The workers who had struck at Standard Telephone and Cables in North London for eight weeks are returning to work on Monday. The strike started when white members of the ETU refused to continue the training of Roderick Adams, a black worker, as a skilled machine setter. The management stepped in, not to enforce the agreement they had with the workers to train Adams, but to condone the racist attitude of the ETU. Adams was sent home on Government suffered full pay, and later suspended altogether.
Now the management have agreed to give Adams full pay while the AUEW and ETU settle the matter between STC management, who have had a racist alliance with a group of white skilled workers at STC for some years, made this offer following discussions between the AUEW and the ETU last week. The ETU told the tacks by the fascists on members and black workers that Adams had a workers are not going back without choice. Either he could go on day shift with no guarantee of training, or return to training on the night shift on condition that he apologised' for a remark alleged to have been made many months ago!
At a meeting of the strikers on Tuesday night, a decision was taken to return to work, having failed to get more than 200 of the 3,000 workers at STC out at any time during the strike. But the black again the increasing divisions within any future perspectives.
At a discussion meeting held on Wednesday morning, the workers decided to set up a special caucus to take forward the fight against racism among white workers at STC The strikers must now insist that they be party to any inter-union negotiations. Given the turn a blind eye attitude of the unions towards racism, the officials will inevitably along and argue that an newly-formed "Marseilles Citizens' Defence Committee aiming to work up public feeling against the North Africans. So much for the effectiveness of the Government's "ban' on this group along with the Communist League.
As the Communist League demonstrated on 21 June, there is only one way to deal with fascist groups and that is to confront them wherever they appear, rather than to rely on "legal' methods.
That this lesson is being learnt by sections of the workers' movement was shown in Marseilles last week after the Communist Party-led CGT union federation called off a march in solidarity with the Lip workers less the British labour movement, and all those concerned at Tory Government attacks on civil rights and civil liberties here in Britain itself, intervene and expose the frame-up attempt, then these ten young people will be railroaded to jail for long terms of imprisonment. tion. But for the black workers to concede this point would be to concede their whole case and hand a decisive victory to the racists. The workers should also insist that none of these negotiations be secret, so that they can expose the attitudes of the ETU to the rest of the white workers at STC, as well as generalise awareness of the problem of racism throughout the trade unions using the example of STC. The importance of the STC strike cannot be underestimated. It teaches much about racism in the unions and the attitudes to it of the various political currents on the left. Next week's issue will contain a full analysis of the strike Dave Bailey because of the racist atmosphere Militants of the CFDT federation, along with members of the Revolution' group and readers and supporters of the paper Rouge (formerly published by the Communist League), responded by holding their own demonstration down the main street calling for French workers to soliwith the immerants unde attack.
It is through such offensive actions, and in particular now by supporting mass strikes launched by the immigrant workers themselves, that fascism will be smashed not by retreating before it as the CT has done in Marseilles.
John Marston to Speakers Corner, Prominent Republicans and members or tne labour and socials movement will speak at the end of the Further details TrOm 88 Roslyn Road, London, N.15.