for stewards the scabbing by ASTMS members at CSL.
•How does the dispute affect the chemicals industry on Severnside? Tony Cooksley: Bristol Chemicals has already been closed down, and we believe that Fisons and ISC are in extreme difficulties.
Len Wilson: The chemicals industry on Severnside is grouped together. All chemical managements are looking to CSL, which has the best organised union. If they can break the union at CSL then they can break the rest. • Are there moves to co-ordinate the different stewards' bodies on Severnside?
Alun Beynon: Yes. A decision was made on Thursday to disband the shop stewards liaison committee which previously existed because it had become rather ineffective. Instead we are starting a new shop stewards combine taking in CSL, ISC, Fisons, Tennaco, Savalco, and ICI.
• With the announcement of redundancies at BAC, how do you The strike against redundancies and wage cuts by 638 members of the Transport & General Workers Union at Commonwealth Smelting Ltd in Avonmouth - a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Zinc - is entering its fifth week. Below we interview site convenor TONY COOKSLEY and shop ALUN BEYNON and LEN WILSON.
Since the interview was given, management have made no significant The strikers, however, have been extending their struggle. Fifty of them occupied the DHSS against delays in paying benefit, and they have also won the support of Bath University ASTMS, who are taking up For messages of support, donations, information, speakers, etc. contact: Mike O'Dea, 10 Eldon Terrace, Bedminister, Bristol.
view the job prospects in the area?
L.W: Well, obviously the whole position is very oad. are fighting for is the right to work.
We don't believe that we are responsible for the crisis of capitalism, and so why should we be expected to pay for it. I would say to my brothers at BAC, for the past four weeks we've been fighting your fight as well as ours. • The local paper carried a story from some of the strikers' wives who were campaigning for a return to work. How important is this?
A.B: Not important at all. The press is assuming a strike-breaking role as it always does. that since that story at least half a dozen women have rung the Evening Post supporting the strike. I'll be interested to see if the Evening Post covers their story. organising to get women and children onto the picket on Monday.
T.C: Over a hundred women and children marched in support of their their husbands on the demonstration to the DHSS. We think no women involved.
What we at CSL And I know We're also The Personna workers have returned to unclear. Next week's Red Weekly will As a result, two shop stewards will other answer is necessary.
L.W: The wives are behind their husbands. There are only three women reported as being involved. •Are the women strikers taking part in the picketing?
A.B: Some of them are.
L.W: In the first instance the women in the canteens were providing meals for our safety crew. After management ordered our safety crew off the site everybody withdrew to the picket line, and we have had a good representation of the •Are there any moves to co-ordinate the support you're receiving? A.B: There are moves in the shop stewards' committee to co-ordinate the support into a strike support committee. We will be inviting factories who have made collections or who have invited speakers to Attempts by the local press to turn husbands' wives against the strike got a sharp repl from these women who joined the picket line. basic mistake when we gave up our sit-in. We had been running the factory and this should have been moved to a full-scale occupation. We handed back the factory to our employers by coming outside the gate. On the question of nationalisation I would refer you to the constitution of the Labour Party, Clause IV, and there my case rests. A.B: My personal opinion is that occupation would be almost imposs ible. On nationalisation, I believe that all companies which have the power to throw people out of work in one national sector of their operation and to transfer operations to another should for the benefit of the workers be taken into public ownership. • Your T&G branch is taking part in local campaigns against the cuts in education and the health service. Do you see a direct connection between the Government's attacks on these fronts and the struggle at the Smelter?
A.B: Yes, the connection is direct. Both moves are attempts by the employers to cut the living standards of the working class.
L.W: Workers must recognise that the whole of the working class is They must defend themselves as we at the Smelter are doing and make it quite plain that the capitalist system does not work A new society must be formed. T.C: It seems evident that the Government is co-operating fully with the masters of industry to subjugate the working class