to call over the past year, culminating in the massive 150,000 rally in Liverpoo?
Such combativity has also been shown in other ways. It has been revealed in the firefighters' recent breaking of the 6% public sector wage norm, the strike called by the Longbridge workers to protest victimisations and the militancy 15%. of the Ford workers faced with the What has been lacking to date is not the willingness of the rank-and-file to fight back but the inactivity of the labour leaders. Although pressurised into protest actions, their main thrust has been to call for workers to wait fo: the return of a Labour government in i years ime to soire thel problems.
As Michael Foot declared at the massive anti-jobless rally in Liverpool: "Prepare to destroy, at the ballot box, ANGER which is the only place they can finally be defeated, the party of unemployment, the government of unemploySuch sentiments - while shared by millions - will not help the steelworkers at Port Talbot, the workers in the car component factories in the Midlands, the direct labour force up and down the country who are faced columnis What is needed is not promises for the future but action today around the demands which the November 29 demonstration centrally raised: for the 35hour week and for an extension - not These demands can become the rally. ing cry of ever-wider layers of the labour movement faced with the insanity of a system that can only survive by throwing millions on the scrap-heap.
The labour leaders must not be allowed to view November 29 as a one-off protest action which can conveniently be forgotten. They have to be forced into putting their call for an ongoing campaign - including regional mobilisWorkers facing redundancies and plant closures must not be allowed to struggle alone. The full weight of the labour movement must be mobilised The victory at Gardners - where the workforce defeated management's 590 redundancy threat by occupying the plant and winning wide labour movement support - shows the way Equally, Labour councils refusing to implement the cuts mustn't be allowed to face Hesaltine's penalties alone.
They have to be given full backing.
It is only by forcing the labour leaders to build a mass campaign against the Tories that jobs can be prorected and the basis laid for the return of a Labour government that will defend workers' interests. Despite the bitter cold, between 100,000 and 150,000 turned out in Liverpool, Nov 29, to protest the Tories' jobless strategy. It was a suitable setting. Liverpool has been in the front line of the Tory assault and unemployment now stands at Thousands of Liverpool workers turned out on the day to express their anger at government policies. They were joined by thousands more - particularly from the hard-hit industrial areas of Scotland and the North East - who had travelled there in special buses and trains.
The most noticeable thing about the demonstration was that it was made up of thousands of ordinary been on a demonstration before.
The second most noticeable thing about the march - called by the Labour Party AEl - was! militancy. As the contingents of carworkers, steelworkers and firefighters moved along, slogans such as 'Save jobs - Sack the Tories!' and 'Maggie, Maggie, Maggie -Out, out, out!' rang along the The militancy was also reflected in the reaction of the marchers to the speeches at the rally. When Labour right-winger Denis Healy approached the microphone, he was booed. Workers no doubt remembered the fact that - when in office - he had presided over a sharp increase in the jobless total and had rammed home an incomes policy in the public sector.
A similar reception was reserved for union leaders such as Alan Fisher (NUPE) who called for a general election to get rid of the Tories. The crowd responded with a chant for a general strike.
MOBILISE Other speakers were more militant. Eric Heffer stated that the next Labour government "must not go down as another one that tried to administer capitalism" but one that "began the rebuilding of British industry on socialist lines".
Recently-elected Labour leader Michael Foot was even more outspoken. "We're going to carry this campaign from one end of the country to the other", he cried, "to mobilise the power and the strength of the people to destroy this Thatcher government and build a real socialism".
It was sentiments such as this which found a favourable reaction among workers who wanted action now and not just pledges for the future. Promises to mobilise regional demonstrations against the jobless total were greeted with cheers.
One group of workers on the march who had given a concrete example of how Thatcher's offensive could be defeated was that from Gardners (a diesel factory in Birmingham).
Faced with 590 redundancies, the two and a half thousand workforce occupied the plant for seven weeks and won widescale support from the labour movement. It was the determination of their action - and the backing they received - which Bob Swart/Socialist Action The November 29 March.
forced the managers to back down and postpone any redundancies for at least three years.
The confidence of the Gardners' workers was reflected in the banners they carried on the march:
"Gardners sacked us, the nation backed us, and WE WON!"
CAMPAIGN It is clearly actions like that at Gardners that will be needed in the period ahead if the Tory offensive is to be stopped. Key to achieving this will be mobilising general labour movement support for any group of workers faced with redundancies or plant closures.
This is why it is vital that the Nov 29 demonstration not remain as a one-off protest action. The labour leaders have to be forced to see it as the beginning of an ongoing campaign against the Tory unemployment offensive.
Regional demonstrations can
begin to create a real groundswell of opinion that can break down the isolation of groups of workers facing lay-offs or closures and present the Tories with a united labour movement stance.