2,500 lobby parliament Teachers' leaders riding a tiger

'WHEN the dustbins began to stink | never heard anything about 3½ per cent.' This remark in the course of Executive member Jack Jones' address to 2,500 greater London teachers brought thunderous applause in the Central Hall Westminster on Tuesday night.

The teachers are demanding an interim salary increase of £135 a year.

It indicated just how deeply the magnificent examples of the dustmen's and miners' struggles have penetrated into the tanks of the teachers.

It was a grand night for militant speeches. No other kind would have been toleraMax Morris has not brought Max, because even in the last fortnight the of local authority wage rates rates has been upset. We are askng for no more than the dustmen and others.' CLOSE DOWN Mr Jones continued especially busen he proposed:

winning tape. On precings in matched that precious moment silence that follows every ovation to shout 'Tell us the date of the strike' and 'What about a strike fund? surprise of any, his tone change There are other things yo an do' he said I want 500 letters from 50( schools to demand the Executive call a special conference followed by a referendemand strikes in selected areas.' He also called for a one-day strike.

Gone was the heady atmosphere of his early remarks Like the others who spoke, executive members Max Moris and Harry George, lones was riding a tiger REVALUATION Mr Morris spoke of a stormy wind' that was blow ng through the profession he young teachers They do not want bread line salaries in the 1970s. We ust have a total revalu on of the salary structur Ve are determined to w e whole of the £135! TI only, "maximum permissible" is the maximum you are prepared to fight for.

Mr Morris recalled the large minority that had voted against acceptance of the previous inadequate award in the same Central Hall.

"That minority represented the feeling of a majority of teachers.

At the Isle of Man conference the minority became a majority, he said. The executive now accepted that.

But Mr Morris declined to attack the Executive for its role in accepting the offer.

Instead he provided them with an escape route. We were diddled', he said.

Alliance

Mike Coleman pledged the support of the student teachers for the NUT struggle.

He had spoken to many students who were thinking of dropping out of their courses because of low salaries.

CHANTS

After the rally the teachers, tired of waiting outside parliament, began to chant 'one-three-five'. no doubt inspired by the Some dustmen, shouted 'Five-three-one'.

In all the evening was an object lesson to those 'rank and file' pedagogues who call on teachers to 'rise' to the level of trade union consciousness.

The teachers are neither behind nor ahead of the rest of the working class, but in step with it.

They need not the 'instantmilitancy' of the duplicated sheets, but a socialist alternative leadership being built in the All Trades Unions Alliance.

OVER 1,400 workers at Lansil Ltd., the Lancaster man-made fibre factory, are on strike demanding a closed shop and higher wages.

Pickets have been outside the gates 24 hours a day, since Friday morning, when night shift walked out in a dispute over bonus payments.

During Friday, almost all the spinners came out, supported by the mixing and filtration departments and the acetate plant.

Following a mass meeting last Saturday, the strike was made official at branch level from 10 p.m.

A union spokesman said:

'We decided to strike from