TORIES GENERAL STRIKE

FOLLOWING THE COMPLETE breakdown in the pay talks, the Tory government is preparing to mount à full-scale offensive against the miners and the been proved inadequate-as in the confrontation at Saltley coke depot, Birmingham—the next stage of the offenby introducing sweeping regulations to close down huge sections of British industry with power cuts. The massive clampdown on the use of electricity is the severest in peace time.

Mr W. O. Campbell Adamson, head of the CBI, the organization of big business, declared: 'What is on here really is the battle for the With the miners about to enter the sixth week of their strike, millions likely to be laid off and the army standing by, the conditions are building up for a General Strike.

The establishment of a court of inquiry to examine the pay claim is nothing more than a judicial cover for these vicious plans. It buys time for the Heath • It permits the extension of the state of emergency regulations to introduce harsh and punitive power cuts. The Tories' thinking behind this is that it will create a climate of opinion hostile to the • It strings out the dispute towards the crucial date of February 28—when the Industrial Relations In the Commons yesterday Trade and Industry Secretary John Davies gave a taste of how the Tories will wage their vicious campaign against the working class. He warned that power cuts enforced by the state of emergency would cut production in He continued: 'But it will be exceedingly severe undoubtedly. Many, many people, perhaps millions, will be laid off. Davies is saying that millions of workers must now suffer in order that his governworking class itself. And now that police intervention has sive will be British troops. Tory ministers yesterday stunned parliament economic future of this country.' cabinet on two fronts:

miners' fight for wage justice.

Act comes into operation.

many factories by up to 50 per cent.

ment can proceed to drive back the miners.

The fact that the Tories introduce these sweeping powers is an indication of how desperate they are to crush the working class. minery have repeatedly stated, embodied in the particularly towards joining the Common Market.

Robert Carr, the Employment Secretary, and author of the Industrial Relations Act, also showed the resolve of the government when commenting on the court of inquiry.

Within minutes of announcing the inquiry he took the extraordinary step of then telling the so-called 'independent' court what he wanted from them:

It also has to be realized that if the court of inquiry were to recommend the sort of figures the miners are talking about as a minimum, there would have to be severe increases in the price of coal with all the effect that would have on the future size of The big test will come in ten days' to two weeks' time when the inquiry reports its findings. The government, backed by a hysterical Tory, press campaign, will try to intimidate and stampede the trade union leaders into acceptance.

And just as in the post workers' strike 12 months ago the leadership abandoned the fight and accepted a rotten compromise, the same dangers exist for the miners. The weak link remains the TUC and the other trade union leaders.

Where on earth is Victor Feather? He is in Miami, Florida, USA. The TUC informs us he will be returning next Tuesday. Meanwhile the other TUC bureaucrats were at the Department of Employment yesterday - debating whether May Day But the isolation of the miners from the rest of the trade union movement was irrevocably burst in Birmingham on Thursday when the E Birmingham district committee of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers called out an estimated 50,000 engineers to join pickets to close down Saltley coke depot.

fight is the whole Tory strategy, the industry and the whole economy.' should be declared a public holiday!

Now is the time for resoluLOBBY AS DOCKS STOP A 24-HOUR token strike closed emplovers' tivi •wag the port of London yesterday as 16,000 dockers stayed away from work in protest against growing unemployment in the At Tilbury, about 100 dockers' leaders demonstrated outside the hearing of an appeal by men against being returned to the port's unattached labour pool.

The four-man appeals committee two union men and two STAND THE UNATTACHED deadlocked. Now second --70 tribunal with an 'independent' chairman will be convened to decide the case.

A national strike could be called if the menemployed by T. Wallis, Smith Coggins Ltdare returned to the pool.

In Liverpool, 125 dockers who walked out on Thursday claiming extra pay for impedance of pięce. work earnings decided to stay on strike.