British miners stand firm!

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...Toledo strikers battle cops The 1934 victory of the Auto-Lite OCAW, Local 7-912, on strike at the strike was the beginning of the UAW in Sun Oil refinery since March 21. He is Toledo. Over the next year, 19 plants not a member of Socialist Action. He were organized, and in 1935 the first was on the scene at AP Parts Co. on LONDON-As the strike by the National Union of Mineworkers enters its ninth week there is every indication that it will be one of the most bitter and lengthy industrial disputes in Britain since the Second World War. The Conservative government's desperate attempts to defeat the coal miners have been underlined by the poor showing of the Tories in parliamentary by-elections and municipal elections on May 3.

While every political party claimed a victory from the election results, the real picture was that Margaret Thatcher, in her fifth year of office, suffered a political setback at the hands of the opposition parties. The elections showed that Labour is becoming stronger in the big cities and industrial areas outside the relatively prosperous southern region.

In a by-election held in a Welsh mining valley, Labour increased its vote from the general election, with the Tories coming fourth behind the Welsh nationalists. Labour also won a major(continued from page 1: “Toledo strikers battle cops”)

At least one union member and three police were treated in hospitals. Eighteen police vehicles were damaged; several had all their windows smashed out. One police van was set on fire and six cruisers had to be towed away.

The scabs and salaried personnel could not be safely evacuated until the following morning. The plant was closed for the day.

Company forces strike

The demonstration was called by the Toledo Area unit chairman of the UAW as the result of pressure from the ranks. Oscar Bunch, president of UAW Local 14, which represents the striking AP workers and workers at the GM hydromatic plant, blamed the events on AP Parts. He called for a marathon bargaining session, and for AP to refrain from using "replacement workers for two or three days."

AP is demanding a $5.84 an hour cut in wages and benefits, attacks on seniority, pensions, and other issues. The average hourly wage is $8.75 and wage cut demands by AP would amount to $3.67 an hour or 42 percent.

AP originally threatened to pull out of Toledo if the union did not accept the concessions package. The UAW workers turned down the offer, but chose not to strike. Even before the contract deadline was up in March 1984, AP had erected a chain link fence topped with barbed wire around the entire plant while frost was still in the ground.

AP also hired 20 union-busting ity on Birmingham's council-Britain's second largest city, as well as adding Edinburgh and Southampton to the number of cities they already control. And in what was a clear rejection of Tory attempts to abolish the largely Labour-controlled metropolitan authorities and curb local government spending, the Labour Party in Liverpool increased its majority. The council is now set on a collision course with the government over its refusal to conform with spending limits that would result in massive cuts in social expenditure.

These results, however, by no means entail that Labour would win a general election. Extrapolations from the votes indicate that while the Tories could possibly lose their overall majority in a future election, the alliance between the Social Democratic Party (formed after a rightwing split from the Labour Party) and the old bourgeois Liberal Party would hold the balance of power.

The future course of political events will nevertheless be affected in large measure by the result of the miners' dispute. Despite the timing of the strike— bolstered the picket lines with their solidarity.

Negotiations have resumed under supervision of a mayor's appointed special committee of labor, management, and citizens' representatives. Rumors report progress on some issues such as seniority rights, pensions, and in-plant transfers.

On May 24, however, an 85-vehicle caravan carrying 220 supervisory and scab workers passed through the gates under the direction of the Toledo police. Pickets shouting at the scabs were filmed by the company helicopter hovering overhead. The company received a new restraining order from the courts that now limits pickets to four per gate, and includes all UAW units in its jurisdiction. The latest word is that negotiations will continue.

The UAW, unfortunately, is willing to settle for a less-concessionary package, which includes a $2 per-hour wage cut and giving up one week's vacation, three holidays, and eight cost-of-living increases. The package also exempts AP from some benefits fund payments.

UAW is the largest union local in the Toledo area with some 23,000 members in nearly 90 plants. This is a crucial test for the UAW and unionism in Toledo and all workers in Toledo recognize this.

successful strike against GM was won May 21.

enters tenth week coming during the spring and summer, a traditionally low point for coal consumption-the action is beginning to bite into industry. In the Nottingham coal field, where a majority of the miners are breaking the strike, mass pickets of 10,000 miners have assembled outside scab pits. Mass pickets too have started to appear outside the at the Toledo Chevy Committee to hold rally On June 3, a Toledo Area Solidarity Committee which grew out of the Greyhound strike support work is holding a "Labor Victory Celebration, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Toledo Auto-Lite strike. The rally is taking place at the County Courthouse in downtown Toledo. A similar rally took place on June 1, 1934, and drew 40,000 trade unionists and unemployed workers.

Despite opposition by the UAW, and red-baiting by the top leadership, the rally is heavily supported by the Jeep unit of UAW Local 12, representing 6000 workers, and the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Local 7-912 on strike at Sun Oil refinery. It is also being supported by the Toledo Community Organization Job Corps and Unemployed Group, Local 8 of the IBEW, Local 901 of the ICWU, Local 50 of the Plumbers and Steamfitters, Local 6 of the Sheetmetal Workers, and the Ohio Education Association, Northwest Ohio Chapter. The turnout is certain to be increased by the escalation of the strike activity in Toledo in recent weeks.

Glen Boatman is a member of Ravenscraig steel plant, where management and rightwing steel union officials have collaborated to bring in scab coal. The mass pickets have been met by a huge police presence; 1500 arrests have been made so far.

The miners are receiving strong support from the left of the labour movement. A day of action has been called by the leftwing Scottish Trades Union Congress and action has been taken by the rail and transport unions to make their boycott of coal movement more effective. Other sectors of workers are also beginning to move into action— most notably the railworkers and teachers.

One early victim of this rising militancy is the architect of the "new realism" policy of class collaboration, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Len Murray, who announced an early retirement. Labour's right wing too has suffered a bloody nose with its prediction that the Labour Party would suffer electorally because of the miners' strike. It didn't.

The left wing of the Labour Party, led by Tony Benn, is bringing pressure to bear on Neil Kinnock, Labour's new leader, to fully support the miners. They want him to break with the "new realist" strategy that has led Kinnock and other prominent Labour leaders to join in the calls of the media for the miners to stop the militant tactics being advocated by their union president, Arthur Scargill.

As the strike continues it has become clear that flying pickets and active solidarity from the whole of the labour movement are the only way that the strike will be won in the face of intransigent opposition from the coal employers and the government. International solidarity is needed too. Donations and messages of support can be sent to: National Union of Mineworkers, St. James House, Vicar Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.