Lessons of the sit-ins - - Week One it would be possible for a -Week One

with tear-gas. I want to make sure that any order I make can be enforced.' Thus spake judge Thomas Burgess, a knight and vice-chancellor of Preston High Court, Chancery division.

The objects of his grim verdict were the 22 men of Sharston engineering, occupying their factory set among the lawns and blossoms of affluent Manchestera most unlikely setting for the most bitter episode so far in the N engineering pay battle, now in its second week.

Hours after the ruling, which gave the Sharston bosses the right to clear the factory, a harassed John Tocher, leader of the Manchester engineers, emerged from a meeting with the A court of law, he said, was not the place to settle industrial disputes. The place to do this was across the table with him.

A heartfelt cry indeed from the days of brinkmanship of which Tocher, a leading member of the Communist Party, was a tough and skilful exponent.

Many employers, however, have different ideas. It was surely no coincidence that the day of the unique Preston judgement, Jack Jones, leader of Britain's largest union was himself facing an action for contempt of court.

The Sharston men have now won a temporary respite from the dole-but the court action was successful in forcing them to lift their occupation. This lesson has not gone unnoticed else•Closest observers of all were bosses in some 1l other factories, employing 7,000 workers, who are also faced with occupations. Technically Preston was a test case. Other firms need only to sack their employees then apply to the court for an order to clear their premises.

A day after the court ruling Tocher declared that the point of no return in the Manchester battle had been reached.

The old methods of procedure and custom and practice have been thrown aside. When workers abandoned piece work and went day rate, as has been past practice, management did not negotiate, but locked men out.

But workers faced with SUSgates and wait meekly at gates and wait meekly at home, they occupied.

Preston is a rude shock for local union leaders. The employers are replying to union pressure with force, backed by law, and by the ever-present threat of closure and more unemployment.

John Tocher claims 14 firms have made concessions on the three points of the claimmore wages, shorter hours and more holidays.

But there are no signs big fish like Hawker Siddeley, GKN, Ferranti, AEl and British Steel are cracking. These groups have steadfastly refused negotiations with their Manchester workers.

And what happens the Sharston men or the workers in scores of back-street engineering shops scattered around Manchester's black industrial labrynth, men who are threatened with more redundancies condition to any wage increase?

It is, in fact, only until you get a physical glimpse of this fight in Greater Manchester that the treachery of the decision to abandon the pay claim nationally really strikes home.

The disintegration of the claim allows employers to exploit every weakness within the working class. At one Eccles factory a secret ballot ratified a wage 'increase' of £1.25--50p below the rise offered by employers nationally.

These facts are an indictment of the national leadership of the unions and particularly the Amalgamated Union of Engineering The retreat has gone. on.

The Sheffield area, once on the brink of district action, has now entirely capitulated to the formula of plant-by-plant struggles ordered by the AUEW national committee.

Now it's Manchester's turn to come under pressure.

Bob Wright, AUEW executive council member for the area, is understood to be urging local officers to levy Manchester members to pay for the sit-ins, and there is the distinct impression that more occupations will not be welcomed at AUEW headquarters at Peckham Road, London.

Meanwhile right-wing unions, like the General and Municipal A few marchers Trafalgar Workers, have yet to of the occupations.

Their 600 members at Bredbury steel works are entering their third week of sit-in with no moncy from the union despite the fact they have been denied dole.

Yet not one single employer, from the pygmies like Sharston's, to the giants like GKN, has been able to suspend any workers without facing immediate occupation.

In some plants men have been offered £6, but are still sitting-in waiting for a concession on hours and holidays.

There is a need now to build on this militancy, to establish a day-to-day link between the Manchester workers, to form committees and regular communications.

MAKE ALDERMASTO WORK FOR PEACE! BRING " BACK THE BICYCLE BEAUTIFUL BRITAIN! of the Aldermaston who set off from Square yesterday.

page As the miners discovered tha minan diceanarad strikes have to be organized on the ground to be totally effective. In this way weaker sections can be encouraged to take action and workers under threat protected.

But it is impossible to win the Manchester battle with those manoeuvres alone.

As the days of struggle by, two things become clear.

An important section of the employers will use the law, or the threat of the law, to break up union organization, and use redundancies to intimidate These are the giant issues that now overshadow the Manchester pay battle. What is urgently required is action to remove the source of the bosses' strength: the Tory government.