On May 14th, the TUC has called a national day of action against the Tories' attempts to curb trade union rights.
Clearly the action reflects the growing mood in trade union ranks as wider and wider layers are pushed into head-on battles with the Tories to defend jobs and living standards.
The steelworkers' strike, the mass anti-cuts actions around the country, the mini general-strike in South Wales last February - all show a growing refusal to allow the Tories to close down services and turn whole areas of the country into industrial deserts. While the TUC action is merely a one-day protest, all trade union and Labour Party members should begin mobilising for it now. May 14th has to be turned into a day of mass defiance of Tory policies to lay the basis for an ongoing campaign.
BSC Steelworkers pi Now, in order to muzzle the unions, the Tories have republished their Employment Bill. Key among its proposals are attempts to * smash the right to picket by making union members open to court action;
undermine the closed shop by making it dependent on a two-thirds ballot of members;
erode the right to a job by halving the statutory period of redundancy notices.
More recently, under pressure from the Tory 'hawks', Thatcher has gone one step further and has threatened withdrawing benefit from strikers' families.
The aim of these undemocratic moves is crystal-clear. Only by curbing the right of unions to defend their members can the Tories hope to shift the burden of the present crisis onto the back of working people.
GAMBLE Whether or not the Tories get away with their undemocratic moves is, of course, dependent on the resistance offered by the Labour leaders. Already there has been a lot of fighting talk and, under growing pressure, Len Murray has called for a one-day stoppage against Tory Hadfields private company John Sturrock (Report) cont on page 12 P.B. (Birmingham)
Over the past month, the Tories have tried to whip up a campaign of hatred against the steel pickets. As thousands of workers have descended on private plants - such as Hadfields or Sheerness - the press has had a heyday denouncing 'union bully boys'.
limited to British steel plants, the The British steel bosses - backed up by Keith Joseph - would simply have tried to grind down the steelworkers in a prolonged stoppage.
But the extension of the strike
readings of the Bill, when mass Socialist Action