Monday Club election becomes more bizarre

become one has stolen a Guinness is former deputy TOWARDS the end of last month Ford supervisors mediately taken off the payroll. Then he was told the pay of the rest of the workers on his section would be stopped. lished precisely. weeks. planning meeting.

have yelled.

The supervisors acquired their cockiness around lannıng meeting nave taken place.

amer i celne Tne from the union auv breakie company's £2.40, THE ANTICS of the Tories in more and more bizarrı broken into the club's membership list.

This list is being used to circulate information which is detrimental to Mr Jonathan Guinness, who is seeking reelection • to the chairmanship of the club.

being challenged K. Young, the director of MI6 at the Halewood plant, near Liverpool, made a sharp change in their normal disciplinary policy.

Anyone they thought was working to rule was imthat if he failed to do the job within ten minutes If this did not work, after a further the department was threatened.

Resistance for another ten minuteshit the pay of all the workers in the plan Supervisors told workers in advance that this was to be the new procedure. Full backing could be expected from higher management, they boasted.

Just how high in the Ford chain of command backing for this policy went cannot be estabBut the story is told, with an air ot authority in come management circles, that towards the end oi February Henry Ford II espect that of senous pay himse t was assured ov SnIs auro.

expect the threat of serious pay trouble in Britain to have completely receded within two And according to a rumour widespread on the Halewood shop floor, when this forecast bedan be oroved OVe .•oUmistic a few weeks later one Henry II's new American executives at the Liverpool complex blew his top at a Halewood I'm going to clean this goddam place up', he is said to appear to have unaccustomed the time that is supposed to There can be little doubt that the disciplinary crackdown formed ped at the highest leveesy Crack down But it must be said immediately that the initiative was largely handed to the company on a plate by union officials. And their continuation of the same reformist policies right up to the present moment places workers' organization throughout the Ford combine in jeopardy.

Alan Dowridge is just one victim of the disciplinary crackdown. His case spotlights the danger to all Ford workers.

A young worker in the Halewood trim shop, Alan was sacked two weeks ago on the strength of the allegations that he left his shift early.

On the day the alleged breach is supposed to have taken place he went home along with hundreds of others from his section, all of whom were under the impression it was the correct time for ending the shift.

When this was pointed out by shop stewards, management fell back on the argument that this incident was just 'the last straw that broke the camel's back'.

But Alan has a full and complete answer to management claims that he has been warned continually for other breaches of discipline. All the 'previous warnings' in the world cannot answer his counter-charge,, of victimization.

other the right-wing Monday Club . It now appears that someVictoria Street premises and and now a manager with Kleinwort Benson, the City bankers.

Police have been asked to investigate a letter sent to club members purporting to come from Guinness about the forthcoming election.

Guinness said yesterday it was a forgery. It asks for votes for Guinness 'and is designed to preCORRESPONDENT minutes everyone in just Ford's get tough but pay fight's not over of the hundreds involved similarly?

Alan's own explanation of this point brings out clearly the link between the union leaders' retreat on pay and the present disciplinary crackdown.

'Last October I was one of 29 men sacked for taking part in the one-day strike called on Merseyside over the Tory rents Act. At that time I was working on the sealer deck in the paint shop and there had been a decision on the section to go out for the day.

Split up

'We got our jobs back, but when we returned to work we were all split up.

I was put on the trim line, which is ridiculous with my height. Most of the men on the section are supposed to be fairly small because they are having to bob in and out of vehicles all the time.

I only refused jobs after getting clearance from the company's doctor, who agreed there were certain things it would be dangerous for me to do.

'It was soon after this that pay claim got going.

'Of course it was SOCIALIST LABOUF LEAGUE PUBLIC MEETINGS Liverpool Transform the SLL int e Revolutionary Par TUESDAY, APRIL 10 8.30 p.m.

Mona Hotel James Street Liverpool 1 'e: The economic of world capitalisn Manchester WEDNESDAY, APRIL Angel pub, Chapel Stre Challenger George K. Young sent my alleged attractive a light said. many of us that it was not just Ford's we would be fighting, but the government as well. So we were calling for immediate action. A work-to-rule • at that stage could have shown the company we meant business and reduced their stocks for when things really got going.

But there was nothing doing as far as the officials and convenors were concerned. Even compared with 1971, the wages campaign this time nas been a flop.

'Once we ended our three-day strike there was an immediate hard line from the company. They went all out to break things up!' Now Alan, married and four years in the Ford factory, is on the dole awaiting further union efforts to win his job back.

At least? one other man has also been sacked, two more suspended and one issued with a final written warning as part of the crackdown.

Yet at last Thursday's paint, trim and assembly plant mass meeting, which voted to accept the company's £2.40 offer, convenor Billy McGuire intervened to prevent the matter being discussed.

John Dillon, SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE MEETING views in as unas possible,' he There are fears that someone broke into the club's headquarters and ran off several copies of the membership list.

Commander Michael Woolrych, the club director, said: 'Unfortunately, we cannot rule out the possibility of an "inside job"!

Last week a leaflet from the 'Conservative Underground Press' criticizing Guinness's leadership was circulated to club members.

There is evidence, said Woolrych, that the same list of addresses was used on both occasions. steward who was himself victimized in the aftermath of the 1971 secret-ballot settlement, had tabled a resolution before the meeting that there should be no lifting of the overtime ban and blacking of jobs then in force until the two sacked men were reinstated in full.

The chairman of the meeting, a steward called Jack Jones, had asked that workers stay behind after the vote on pay to discuss this and another resolution. But the motion was not put. Jones alleged afterwards that McGuire had snatched it out of his hand.

Indictment

Comments John Dillon: 'Since we called off our strike and decided to work to rule and ban overtime the company has used all the means in its power against us.

'There was a big Press campaign before any action at all started, of course. Then, when people started working to rule, there were incidents being caused continually, workers being sent home-all designed to sicken them off.

'For the first three weeks this we never had a full week in.

SLL LECTURE

SERIES The revolutionary party and the history of the British working class Merthyr Tydfil Caedraw School Merthyr Tydfil Sunday April 22 Lectures given by Peter Jeffries The Unlons and thi class in Britain.

The Revolutionary Pas t of the British working class -and Its future.

The Transformation of the SLL READING Trotsky. Where is Britain Going? Problems British Revolution.

Perspectives for Transforming the SLL into a Revolutionary Marxist Analysis The election battle is being fought amid charges of influence from the extreme right-wing National Front.

Guinness has said that Young's election would mean 'a move in the National Front direction'. There is no evidence to connect Young with the Front, Guinness added.

Young, who is notorious for his anti-immigrant views, is offcial Tory candidate for Brent East at the next General Election. Enoch Powell spoke on his platform at the weekend.

Ford The Ford plant at Halewood, Liverpool But then they began to step up and the sackings began.

*At least one of these lads was sacked for blacking a job in line with the decision of a mass meeting, yet we were not even allowed to discuss this last Thursday. This is an indictment of the whole way this campaign has been run.' However, John Dillon stressed, Ford management could be making a big mistake if it thought all its troubles were over.

Last week's meetings, at which the body as well as the assembly plant accepted the £2.40, were the end of one period of the Ford workers' struggle, he said.

But there was a great terment of discussion of the lessons of that period. The recognition was growing that only all-out action could defeat the Tory governLast Friday the 6/559 branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union, organizing workers in the Ford transmission plant who have rejected the £2.40 offer, demanded that the unions give a lead to this new mood.

It called for the recall of the T&GWU national automotive committee to formulate coordinated action in support of the pay claim and the right to free trade unionism.

One transmission plant worker active : in the branch, said: 'So far the leadership's tried to avoid the issue of the Tory government altogether. But that's central.

'For the next stage, must be learned.' SLL LECTURE SERIES Socialist Revolt Middleton nr Manchester.

allins Social Centre rn Road, Hollins Estate 7.30 p.m.

Monday April 16 Lectures given by Cliff Slaughter SLL Central Committee)

The Soclailst Revolution in Britain: 3. The state and revolution. Reformism and revolution in Britain. The fight for democratic rights today means preparing for working-class power. Basic reading:

Perspectives for transforming the SLL into a Marxist Analysis Crisis. Problems of the British Revolution (Trotsky) .

Death Agony of C ¡apitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International, Commur nist Manifesto