be said that the burcaucracy got anything like all that it wanted. There the Communist Party blocked solidly with the bureaucracy to force acceptance of an agreement in line with Phase IT, to prohibit local branches from calling strikes, and to abandon the young teachers" conference.
SUCCESSFUL CHALLENGES There have also been some important signs of reviving militancy among rank-and-file trade union activists, and, As a resull, a weakening of the control of the bureaucracy over important trade union policies. The conferences of the National Union of Journalists, NUPE, and the ETU all saw successful challenges from the conference floor to the policies and actions of the leadership. Important victories were won by the rank-and-file on such key questions as the establishment of a national striké fund, rejection of productivity agreemeats, and total rejection of the Industrial Relations Act.
Such defeats as these make it all the more urgent for the trade union bureaucrats to step up attacks against rank-and-file militants, Red-baiting demagogy is being tried in the UPW. victimisation of individual militants in the NUT, attacks on rank-and-file organisations in APEX apd UCATT. But in all these cases the aim is the same: to strengthen the grip of the bureaucrats to eliminate any opposition to the present trade union leaderships.
But these agents of the ruling class in the trade union movement are encountering the same sort of resistance as their masters. There is no possibility of any Phase Ill agreement being accepted by rank-and-file trade unionists with as little opposition as was Phase II. Under these conditions the ruling class cannot afford to rely solely on oue tactic of course of action. They are continually forced to change their tactics in response to determined working class opposition. For example, at one time their central tactic was the use of the Industrial Relations Act. Now, however, working class resistance has made it impossible to use the Act. So instead they are carving out a new tactic - a combination of Incomes Policy set up a military dictatorship and rule directly through the repressive instruments of the state machine, The government remains the manager of the state machine, and thus the manager of the ruling class offersive, This makes the government central both for the tuling class and the working class.
Given that it is the government which has the responsibility for leading the attack on the working class, it is important from the standpoint of the ruling class to have the correct government in power - one which will have no difficulty in coordinating and directing various lines of attack, changing policy as and when it suits the ruling class, and taking up the appropriate new lines of attack.
A government that has links with the workers' movement is not entirely reliable, no matter how faithful it may be to the capitalist system. There will always be the danger of such a government making concessions to pressure from those it claims to 'represent" at crucial turning points. For these reasons it is a Tory government which is sought by the ruling class to most effectively direct their attack. THE TORY OCTOPUS The Tory Government opcrates rather like an octopus. If grabs hold of its victim with one tentacle: when that tentacle is lopped off it then applies a second one, to catry on the job from a slightly different angle, and so on, Faced with such an enemy, the approach of fighting one policy, one 'tentacle, at a time is completely insufficient. The only way out is to attack what co-ordinates all of the tentacles: to cut out the brain of the monster. Otherwise there is always the danger that if a mass mobilisation is centred apainst only one policy of the ruling class, the working class will find itself unprepared and confused when the ruling class switches tactics.
Thus there was a mass mobilisation around the case of the Pentonville 5, but, when the ruling class switched from the Industrial Relations Act to the criminal law, the arrest of the Shrewsbury 24 was not met with anything like a similar response.
TORY GOVERNMENT CENTRAL This fact is understood by the most politically aware workers, and finds a reflection in the consciousness of the mass of workers. The practical experience of coming up against policy after policy, tactic after tactic, of the Tory government eventually teaches the masses that it is this government which is at the centre of all their struggles. This creates a continuel tendency for all struggles to be centralised around the Tory government, both because of the reality of the situation and because of the awareness of the masses, This is true no matter what the particular question is - the Industrial Relations Act, the Freeze, the Immigration Act, etc.
The necessary step which must be taken to carry the struggle of any section of the masses government. The means to do this are at hand the mass strike struggles of recent years have shownthem to us. The central strategy for the working class movement in the coming period must be to extend, undy and generalise all particular struggles into a anited struggle against the Tory government - into u general strike to bring down the Tory government. This is the essential lesson which has to be hammered home and applied in the new wave of mass struggles which will break out this autunn and next spring. ted and popularised such a campaign. the same. in all trade union claims. the proceedings. both within the factory and that being carried out by means of the state machine - must be Struggles must be developed within the factorles around such demands as a shop-floor veto on speed up and on all manning changes no reduction of rest breaks, etc. The forms of struggle necessary to win such fights -occupations, flying pickets - must be perlec A national campaign in defense of picketing must be mounted throughout the working class movement, with the aim of involving all the most politically aware workers and gaining support from the mass of the class. The defence of the Stewsbury 24 must be the first task of The attempts of the bureaucracy to tie the trade unions to the capitalist state must be defeated. A campaign must be mounted within the trade unions to put an end to the TUC-government talks. All trade union activists should be won to the slogan "No incomes policy under capitalism, and the need for an all out fight by the trade union movement for repeal of the Industrial Relations Act.
UNITED COUNTER-OFFENSIVE In the coming wage struggles revolutionaries be launched, must do everything possible to unite the widest layers of the working class for the fight against the employers and the government.
Trade unions whose wage demands were blocked by Phase I should put forward claims co-ordinated with the Engineering or other major national claims. Other trade unions with claims in the pipeline should do Concrete links should be forged between the struggles of all these different groups of workers. Mutual support, joint campaigns and joint industrial action should be developed on the local, regional and national levels.
As part of the strugele for such a broad unity of the working class a co-ordinated claim and campaign of action for all public sector workers should be hammered out, Equal pay for women should be taken up as a ocutral demand Particulariy signifinant in the part pertod have been the attroks by the trode anio bureaucracy on rank end file militants. One of the most important cases, where the Communist Party has actree co-operated with the bureaucracy, is that of the Mandaworth Three' teachers, victimired after o mats meeting in London drst February openly chelenged the failure of the NUT bureaucracy to organie a meaningfui fight against Phase II. Picture shows port of the 500-strong picket outside NUT treadquarters for the hearing last Saturday: defence solicitor is announcing the postponement of the hearing after the three refused to gim any guzrantee that they would respect the secrec of Alan Jones Local, regional and national organisations of rank-and-file representatives (shop stewards, convenors, strike committee delegates, etc.) should be set up to co-ordinate this campaign of struegle. They should ensure that the most effective tactics - flying pickets, occupations, solidarity strikes — are used everywhere, Organisational mcasures should be taken to ensure effective self-defence of pickets and working class organisations against the police attacks whuch will inevitably come in such a period of struggle.
DEFEND CLASS RIGHTS All attempts by the trade union bureaucracy to crack down on militants should be tesisted Every attempt at the victimisation of individual militants, red baiting, or banning of rank-and-file groups within any union should be met by a united response from all militants within the working class movement, A counter-offensive to extend union democracy and strengthen rank-and-file control over trade union struggles MOLE DEMERGEI All moves towards the erosion of legal concessions won by the working class in the past, and all attempts to deprive the working class movement of even the limited protections of present-day capitalist law must be fereely resisted. All moves of legal repression must be fought through mais action. Attempts of the fascist groups to hold public meetings and demonstrations, and to conduct racist propaganda, must be prevented It is through these struggles and these campaigns that the working class can defeat the present offensive of the ruling class. These campaigns will revive the self-confidence of the working class and its readiness to struggle, and encourage the creation of action committees, defence committees and other rank and ille organisations necessary to lead the struggle It is out of these struggles that a decisive confrontation with the Tory government will grow. It is around these issues that a mass struggie to bring down that government can Red Weekly 20 July 1973 Page 5
not yet won ! We see a growing, collective solidarity, corpletely at odds with their previous Iragmented consciousness (which again pre vuils today:), whereby they stand behind their victimised peers against authority, rather than ridicul ing them along with the teacher.
Also we see and read about the use of advanoed forms of struggle, which the workiog-class has
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CRAFT SHOP STEWARDS COMKITTEE UNITY IS STRENGTH