Eastern Airlines militant assesses effectiveness of strike tactics

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the International Association of Machinists "It had already been decided by the Sup- let Lorenzo do exactly what he wanted to do By DAVID WALSH and do. But the civil rights workers do it, everyROGER SHEPPARD body that gets attention does civil disobedience—and it works."

BOSTON-After 11 months of bitter struggle against Frank Lorenzo, many East- "Courts are killing us" ern Airlines workers are beginning to assess Conley expressed regrets that the union did how their strike has been conducted. We not take a more militant stance against intalked to Bill Conley, chief shop steward of junctions.

"It had already been decided by the Sup(IAM) Local Lodge 1726 at Logan Airport reme Court earlier that we could shut down here.

Conley reviewed the early weeks of the strike, when strike morale was at its highest, solidarity from other unions was strongest, and public support was widespread.

"What we had to do," he said, "was to educate the public through civil disobedience. In our case, we had a perfect right to shut down the railroads and we didn't do it.

[At the outset of the Eastern strike, IAM leaders discussed setting up secondary pickets at the passenger railroads, but decided against it.—ed.] "The public was for us.... If we had shut down the railroads, the public would have put pressure where it belonged ... and we wouldn't be sitting here. The railroad people would have a contract and we'd have a contract.

"But we didn't take that tack. We were going to be kinder, gentler. We weren't going to disrupt the rail, we didn't want to do civil disobedience, because it's not the thing to the railroads," he said. "If we have an airline strike, are we going to shut down the airlines? If we have a railroad strike, are we going to shut down the railroads? Or are we going to let this thing get into court?

"Our case went into the courts and it's been killing us. My airline is virtually shelled today because the bankruptcy court let Lorenzo do exactly what he wanted to do (continued on page 8) Over 3000 political prisoners remain in jail under the state of emergency. Some, like the Uppington 14, face death sentences.

Finally, De Klerk has done nothing to abolish the fundamental laws of apartheid, which regulate where people can live, job opportunities, schools, land ownership, and voting rights. Of course, according to the more "liberal" representatives of apartheidcapitalism, all these regulations are "negotiable."

Since police violence has failed to halt the South African freedom movement, De Klerk's government (and its mentors in (continued on page 16, in “Mexican workers struggle at Ford plant”)

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