The six month old strike at Footprint Tools io Sheffield, which started over the sacking of a shop steward Pete Wilson, has brought into sharp relief the political problems facing the local working class movement.
The District Commitlee of the AUEW has consistently opposed the only tactics which could have ensured victory: it has refused demands by The stewards for continuous. dearly afraid that any full-scale mobilisation will increasingly take the struggle as a whole out of their hands.
Despite all this, the strikers are still volid. No-one has gone back tnto the factory, and after many months only 17 of tie 101 strikers have left for other jobs. They have agreed thar if they lose the tight over Ribon's restatement they will look for other jobs, rather than go back into that Tactory.
The strikem have opposed the worst of the to picket transpon
Jean-Pierre Beauvais, the comrades of the Fourth International