progress they've made over the past number of years So Merseyside is going to be one part Franny Martin icular spot, due to its geographic location, that is not going to be such a profitable police of property as it was a few years ago when people didn't assert their needs and were simply exploited. Now Merseyside has a voice, but it will need the support of the whole labour movement to keep it going and encourage it. But there's no danger that Merseyside will lose its principles in the struggle.
- What sort of links do you think are necessary between workers in Britrain and those in Europe?
I personally can see the need for links. I'm involved with the Transport & General Workers' Union, personally, and we had a meeting recently where the T&G agreed that we send a delegation of lay members to the continent to discuss those problems that we are most concerned about. We are hoping that when we go to these factories in France, Germany, Belgium and possibly Spain, a closer liaison will be gained and better links will be built. We know that the official union line is for organisation on a vast scale, in the same way that the government and the CBI are organising now, but we hope that the common links, worker-to-worker rather than official-to-official, will be the basis for the unity of the struggle of the working class.
- There are quite a few women employed in the factory here, have they been fully involved in. the workings of the occupation? Women have played a very important role; they've really come to the front. We've had women out on many delegations to factories which mainly employ women, and they've got involved in the canteen and the sit-in social committee. Most women are now on a par, if not further advanced, than most of the men. -You have had some support from students and a support committee has been set up on the university, what sort of help have they given you so far and what would you most want from them in the future? We've had the lads from the university