certain areas.
the Communist Party has had an influence on the leadership.
But the work-in has a logic of its own. If after having staged a work-in the employer still refuses to reconsider the redundancies or closure, then the next step for the work force would be the apparently natural one of continuing production for themselves, to go it alone and set up a workers' co-operative. This process has taken place in a number of important cases, most of which have involved the Labour Government and in particular Tony Benn, formerly Secretary of State for Industry.
The first co-operative to attract widespread attention originated from a struggle in March 1972, when women workers at the Fakenham branch of the Norwich shoe manufacturers Sexton & Everard were all declared redundant. On the Friday after the announcement it was decided to occupy the factory and stage a work-in. Of the 45 women originally employed, about 25 joined in the occupation.
The workers in occupation made belts, handbags, etc. which were retailed voluntarily by activists of the Women's Liberation Movement. Socialist Women's Groups all over the country held support meetings, collections, and showed films to aid the work-in. Despite the opposition of the women's own union leaders, appeals to fellow trade unionists brought in large sums of money. After an 18 week workin the women received a £3.500 donation from the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) and decided to form a co-operative CALCEDRISC.
'ROW YOU BUGGERS' In July 1973 Mr Richard Hicks, then general manager, outlined the philosophy of the cooperative to the Guardian: 'What I've tried to do, he said, 'is to create a situation where they've wanted to have a board of directors to run the business for them....there is no reason why anyone except the two women they've just elected to the board, Nancy and Ann, together with the two (ICOM) representatives should know completely the tacts of the company. The co-owners are only employees and shareholders — not the management...I'm just here to say "The ship should go this way, row you buggers......"
In September 1973, against a background of short sighted inefficiency, the management of the sole remaining British motor bike manufacturing firm, Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT), decided to close its Triumph plant at Meriden near Coventry in order to help concentrate production at its Small Heath factory in Birmingham.
LOST INITIATIVE
On 2 October a mass meeting agreed to prevent the movement of finished bikes from the factory; to establish links with other NVT work workers; to call for blacking of NVT products by the dockers; and to publish a daily bulletin. On 5 October, at a second mass meeting, it was overwhelmingly agreed to try to establish a workers co-operative.
Initially about three-quarters of the 1,750 work force was involved in the occupation, including junior management and supervisory staff. But with the decision to set up a workers' co-operative the initiative moved away from the actions of the mass of workers on the the shop floor to the lawyers, accountants, trade union officials and government bureaucrats involved in haggling over patent rights, how to raise the capital necessary to buy the factory etc.
With the Tory Government brought down by the miners' strike in February 1974, Tony Benn became Industry Secretary. The negotiations continued, and on 20 July the final decisions were announced to the 250 remaining Production was to continue with The UCS struggle, because of the limitations of its leadership and methods of struggle, was unable to mobilise fully its massive working class support. It could thus only achieve a partial victory in This lesson was not lost on the most advanced workers. Since UCS the work-in has tended to be confined to relatively small concerns, or those in more conservative areas, or where TAXPAYER:
RE IS Ş M TO GETS SACK RICH 1750 QUICK a work force that was to rise to 800. This smaller work force was to increase its productivity by 85 per cent.
The Financial Times of 30 July reported the other conditions: "The Government will have first charge on the assets of the co-operative and disposals; for making wage, salary and other payments in excess of £50 a week to any employee, director or official of the co-operative; for the declaration or payment of any dividends on the co-operative shares; and for the taking up or making of loans.' GREAT COST.
The result of the action was to save 250 JODS - the actual number employed in August 1975 - at the cost of 1,500 jobs lost, a maximum wage well below that anywhere else in Coventry, increased exploitation and a drop in working conditions (an example not lost on local employers), a government monitor over every move, and control over sales outlets to remain with the original parent company.
Such co-operatives mean that workers who were by no means responsible for the economic collapse of the company agree to take responsibility for making the failing enterprise into a profitable concern.
THREAT TO UNITY Saving the factory becomes a search for capital investment and profitability, deflecting the struggle from the politically charged fight for nationalisation to save jobs - the only 'long term' solution under capitalism. The workers themselves are forced to try to raise the capital, by appeals to the labour movement, sacrifices of savings or the lump sums paid on redun- gun to raise the politically potent slogan of dancy, appeals to the Government for loans or grants, or even by deals with individual entrepreneurs. The meaning of such a course, encouraged by Benn and other left social democrats, is that it takes the initiative out of the hands of the workforce and effectively stops the possibility of mass mobilisations which might force the Labour Government or trade union leaders to act.
But at Meriden the existence of the co-operJUD SECURI Photo: JOHN SUNROCK (Heport
----- pull-quotes -----
POORE OUR DENNIS