Amidst all these unprecedooted moves to nurt sive struggle int on offensive smuggle against the capitali systent which fras phoduced thie crisis, tine bas Gepe one sistenny sow ясу oome спол сотошле tar Scared out of their with that the workore in struggle might estahlish their own solation to the crisis mither tham wait patiently for the "Union of the Left (rhe clectoral alliance i die Comminist Party and bre Socialier Parly) 10 win a majority in parliament, no sander or mandeuvre hat heen toe Juw foe their he theie efforts to dispodel the Poon wotken. Among oiler thrie, the luther land friee sucused in a pres statement by the Crap istrict committee of the LT-the anise federation conhobed by the Cominist Patty -of "playing the game of the hig baitree Cher eutement warmed the workan and people sina any appeal conang from so-called support commiten, aint weil of to rle tat Broughout the Piron affpir daere have apyared scresponsibl utside agitatons of varions odigins, cheecty fiod su parslenl to the big bourgeoise.
Seldom can the logic of the Cant monopole alliance have been expressed more clearly, I gout inad sin 15. to reach un alliance with the small-to-median capitalist aprinst dancies at a fiftl factory, Fils Lastex in Conde. They agreed at once to link their struggle. to thow of Piron and Radiac. The first concrete steps had been taben towards building a united ands struggle against unemployment in the CO-ORDINATING Ai the same time it was decided that the support committees, loo should begin to take on the task of coordinating struggles, creatively a plying the experiences of Piron and developing new methods of struggle for further generalisation at the same time. Their role wil! be vital in stim ulating discussion throughout the develop a workers solution to the It is this aspect of the Piron strugele which perhaps contrasts most strikingly with the Hritish expericace of the fight against unemployment in recent Il is true that-particulariy in 197172 and again today unemploynent has been seen an a problem for the whole working class demanding a class wide solution. But that solution has been posed almost entirely as a priso small, defen - the hip cavion fatmet di The rest hy a mosco Markers taclotios au Tole, is a pos in the stinge Bie paper of Section of the | But such g Still been abal incinbers fre mentary solution with demonstrations, lobbies, ete to pressure MPs, ra ther than as a development and co-or ination of existing struggles and dem This has meant Chat white individu al struggles have often been extreme ly militant-involving occupations mass meetings, strike committees THE PIRON WORKER A MEAL OF THEIR EVERY DAY.
IT ARD looks at two TEN FACTORIES to be closed down within a year. That was the ambitious target that the giant French-based multi-aational company BSN recently set for itself.
But it counted without the workers at the Gily plant of its Belgian glass-making subsidiary, Glaverbel.
Glaverbel-Gilly has been a thorn in BSN 's side since the day the multinational took over Glaverbel in 1973 Gilly workers man the gates to the factory: no doubt who is in control here ducts sector as a percentage of the 35%. fits from glass making in new technological processes, BSN was systematscally siphoning them all into another side of its operations: food products. Between 1971 and 1973 the food pro whole grew from 343 to 529, while class-making declined from 43% to They also showed how BSN had ruthlessly stepped up the explostation of its workers in this drive for shortglass line made the Belgian TUCI to the establishment of - Regional Action Committee, which called the first of a series of demonstrations in Gilly Just before Christmas.
Soon alter Christmas came further details of the proposed redundancies. Surprise, surprise, BSN announced that the Gilly plant, with 600 jobs. was to be closed completely as trom 31 January. Get rid of the milstant Gilly workers, they figured, and we can soon deal with the rest. Perhaps a cont wit no compano 1 B refuses to guarantee jobs and initall a floa *A reduction in the working week to 3e hours or less with no loss of pay.
The next day they went straight into action. While the workers in the rest of the charleror aren alass actor les held a one-hour solidarity strike. 200 of the Gilly workers occupied the head offices of the BSN-Gliverhal in Boisforl. The office workers then struck in support of them and a joint mass meeting was held to discuss the way forward in the strugele In the next few days further actions were organised leading up to the extraundinary area conference called by the FGTB for 21 January. Recognising that Gilly was in the forefront of the right to protectal jobs in the area against the bosses offensive, the 500 delegates overwhelming y pledged support includine possible strike action. UPSURGE In the face of this massive rank-and-file upsurge, the hational leaders of the FGTB felt forced to take an abs ointely unprecedented step: Lhey suspension of the Gilly closure a condition for any further tulks with the Government or the bosses on the general problem of anemployment. Twenty-four hours later, BSN reluctantly consented The trade anton bureaucrats, of course, saw this essentially as a manoeuvre to defuse the struggle of the Gilly workers. But instend of calling olf their action, a mass meeting at Gilly voted to intensify it and redouble their efforts to build solidarity and popularise their methods of struggle. A possible next step is the calling of an internal-