Following the great miners' strike, the dockers' challenge to the I.R.Act is the second working class offensive against the main policies of the Government. It comes at a time when the Heath leadership has never been weaker: with it back against the wall in Ireland, facing a monetary crisis over the pound, its economic policy in disarray, and confronted by deep social discontent over unemployment, rising prices and sharp rent increases. One of the pickets outside Pentonville put the situation in a nutshell: this is the time for the working class to 'throw the punch". The most immediate task of the moment is to FREE THE FIVE! This is a task for mass action by the working class which must be combined with preparations to RESIST FURTHER ARREST! Already the strike movement has spread far beyond the docks, extending hour by hour to wider sections of workers. We must GENERALISE THE STRIKE, till it embraces the whole working class. The movement launched by the dockers is not a passive withdrawal of labour for a wage claim, but a political struggle against the I.R.Act and the Government. Therefore, the old industrial tradition of leaving the factory and going home must be replaced by the new tactic of MASS OCCUPATIONS OF FACTORIES AS BASES FOR EXTENDING THE STRUGGLE.
From such bases the miners tactic of MASS PICKETTING OF OTHER FACTORIES STILL WORKING riust be organised, as well as all the other necessary activities for spreading the movement. From the start this struggle is being led against the opposition or passivity of the official trade union leaderships, and while the fight must go on to win every and file organisations if the offensive is to be carried to a successful conclusion. Therefore MASS MEETINGS MUST BE CALLED TO ELECT STRIKE COMMITTEES to lead every group of striking As the struggle develops new tactics and methods of struggle will be thrown up by the initiative of the masses and these must be quickly reflected and generalised by the strike committees. Therefore these bodies must be subject to immediate recall and re-election.
Bodies like trades councils, because they are based purely on delegates from trade union branches, are too narrow for the task of uniting the representatives of the great mass of workers in factories and housing estates. Therefore, as in 1926, COUNCILS OF ACTION MUST BE FORMED to draw together all the forces of the working class in every locality. As the local leadership of the strike the councils of action must include delegates of strike committees, Tenant Associations and all other rank and file organisations of the working class in the locality. The state will not stand idle in the face of a massive working class challenge to capitalist authority and, as in the miners strike and all other great class battles, violence will be attempted against strikers, pickets and militants. As in 1926, to deter and resist such violence, WORKERS' DEFENCE GROUPS MUST BE FORMED BY STRIKE COMMITTEES AND COUN CILS OF ACTION. Not one moreworker must fall into the hands of the police, the courts and the jails of the capitalist state. While the decisive force in the struggle will be that of the organised working class, we must immediately create SUPPORT COMMITTEES embracing all those ready While the struggle has started in defence of the 5 dockers and against the Industrial Relations Act, millions of working class people will desire to go beyond these limited objectives and fight to BRING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT. They want an end to unemployment, rising prices and the daily exploitation they suffer under capitalism. And as the mass strike becomes general the whole power of the capitalist class over the society will be called into question. The Labour Party and TUC leaders will strain every ounce of energy to divert the struggle back within the rule of law and Parlia mentary channels. They will follow Prentice in saying that the law may be bad "but it is the law and nobody can be above it". Parliament may be bad, the Labour traitors will say, but nobody can be above it.
Parliament is nothing but a fraud, giving the workers the chance to choose which servants of the ruling class will oppress them. We do not call for Parliament to solve the social crisis shaking British society. We fight for A NATIONAL CONGRESS OF FACTORY AND WORKPLACE DELEGATES — a truly democratic body directly reflecting the will of the whole workin ountry. Only such a body can discuss an find a way of solving the problems of the working class in their interests. This is the basic objective which must be fought for in strike committees, Councils of Action, Trade Unions and other working class organisations as the struggle develops:
WHAT LEADERSHIP FOR THE STRUGGLE?
The Labour leaders stand against the strug gle of the dockers. All their actions over the last months have been directed wordeauniding an onen fioht against change their tune and try to recapture the lead in order to be able to stab in the back more effectively at an opportune moment.
Many militants are looking to the so-called trade union and Labour Party "lefts", the LCDTU and the Communist Party to give an alternative lead in the struggle. But will they seek to unite the working class on the basis of a fight against the main force of the ruling class - the state, Parliament and the other agencies of fraud and repression? And are they prepared to make this the line that divides those acting in the interests of the working class from those who will lead the class to defeat? So far these 'left-wingers' have done nothing to organise such a fight, draw such dividing lines. We do not believe they can change their outlook overnight. But the test will come in practice when the measures we have proposed are fought for. We call for an EMERGENCY CONFERENCE OF THE LIAISON COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENCE OF TRADES UNIONS to thrash out the objectives and methods of struggle to be adopted by militants and to be fought for up and down the country.
At the same time it is vitally necessary that all the organisations of the revolutionary left be drawn together in united action to provide a revolutionary alternative in the absence of a revolutionary party for the British working class. The IMG has therefore put out a call for AN IMMEDIATE CONFERENCE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF ALL ORGANISATIONS ON THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFT TO WORK OUT JOINT ACTION IN THE