RANK-AND-FILE MOVEMENT SET UP IN

Officials in the midlands and in London are trying to stop their members joining Bankside. In addition they are issuing circulars including statements like:

‘The history of negotiations in the power industry have ‘always proved themselves to be capable of settlement within a far shorter time than in most industries. It is hoped therefore that our members will permit the current negotiations to be concluded in a manner and an atmosphere where the best interests of our members and the industry will be best served. It must therefore be understood that any premature action at this stage in connection with overtime bans and 24-hour stoppages will not assist the chief officers of the union in getting the best results.’

Official retreat The men’s reply to this is that even though the claim was first agreed upon last April, nothing has so far been secured. The union leaders have already retreated by dropping a claim for an increase in the basic rate, which was part of the original claim.

The grounds for not even submitting a claim for an increase to the Board were, in the words of one general secretary: ‘We are not satisfied that we have real grounds for demanding a rise.’ This despite the record profits and interest payments to the old parasites.

In fact the men claim that the union leaders have agreed to a wage cut for some men, through the recent agreement cn payment for shift work.

When speaking about the need to fight the Board with more than talk, the men point to the Barking strike of 1947. The By Our Industrial Correspondent A rank-and-file movement, linking active trade unionists in various industries was formed at a meeting held in Salford last week.

The meeting was sponsored by Salford engineering shop stewards, building workers and a number of Salford Amalgamated Engineering Union branches. It discussed the need to build a militant rank-and-file to meet the sharp attacks being prepared by the employers, aided by the witch-hunting of Right-wing trade union leaders.

Speakers stressed the need for unity between rank-and-file ° militants in all industries and the need to fight within the movement for the enforcement of militant policies (in many cases already on paper as official union policy). Our job was to force the unions to fight for them. Only the rank and file could do the job.

Militants from building, engineering, mining, railways, clothing and textile industries agreed to set up a rank-and-file Wages and Hours Campaign Committee.

Two delegates were elected to the National Assembly of Labour on November 15. Delegates were also elected <o attend the conference called by the Briggs Bodies and other stewards on December 6.

Regular monthly meetings will be held and plans were agreed to broaden the movement, for factory and job meetings and a big public meeting.

THE DAILY MIRROR AND THE Daily Mirror of October 28 devoted its front and back pages to denouncing what it terms ‘wildcat strikes’. It calls on the Trades Union Congress to act to stop this scandal.

Apparently the Mirror is not content to castrate the bull Ferdinand, it wants to extend its activities to working men.

The vast majority of unofficial strikes are fully justified. Nearly all of them are strikes in defence of workers’

They are not anti-trade union activities, the strikers are, in fact, defending the basic aims of trade unionism.

At the Renault works in London, strikers are fighting against the victimization of a union militant. In Sheffield, bus and tram drivers are struggling to prevent the worsening of their The Liverpool tugmen are striking to force the employers to honour an agreement on meal breaks. The railwaymen are striking not only against redundancy and loss of earnings, they are upholding a decision of their union conference held last July.

This is not anti-union activity. It is the employers and the trade union leaders who arrive at decisions without consulting their members who are the real conspirators.

Strikes are spreading because the employers, with government backing, are trying to drive down the standards of the working class.

Instead of crawling around talking of inquiries, the TUC

should be mobilizing the full power of the working class to fight the employers. Instead of.banning cenferences of shop stewards under the pretext of red plots, Carron and company should be calling such meetings themselves. .

The National Assembly of Labour could not have been convened at a better time. All those workers engaged in struggle should elect delegates to the Assembly, and come as visitors, so that we can have a discussion on how to unite our efforts.

The Socialist Labour League rejects the notion that unemployment or wage cuts are good or necessary. In a socialist society, the working class with power in their hands will be able to direct all the great new sources of energy, atomic power and automation for the benefit of the working class and not as now to increase the profits of a handful of parasites. © Mr Jack Leonards, regional trade group officer-of the TGWU reported that the general secretary: of the union had decided that no lock-out pay could be awarded unless the crews returned to work. This didn’t prevent the crews from voting overwhelmingly to stay out.

Newsletter leaflet appreciated The Newsletter leaflet written by London busman Geoff Kennedy was enthusiastically received by Sheffield busworkers. The strike committee reproduced the leaflet for further distribution and sent copies to every bus branch in the country, together with an appeal for financial help.

The Newsletter reports of the strike were also well received and over S00 copies were sold in Sheffield. Some busmen took copies of the paper and the leaflet to Rotherham, Chesterfield and Doncaster.