Standard Telephones & Cables in London are still on strike after six weeks. Mostly West Indians, they are demanding the reinstatement of a black worker, Roderick Adams, who was being trained as a machine setter until the white setters refused to continue his training. This is only the latest phase of a long battle by black machine operators, members of the AUEW, to break the colour bar which has prevented them from gaining promotion to more skilled jobs. One of the obstacles they have had to fight is the alliance between management and the skilled white setters, many of whom left the AUEW and joined the ETU on a racialist basis in 1969.
STEWARDS SCABBING Although the strike has been made official by the AUEW, the majority of the white AUEW ste wards are still crossing the picket line and the AUEW District Committee has so far refused to withdraw their credentials. The vast majority of white workers - as well as some West Indians and Asians - are either actively opposed to the strike or regard it as none of their business. Altogether the factory employs some 3,000 workers.
On Sunday, 130 strikers and their supporters attended a public meeting in Tottenham called by the newly formed STC Strike Defence Committee, The chairman was Cecil Gutzmore. who in 1971 wrote a report for the Runnymede Trust documenting the history of racist practices at STC.
Red Weekly 31 August 1973 Page 2 Many workers, even on the left, argue that unity is a precondition for launthing a struggle, and much of the discussion at the meeting centred around this question. But as Gutzmore pointed out: "The white working class tend to be more or less willing agents of the ruling class in regard to blacks, which is precisely why one section of the working class finds it is necessary to use industrial action against another." RACISTS CHALLENGED With many of the white workers openly allying themselves with management, this was obviously the case at STC. Ted Corbett, the white AUEW convenor, told the meeting how 'it was only the black people who rallied to the defence of a black worker. The whites, with one or two exceptions, were against it. Had we submitted this issue to the whole shopfloor, there would have been no struggle.' As it is, the strike has forced the white workers into the open, and put them on the spot. By their action, the -strikers have openly challenged the hold of a minonty of hardened racists on the sympathy In this strike, it will be the attitude of trade unionists outside STC which will be decisive. The AUEW bureaucracy, who have long turned a blind eye to the existence of racism in the unions, are incapable of understanding this. When we phoned the district office for a statement, they told us: "We are trying to cool this strike down. You buggers are trying to hot it up'! Rather than confront the issue of racism, they seek to brush it under the carpet. This in turn gives every other trade unionist outside STC an excuse for complacency and inactivity on the question.
DEFENCE COMMITTEE This is why the setting up of the STC Strike Defence Committee is so important. Already the failure to extend support for the strike has encouraged the racists: a member of the Black Workers Movement reported at Sunday's meeting that an ETU shop steward is threatening the Asian workers that if they come out in support of the strike he will have the police check them out as illegal immigrants. The Strike Defence Committee has already started to organise the collection of money for the strikers, and is attempting to gain active support from trade unionists and from among the black community. A mass picket of the factory, which would give an immediate focus for this support, is also expected to take place soon. Particular stress is being laid on contacting AUEW and ETU members. Further details from: STC Strike Defence Committee, 30 Leigh Road, London, N.5.