to have us suspended. plant and we were advised to leave the shop floor and go into conference with the convenors. Later that day a mass meeting of the two shops where we work -assembly and blan king - was called, We sent a statement to the meeting, but it voted 54 to 22 Was this vote representative of the Not really. There are about 200 worker in the two shops, but many militants abstained in the vote because they knew the charges against us were absurd and thought the This is borne out by the fact that after the decision to suspend us was stepped in. taken the blanking shop met and voted unanimously to demand our Why was the right uble to influence You've got to appreciate the fact that the assembly plant is mainly made up of women workers. Beca- di us. use of all the problems they face and the fact that the unions do little about them, their involvement in the union is pretty low. This gives the shop stewards in that plant a lot of opportunity to manocuvre, and that's Just what they did at the first meetYou can get an idea of what we're up against if I tell you that one of the assembly shop stewards likes to boast of the fact that she used to be one of the only six women paratrooponly reinstated after the convenor What happened after Tuesday?
Well, I returned to work in the blanking shop on Thunday. A number of other shops and shop stewards called for the reinstatement of both of us, and talked about strike action if there was any move to sack either That day another mass meeting was held —this time just of the assembly shop. The AUEW factory conventor tried to put our case, but he was shouted down by the shop steward's lackeys. So he denounced the meeting as a put-up job and walked out. He was supported by the majority of workers at the meeting who walked out with him. The meeting then broke up in a shambles. So what happens now?
We think that the clear-cut stand we took and the principled stand of suspended from work at Imperial Metal Industries in Witton, and another two at Norton-Villiers Triumph Talso know of two stewards at the Austin Longbridge plant who've been forced to resign.
The management at IMI must be as pleased as punch, because they've just had to weather a five week militant strike. Now there's a real danger that they can get rid of two militants under cover of the 'outcry" from the shop floor, It's important that trade unionists acroes the country take up such cases, and prevent the bosses from taking advantage of the situation to split the workforce and victimise militants.
INTERVIEW BY OUR MIDLANDS CORRES PONDENT. 6. The only reason we can put behind these incidents is that шe are involved in the movement for withdrawal ot British troops from Ireland and no doubt in the eyes of the ascurhy forces this puts us under suspicion, as it no doubt does any The Troops Out Movement is a fully legal organisation which is in no way connected with the IRA, it includes in its sponsorship six Labour MPs, Including John Lee from Handsworth, and Jeff Rooker from Porry Barr, as well as many trade We have attended meetings oddressed by Joan Maynard, Labour MP for Sheffield Brightide, Jeff Rooker, Labour MP for Parry Harr, and Pat Hickey, UCATT convenor. We also attended a demonstration called by the Troops Out Moverent in Landon last morith which wes sponsored by the six Labaur 7. We have heard nothing from the police since, and we are in the process of contacting a solicitor to ensure the return of in the coming months is an uphill one it can be achieved by: (a) dereloping a united front of all organisations opposed to the Jenkins measures to demand their intmedafe repeat; and (b) laking up the call initially made by Joan Maynard MP and supported by the Birming ham Troops Out Movement and York Woods building site UCATT for a trade union conference in the New Year on Ireland.
The right-wing backlash has left deep scurs —but given time they will heal, provided that socialists begin to develop a united fight back now