Council builders in London i strike march

moves or employers West End headquarters demanding the full claim of £30 for a 35-hour week.

They were led by Camden's direct works builders who joined the ten-week dispute on Monday — the first London council workers to do so.

It was the first demonstration of building workers in London since the union leaders tried to sign a compromise deal some five weeks ago.

Instinctively marchers took up the cry of 'Heath Out!', while others demanded no separate company agreements and a national strike. A section from the East End shouted for the nationalization of the industry and the resignation of the Tories.

What shouting and feeling there was came as a marked contrast to contributions of the leadership of the London building workers action committee.

Before builders left the Barbican in the City, itselt the scene of bitter battles betrayed by the Stalinists, urganizer Alan Tatam apologized for the small turn-out.

'There has been a number of slip ups in the organization, he explained. In fact it is known that many building workers were unaware of the demonstration.

Calling for objective coverage of the strike by television, Tatum said: 'We have to bring democracy and dignity to the industry,' carefully avoiding any criticism of the union leaders.

Another committee member, Stalinist Pete Kavanagh, was equally bankrupt.

'We want a public inquiry Men from the Creffield factory lobby yesterday's Ford convenors' meeting into the corruption in the building industry. We want some publicity to take the lid off the Mafia, he said.

But building workers on demonstration were looking for more leadership than that.

"The mistake is that the union North-West builders angry with leaders MILITANT building workers in the Birkenhead area are angry at what they see as attempts by national and regional union leadership to undermine their strike.

Following the August 15 Liverpool meeting which agreed on a full local stoppage, mobile pickets have worked constantly to discover and bring out every site, however small. They have also brought out 'lump' workers.

The last major site, the market at Liscard, Wallasey, was stopped last week by pickets and they consider there is now a virtual 100 per cent stoppage in the area. They are maintaining a watch on cement and readymix concrete supplies for leads to any sites still working or restarting.

But they have now learned that the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) has reached an agreement with four firms operating in the Wirral for an immediate return to work.

They have so far found it very difficult to discover what terms A MEETING of about 20 Ford convenors in London yesterday was expected to back a fight to stop the company sending work abroad.

The Transport House conference followed disclosures in a leaders still haven't called a Terron Smith from the World's " UCATT militant End site told me.

'I don't agree with separate deals. It has to be all-out or nothing. No one agrees with these deals because they can have been agreed with these firms but most of the pickets are opposed to any splitting of the strike by individual settlements, even for the full claim, and intend to fight to prevent this happening.

The men are sharply critical of UCATT regional secretary Bill Crighton, who, despite plenty of militant and leftsounding speech-making, has from the beginning been in favour of separate settlements on the grounds that 'We must break the weakest links in the chain.' Like most of the leadership in the area he was originally happy with the policy of selective In fact the only site originally asked to come out in Birkenhead was Costain's motorway construction unit at Bidston Moss, which had only just returned to work after a six-week dispute.

The massive response to the strike has put the leadership on the spot. Many militants are convinced they are now trying to get off by looking for opportunities to split the strike. But George Smith [UCATT general secretary] is chairman of the TUC General Council and also set up this arbitration with the CBI. What use is that to us?

'A new leadership definitely has to be pushed for..when this is over?

Others drew attention to the building workers' isolation and looked to support from other 'The Tories are deliberately attempting to starve us back. We need support from the miners, dockers and all others we've assisted in the past. We want them to come out with us now,' said Aaron McLachie, member of the strike committee at the Green Park hotel project.

"The general feeling is that George Smith has been dragging his feet. We have to work 60 or 70 hours to make a decent wage and we're not having that any more.

"This government is not going to starve us back by cutting Social Security. We're out until we get the £30 basic for 35 hours. No one's interested in bonus agreements' A Camden direct works builder pinpointed the question of leadership:

"The leaders don't put up a fight. They are still playing two ,roles-one on our side and another on the side of the capitalists.

If it is to be a success there will have to be a national strike. Other workers must support us financially and by strike action. • The first site to join the strike in Oxford came out yesterday. Workers at Wolfson's College site struck in response to picketing.

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