Stalinists unable to hold back all-out action

ONLY A POWERFUL movement among rank-and-file building workers prevented their union leaders from signing a sell-out deal with employers this week.

On Tuesday, the executive of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians-with 200,000 members-failed to turn up for scheduled talks with the employers where they hoped to sign the agreement.

Instead they met earlier in the day and reversed a previous decision - taken on Thursday last week-to recommend acceptance of the employers' latest offer.

The sudden about-turn of the executive-led by TUC General Council chairman George Smith-was a reflection of the enormous upsurge in building workers' militancy as they learnt of the proposed sell-out of the claim for a £30, 35-hour week and another week's holiThe rank-and-file has abruptly ended the sham strategy of selective strikes which are now in their sixth week.

In Liverpool yesterday, shop stewards called an all-out strike from mid-day. It is expected 20,000 Merseyside building workers will now join • the strike.

Mass meetings in Scotland, Yorkshire, shire, Bristol and Birmingham have been the last six days. Every one has voted for out, indefinite strike.

At the same time resolutions and telegrams poured IntO UCATT head office in London demanding the resignation of the union executive for betraying the claim.

On Tuesday, 7,000 building workers from all over Britain gathered in London and marched to where the talks were to take place. But the union leaders frightened in more ways than one of the rank and file-failed to show.

The employers' offer not only fell way short of the demands, but was in essence an anti-strike deal. For the payment of the new guaranteed bonus was to be conditional on an uninterrupted working week.

This reflected the hand of George Smith, who was one of the architects of the new 'conciliation' anti-strike deal reached between the TUC and the Confederation of British Industry.

The rising tide of militancy among building workers comes at a time when the working class as a whole-led by the dockers— is moving for a showdown with the Tory government.

Yet it is precisely at this point that the Communist Party tries Liverpool: Mystery flare-up BY IAN WHILE POLICE, local government officials and social workers met for urgent discussions on gang riots at Liverpool the cause of the flare-up remained a mystery.

From Friday to Tuesday gangs of white and coloured youths rampaged through the Myrtle Gardens and Faulkner Street area of Toxteth, Liverpool.

Bricks, stones, bottles and at least one petrol-bomb were used in the riots and token barricades of paving stones were thrown up across roads into the area.

One policeman was rushed to hospital on Tuesday night with a suspected fractured skull after he was dragged clear from a vehicle which had been attacked by gangs throwing bricks through the windows.

Yesterday, while top-level discussions continued, a large force of police patrolled the streets Ulster-style in Land Rovers.

The riots were in one of Liverpool's worst slum districts. Although white and coloured families have lived peacefully together there for generations, a new housing scheme may figure as one of the causes of the weekend disturbances.

Faulkner Place, where windows of all the houses now protected by chicken wire screens, is comprised of new Corporation houses built slum clearance.

Many families chose to b rehoused away from their old Lancaheld in an all- Powerful builders' movement forces leaders' retreat housing say residents again to hold back political development among : building In fact London, where the CP is strongest, is the last major area not yet organized on an all-out strike basis.

Organized around the 'Charter' group, the Stalinists have tried to confine the struggle as an economic issue for higher wages.

And when the cry of 'Heath Out' was taken up by workers at Tuesday's lobby, the Stalinists, led by Peter Kavanagh, took over the microphone and began singing songs Every fight for wages today is a political fight with the Tory government. It is their declared Nothing to do with race or neighbourhood. But of those who opted for the new homes a number were coloured and some local officials say they turned the streets into an enclave in the midst of a white population still living in the old pre-war tenements.

But this new view gains little support from local residents of any colour and the truth seems to lie much closer to the view that the outbreak of fighting was an extension of gang warfare.

Voluntary community councillor Barney Lunt said: 'Housing was not the trouble. This was just gangs fighting. We have always had all colours round here, black, white, pink and yellow.' And Mrs Mary Evans of Myrtle Gardens added: 'They are trying to say we are Jealous of the people in the new houses, but it's just not true.

"The Corporation has just modernized our houses inside, so why should we be jealous of the new ones. I've been here for 30 years with white and coloured in the area and there has been no trouble at all.' Mrs Sylvia Bouqdib, who runs a hostel for the homeless on the edge of the area, said:

'It's absolute rubbish to say it's anything to do with housing and I was furious when I heard the rumours. The trouble has been caused gangs.' policy to hold down wages, allowing prices to soar.

And with the Industrial Relations Act they stand four-square behind the reactionary building employers who are notorious for their attempts to weaken trade unionism on building sites.

The employers - backed by Heath - will not concede an immediate basic rate of £30 and a five-hour cut in the working week. They now say their offer of an immediate rise to £23 a week is final.

What is posed for building workers is the fight for the under workers® the industry nationalization the without compensation.

Detailed accounts of the incidents which set the gangs at each others' throats vary from the stabbing of one Delroy Burris to the ostracizing of a coloured youth by white neighbours.

The 20-30 strong gangs are on the streets most nights and the position is aggravated by the NATE 30148 PAPERBACKS SCENTRE 28 Charlotte St London W1 ECO Three thousand Glasgow building Weak-kneed workers marched through the city centre on Tuesday. Even though it was led by the 'Chartist' group, a mass rally, reflecting nationwide rank-and-file VIn• animously voted for an indefinite strike for the full claim.

Only on the basis of the elimination of the private employers can decent wages be guaranteed, the 'lump' abolished and 100 per cent trade unionism ensured.

The nationalization of the industry can only be achieved by forcing the Tories to resign and electing a Labour government pledged by the mass movement to socialist policies.

A new political, revolutionary leadership has to be built throughout the UCATT and the T&GWU in opposition to the Stalinists who want to disarm workers as the fight develops, insisting the claim is only a wages issue with the employers.

A powerful unity of building workers and dockers has to be forged to lead the fight for the resignation of the Tory government. It is the only way forward for building workers. closure of two community centres for the summer. A third closed when the troubles began.

Inter-gang warfare has raged at least since April, according to social workers. But now, with the use of petrol-bombs and the erection of barricades at the entrances to each other's streets. the conflict has taken a new and serious turn.

All the barricades were removed, but police claim they were 'stoned and abused' by white 'persons' in Windsor, one of the streets adjacent to Faulkner Street.

BOOKS • • PERIODICALS • NEWSPAPENS LORDHA HOUR JOIN scare by building employers THE BIG building employers yesterday continued their scare campaign in the Tory press claiming that their workers were being 'intimidated' by militants.

John Westacott, president of the National Federation of Building Trades Employers, began the campaign when he said militants were moving from site to site inciting workers to strike.

R. W. Campbell, a director ol the Scottish employers' federation, yesterday supported Westacott's claim that selective strikes which have been going on for six weeks were sometimes provoked by militants touring building sites.

*I would say there are indications here and there. There is no doubt that not all of the people are out at the moment willingly.

'It happened certainly in the Aberdeen area where certain sites were working quite happily until they got an invasion of chaps from other sites who persuaded them to come out. And the same sort of thing was happening in Glasgow yesterday.' This is a rather weak-kneed attempt to whip up a scare. Builders have never made any secret about sending flying pickets around other sites seeking solidarity from workers who willingly join the action when they realize the extent of the employers' latest miserly pay offer.

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