The four and a half month battle against redundancies at CAV Fazakerley has ended in total defeat. A mass meeting on 8 February decided to accept Lucas management's latest offer of 8½ wreks redundancy pay -an improvement of just half a week on the original offer. About 350 workers were at the final meeting, fewer than half of the orig inal occupiers and only a third of the factory's labour force. Of these only 15 voted against the decision to end the occupation. This is the clearest possible indicator of the demoralisation which had set in at CAV in the final two months, and a tragic finale to a struggle which had started with such high hopes, declaring "We will negotiate anytime, anywhere, but not in terms of redundancy." It would be pointless to try to gloss over the size of the defeat - what we must do is attempt to provide answers to the questions militants should be asking about why it happened and what we can learn from it. Why, for instance, was there virtually no industrial action in support of CAV? Why did the majority of the left either ignore the struggle or brush it to one side with plat¡tudes about "the need for support" not backed up by action?
What mistakes did the CAV workers themselves make?
CONCRETE SOLIDARITY It was clear from the start that the workers st Fazakerley could not win simply by their own efforts. A huge campaign of concrete solidarity actions was needed to put the screws on the Lucas combine. The first steps were the closing of the adjacent Lucas Industrial Equipment site (LIE) and the blacking of transport from Birmingham. But when pickets were sent to stop scab transport going into other Lucas plants on Merseyide the reaction was at first half hearted, and eventually downright hostile. This should have been the signal for the militant traditions of the Merseyside working class to come forward to the aid of CAV, by extending the blacking to the vitally important docks and car factories. But what actually happened? The occupation committee was virtually told "put your own house in order first"! In other words they were supposed to overcome the reactionary attitudes of the other Lucas workers before they could get the help of the more advanced sections of the class. Things might have been different if the Liverpool Trades Council had given a practical lead in promoting and co-ordinating solidarity actions, but they were content with calling two evening meetings of local shop stewards, which tookno decisions on concrete action, and one small demonstration. Naturally these were welcome, and were steps forward in the struggle, but they were no substitute foraction which could have won the struggle. The call for a one day conference to draw up a full scale battle plan against the Lucas combine was simply ignored, yet this was the sort of idea which pointed the way forward to victory, precisely because it put the question of industrial action to the forefront, instead of relegating it to the bottom of the list, after factory gate collections, resoluREQUIRED URGENTLY: Male/female compositor for IBM Selectric composer -35 hour week. Flexible hours. wades necotiable. Write to Carl at F.l. Litho 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1. or phone 01-837 9987. Fast, competent typists should also apply. PEOPLE'S DEMOCRACY SOCIAL-Friday, 23 Feb., 8 p.m. onwards at Dame Collet House, London E.1.
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and BRIAN SLOCOCK Rally in support of CAl workers tion-passing and token demonstrations. In the last month of the occupation the situation had deteriorated to the extent that the main pressure on the CAV workers was to reopen LIE! In other words to abandon tue one major economic sanction they held against the management on the grounds that they were depriving people of work!
PASSIVITY OF LEFT Clearly this situation did not come about by chance. It was directly related to the passivity of the left, both locally and nationally. The only tendencies to take up the issue seriously in their press were the SLL and the IMG. The role of the Communist Party is especially disturbing. They were the one group which could have forced the Trades Council to start a real campaign, but they never moved beyond the level of fund raising activities. As one of the CAV stewards explained after a month of the occupation financial support was vital. but there was a danger of it becoming an end in itself, and they had no wish to become the highest paid, longest running occupation on record. If the mass of the working class is to take revolutionary polities seriously we have to show that revolutionaries can: (1) analyse particular struggles scientifically: and (3) on the basis of this suggest concrete measures for winning those struggles.
This is what we have tried to do in The Red Mole and by our activities in Liverpool. Having analysed the CAV closure as being the first major Common Market rationalisation we were able to argue why it was so important for the whole working class to rally to the (Stepney Green tube). Disco dance, bar, Tickets 30p at door or 25p from Patrick Doherty, 34 Dalston Lane, London E.8.
SAVE FAMILY ALLOWANCES! Public Meeting oracause of the CAV workers. Consequently we argued for practical proposals which would have widened the struggle the building of support committees, a conference of Merseyside shop stewards, a campaign to spread the blacking to more industries and areas (see The Red Mole, 59, in particulat).
LEADERSHIP Finally what of the leadership of the CAV workers themselves? It is ridiculous to talk in terms of a sell-out by the stewards - after all their own future was tied to the success or failure of the occupation, and they had nothing to gain from the final agreement. If any sell-out took place, it was the negative attitude of the union leadership. Nevertheless it must be said that mistakes were made in the running of the occupation and we should be prepared to learn from them.
Right from the start there was an unnecessary division between the two major unions involved, the TGWU and the AUEW. These were aggravated by the TWU's disgraceful policy of only paying partial strike money to women None of the stewards supported this policy, but it should have been taken up positively to add an extra dimension to the struggle and to unite the workers rather than allowing it to create additional tensions amongst them. This division however was an irritant rather than a fundamental strategic error. The basic mistake was the failure to extend the campaign for increased blacking and in particular to force the local labour movement to take a definite stand on the question of industrial action. For far too long they were allowed to sit on the fence, supporting the "principle" of blacking, but never coming to terms with the practical problems. The final blow was the decision to allow the reopening of LIE, which let the Lucas management off the hook just when the economic effect of the closure was beginning to bite.
It is easy to make these criticisms, of course, and we must remember that the main reason for them was the complete isolation of CAV, but this does not make mistakes any the less crucial. One factor not affected by external considerations was the relationship between the stewards committee and the mass of the workers who were frequently not involved in the decision making process. The stewards were not sufficiently aware of the problems which could arise without mass involvement at every stage. This is not an abstract moral question, but a practical consideration of how the struggle can best be won. If the rank and file are isolated from discussions and decisions there will inevitably be demoralisation and isolation from the day to day activities of the struggle.
The Red Mole has consistently argued that the fight at CAV was a fight for the whole working class. We insisted that it was our duty to ensure that the burden of the struggle did not remain on the CAV workers alone. The working class and the left failed in this duty and the result is a defeat, not just for 350 men and women, but for the class as a whole. We must understand this and learn from it. Then the sacrifice and courageous struggle of the CAV workers will not have been in vain.