"Fantastic - it's the biggest demonstration Scotland's seen since the General Strike." That's how Helen Riddel, Scottish Labour Party Secretary, described the anti-jobless rally in Glasgow on February 21.
Organised by the Scottish Labour Party and TUC, almost 100,000 braved the bitter cold to protest Tory policy. Iney came not only from Scotland. which - like other areas of the NorthEast - has borne the brunt of Thatcher's jobless drive.
They were joined by thousands more who had travelled there by special bus or coach from all areas of the country. One of the largest contingents - one of 4,000 from Liverpool - hired two trains and 50 coaches for the day.
One of the aims of Thatcher's jobless •rive nas been to demorause workers into accepting wage cuts and speed-ups. If so, this strategy hasn't worked.
The 100,000 who turned up on February 21 were not demoralised. They were angry -As the contingents of car-workers, firefighters and engineers marched through the streets of Glasgow, "Sack Thatcher not workers" and "Jobs not bombs" were the slogans that rang out The mood of the marchers was expressed by a young nurse (from Glasgow Royal Infirmary) who said: in secure jobs, but we feel as strongly ahout it as everyone else
...Glasgow shows way forward Continued from Page 1. marching for the others".
It was this sense of unity - this sense that the Tories' jobless drive is of concern to all workers - that best summed up the feeling of the marchers and their determination to do something about it.
It was reflected in the speeches at the end of the rally. Michael Foot, in particular, spoke of the "rising fury" over the jobless total which is now reaching a postwar peak.
He called on the labour movement to unite against the Tory butchers. "Rise like lions," he told the marchers, "We are many but they are few."
RESPONSE The Labour leader's passionate speech clearly found a response among the marchers, who are seeing jobs disappear at the rate of 12,000 a week.
While passionate, however, Foot failed to spell out exactly what Socialist Action forum discusses Glasgow march showed growing militancy of working people.
steps could be taken to curtail the mounting dole queues.
reverse the process.
ACTION axe this month. ity payments ernment in its tracks.
While backing the miners' strike - as the best way to defend jobs - his main thrust seemed to be to wait for the election of a Labour government which could begin to But workers cannot wait that long. In Linwood (Glasgow) over 5,000 jobs are threatened with the Whole areas of the country are faced with similar close-downs and redundancies which are turning them into industrial wastelands. Young and old alike face a bleak future living off social securWaiting will not solve the prob. lems of these workers. What the marchers in Glasgow wanted was action today to stop the Tory govThe regional rallies called by the labour leaders - of which Glasgow SOCIALIST ACTION was the second - can play a major role in this process.
35-HOUR WEEK Such mass action around the demands passed at the last Labour Conference - for the 35-hour week and an extension of public services - can become the rallying cry of ever-wider layers of the labour movement.
They can give real backing to workers facing redundancies and councils fighting the cuts. They can give them confidence to take on the bosses — as at Gardners -by showing them that they are not alone in the struggle but have the support of milions up and down the country.
Most important, they can unite the labour movement in the face of the Tory offensive and lay the basis for an early return to a Labour government committed to defending workers' interests.
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FACTORY CLOSURES- OCCUPY!