Scots Right to Work march begins

THE SCOTTISH Right-to-Work march crossed the Tay Bridge into the Fife coalfield yesterday on the first leg of its journey to Glasgow.

On Saturday the workers of Dundee gave the marchers a great official send off. A total collection of more than £l6 was made and 150 copies of the The 22 unemployed youth set off in high spirits and fine weather. The march includes contingents from Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Clydebank and Renfrew.

John Barrie, leader of the recent five-week Glasgow-LonBuilders' pay demo BUILDING WORKERS from all over London will rally in Hyde Park this afternoon in support of strike action for their pay claim.

At the same time, union officials have called out six sites in London from today as part of their selective strike strategy.

The demand for a £30,, 35hour week and increased holidays has been met by an 18month offer of increases for craftsmen of £5 to £25; and £4 • labourers, taking them to £21. No hours concessions were made.

'This is the last post for the building unions,' said James Clarke, Transport and General Workers' Union steward on Wimpey's Waltham Abbey site yesterday.

'We can't let the leadership back down now like they've done Eire pay deal rejected A FOUR-and-a-half hour special conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions - representing about 400,000 workers in Eire —rejected proposals for a second National Wage Agreement at the weekend.

The two-to-one decision became almost a foregone conclusion when the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, with 65 votes, decided last Friday to oppose the agreeThe vote against the new agreement was 253 majority of 150.

The vote represents working-class hostility to any collaboradon Right-to-Work march It's great to be on the again.

'Since our journey to London the working class have demonstrated their ability to stand up to the Tories. Now the job is to mobilize to get them out.' The centre came to a virtual standstill as hundreds of shoppers crowded onto the pavements to watch the column pass by.

There was applause when marchers linked the main for the right to work with T&GWU steward James Can't back down* in the past. No doubt the will try it on with us.

"The problem of the slur everything • else is invol this strike with the emp he added.

tion with the Lynch government. The first agreement was sold to the membership by the union bureaucrats on the basis that it would bring price and jobs stability.

Instead, the cost of living soared-chiefly in preparation for Eire's entry in the Commen Market - and the number of unemployed rapidly increased.

The dangei of Saturday's decision is that no one has come forward for an alternative to fight the Lynch government. The pay question is now going to be left to 'playing it by ear' with individual employers.

in the Mall today stewards' rejection offer.

TREASURY has imposed stringent controls on capital transactions with overseas sterling area countries. Direct investment in these countries will now require Bank of England approval as will borrowing from the sterling area by British companies. This marks the virtual end of the sterling area since the control on capital movements is now similar to that which applies to other countries. However, emigrants will be able to take more capital assets than if they were going outside the sterling area. The main effect of the restrictions, which are likely to become permanent, is to check purchase of shares by UK residents on sterling area stock exchanges.

WEATHER

SCOTLAND and Northern Ireland will have sunny spells but there will be scattered showers in the northwest.

England and Wales will be rather coludy with hill fog and drizzle in the west and coastal fog patches on southern and western coasts. In the east and southeast sunny spells are expected the afternoon and evening.

Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Published by Workers Press. 186a Clapham High Street, London.

SW4 7UG.

Printed by Plough Press Ltd. (TU), Clapham High Street. London. SW4 7UG.

said: road call Clarkes Tories Tip and ed in oyers,' following their of a £1.50 pay JOHNS government in the slogan 'We demand the right to work-Kick the Tories out.' Dundee, with • one of the highest rates of unemployment in Scotland, has had a bellyful of Tory policy as Saturday's reception showed.

The town was originally based on the declining jute industry. More recently American firms have come into the area, but these have been hard hit by the recession in the United States and one, National Cash Register, declared over 1,000 redundancies Singer strikers returntignt to fight for their jobs THE STORY of the Singer tactory at Clyde bank is that of the whole of industrial Scotland in miniature.

Twelve years ago, 15,000 workers were employed by the American sewing machine company-making it the bigFive of its kind in the world.

10,000 workers and now there are 5,000. Output, however, has remained the same.

This vast increase in productivity at the expense the people of Clydebank is the main reason why the Singer workers, who have just ended a six-week strike, will not accept more productivity.

As it is they will face a new challenge on jobs as they return today.

Automation is the new bogey. After a decade of capital-intensive investment which squeezed out jobs, management is launching new processes to eradicate whole sections of the labour There has already been a taste of things to come in the power station. The firm 'recently built a new unit employing 13 men— less than a third of the labour force of the old station.

Next for the treatment was the 'arm and bed' building department. The reorganization led to a surplus of 40 workers. Ther have been assigned to an unattached Pool' ready for employment elsewhere in the huge complex which overlooks the Clvdebank shipyard.

But convenor Gavin Laird admits that as the drive for automation sweeps through every department, the 'unions will eventually face an extreme redundancy crisis.

*This management is very fessional and very told me in the strike headquarters.

"They introduced things like job evaluation as early 1950, when it was just a rumour in the rest of British industry.

'There will be more automation. We know that. This is a real threat to jobs in a plant that has been decimated with redundancies over ten years. and Ts anse is said Mr. 'The answer is more holidays Laird.

But one of the demands the Singer men dropped during the strike was for a 39-hour week. Workers blame the union for this.

The AUEW advised the stewards to give seven days' strike notice to comply with the Industrial Relations Act.

This gave management a week to prepare. They made a quick wage offer and posted notices up around the factory claiming onl he demand on hours was pre. venting industrial peace.

Mr Laird says pressure built up and the demand had to be abandoned "The union policy is confused on this issued. On the one hand there is supposed to be nonco-operation with the Act but on the other we were advised to do this. Anyway we made a tactical error.

completely the town last year.

Dundee building workers, who were preparing for tomorrow's strike, put the marchers up in their hall and food was bought by the city's busmen and students.

At a pre-march meeting John Barrie thanked the Dundee workers for their support.

"This march is politically more significant than the longer one to London,' he said.

'Because we have political understanding and because we fight to bring this government jo Wage increases ranging from 14 to 20 per cent have been accepted by 4,500 workers at the Clydebank factory of Singer Manuracturing Company after a six-week strike. Rises of between 23.75 and £4.25 bring | the minimum wage of the lowest paid workers at the factory to {22.16. But, as Stephen Johns reports, the work force has another, bigger fight ahead-the fight against redundancies.

solid. Last week a mass meeting overwhelmingly rejected a company offer despite the fact that most of the fringe benefits demanded in the claim had been conceded.

The firm attempted to break this solidarity by systematically firing the 1,200 staff. They even hinted darkly that there was no guarantee of: re-employment. These tactics, however, some what backfired. The militant Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs refused to leave the plant and occupied their offices.

The Singer battle is part of the engineers' plant-by-plant campaign for better wages and conditions.

This has got off to a uneven and straggly start in Scotland. On Clydeside a handful of plants have their claim in and are taking action—including one sit-in where workers at a backstreet engineering • shop have been sacked for striking.

The Singer strikers were critical of the decision to abandon the claim at national level.

'I was on the national committee when it came up,' said Mr Laird, 'and I moved the motion pressing for national action and a ballot. I think it was faint-hearted to believe we would not have won the backing from the membership-with a campaign we would have done. Singers, I know, would have backed out," he said.

He declined to comment on AUEW President Hugh Scanlon's decision to go back to the employers with the begging bowl for national talks. But other stewards were more outspoken. Said John McFadgen:

Public Meetings SWINDON Friday June 30, 8 p.

'The Locomotive'

Farringdon Road.

Make the Tory

government resign DEFEND THE DOCKERS' RIGHT TO WORI DEFEND BASIC DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS DEFEND THE VIETNAMESE REVOLUTION MAKE THE TORY GOVERNMENT RESIGN SUNDAY JULY 2 Acton Town Hall Acton High Street, Speakers:

G. HEALY (SLL nat CLIFF SLAUGHTER CORIN REDGRAVE LARRY CAVANAGH down, we will make an impact on thousands. This is a challenge before us and I am sure the youth on the march are ready for that challenge' Gordon Bailey brought greetings from the Babcock and Wilcox apprentices' coinmittee, which has officially backed the campaign.

"The message from the apprentices is to wish you success in your vital task of mobilizing the working class against this Tory government. We will be out next Saturday to greet you into Glasgow?

The youth stayed last night the Boys Brigade Hall, Cupar.

'I asked Scanlon when he was up here talking to the shop stewards what was the use of this great plant-by-plant campaign if we were going to go back to talk. If the employers were not going to give anything after such a militant fight, they would not give it at the conference table. Scanlon didn't have an answer?

There is, however, a great deal more than pay and conditions involved. The Singer complex is the main employer in the town. The Clydebank shipyard has already suffered 500 redundancies and more are certain due to the Marathon take-over.

Pay apart, Singer workers will go on facing a relentless erosion of jobs each week. It's the same story throughout Scotland. Every day the local press has the familiar closure or redundancy story. On Wednesday last week it was 7,500 steelworkers who faced the dole, on Thursday it was 200 men at Wickman Lang, Johnstone, the town's last machine-tool works, and on Friday it was 100 more GEC workers at Cowdenbeath. And so it goes on.

Apart from the most feeble protests, the union leaders have no answer to this rapid slide into depression. At the recent Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions meeting organized by the Scottish Communist party, one man asked how, politically, could workers get rid of the Tory government and save their jobs.

The silence in the hall, which held 400 shop stewards, and on the platform which sported James Airlie of UCS, was truly deafening.

OXFORD

Vednesday July 5, 8 Council Chamber Oxford Town Hall Speaker: G. Healy (S national secretary onal secretary) (London YS secretary (SLL Central Committee)

(Liverpool docks steward