Of all the reasons dictating Lynch's decision low-paid and the weaker sections of society. it launches a murderous campaign against one of the lowest paid groups of workers with one of the lowest records of militant struggle.
On Monday the 12th, the Daily Mail called the tune for a well-orchestrated press hysteria by shrieking: THIS STRIKE COULD KILL". The 'charity' organisations run by the wives of men making a packet out of the Tory government were also quick off the mark: "Help the Aged' urged gas-men to "search their hearts" and Age Concern suggested that half a million might be killed off by the gas-strike! This means that half a million people in this country are so poverty-stricken that they will freeze to death. Who is responsible for that scandal? And the story does not end there: millions of people are finding themselves priced out of the essentials — not just of an electric heater but a decent roof to put it under. Are the gas-workers responsible for that? This is exactly what the gas-workers are fighting against and what the capitalist class which the Tory government leads has created. Soon we will hear about the explosions and deaths.
Why haven't we heard about them before? They are an outrage and they have been going on all the time. They occur because every government this country has had puts the profits of the capitalists before the safety and living-standards of working-people. INFLATION The Tory government's pay-laws are the chief weapon in the hands of the capitalist class for maintaining this state of affairs. These paylaws have done nothing to stop price rises. It is the gas-workers alone who are starting the struggle against inflation. And the government have chosen the gas-workers for a fight because they hope they can whip up a frenzy of opposition from the middle-classes and confused workers who believe that the gas-strike is responsible for the problems of the mass of the people.
Heath's plan is to pick off one section of workers after another. In his broadcast as we go to press he has openly called the bluff of the Trade Union bureaucrats, challenging them to a fight over the freeze.
In fact of course, it has been the consistent sabotage by Vic Feather and the General Council which has enabled the government to use the tactic of taking on the working-class section by section: the TUC has made no attempt to build up a united front movement and prepare for a General Strike to throw out SL Above: Unity is Strength. Workers rally in defence of Briants' "work-in'. (Story Page 3). the government.
The task of preparing such action must be taken by other forces - the millions of workers who are not frightened to take on the government.
In the face of Heath's attempt to isolate the gas-workers in a show of strength, every socialist and trade union militant must take up the struggle of the gas-workers and prepare the way for a General Strike.
What the present situation demands is not simply the wave of solidarity, as in last year's miners' strike, and not simply the preparation of all groups of workers for wage-struggles that break the freeze. What is required is for militants to place all that work within a single perspective - the organisation of a General Strike to bring down the Government. Every militant must start today to fight for this perspective in every work-place and every mass organisation. The need for such action must be shown to all sections of society which suffer at the hands of the present government and capitalist system.
But more than this is required: much more is needed than the traditional preparation for strike action. The government understands this fact very well and a "secret" cabinet committee has been preparing for the confrontation, making special plans to organise police squads, press publicity, essential supplies etc. The working-class must follow suit. Militants must work for the creation of the broadest possible organisations, to embrace all sections of working-people - not just trade unionists. The widest possible plans must SAFE be drawn up to spread information and ideas throughout the working-class. Arrangments must be made to organise the spreading of pickets on a scale which dwarfs the mass pickets of the miners' strike and outdistances the flying pickets of the building workers in terms of mobility.
INITIATIVE In addition, action against rising prices such as was organised in Reading last week must be taken up in the preparations for a general strike. In such a struggle the working-class must take over responsibility for the distribution of essential supplies and for stamping out profiteering. Workers must also be prepared to handle the police strike-breaking squads and the threat of arrests - the lessons of Saltley and Longannet must be applied. The TUC is to be recalled in March - we must support this initiative and prepare for it. But we must not leave the preparation of the general strike to the gathering of bureaucrats in Croydon.
The Communist Party's initiative in calling the Liason Committee Conference on April 7th must also be supported, but the work of the organisation must be started today. In London and other parts of the country local conferences involving many different sections of workers are already under way.
These conferences must be spread to every locality and out of them must come local action committees and demonstrations to spread support for the gas-workers and carry forward the movement for a General Strike