For many weeks Red Weekly has been stressing the need for an alliance between the miners and the engineers to give the rest of the working class a lead in the fight against Phase 3. Such a massive force thrown against the Government would undoubtedly settle the struggle over Phase 3 once and for all, and could lead to the kind of industrial action which would threaten the very existence of the Tory Government.
On 3 January the recall National Committee of the ALEW had an excellent opportunity to make this unity a reality by calling a national engineering strike and making approsches to the NUM for a joint struggle Instead, what they decided was the worst of all possible decisions that could have been made -to call an overtime ban when the three day week is over, In other words, Tar from forging any unity with the miners, the National Committee have deliberately decided to do sothing until the miners struggle is over, NATIONAL STRIKE Qunte apart from the fact that it splits up the struggles of the engineers and the miners, an overtime ban in the engineering industry has never been a serious contender as a tactic which can win the claim. The effect of an overtime ban would be to hit some firms fairly hard and others hardly at all, while the employers would centralise their resources to minimise the effect. It would also split the workers right down the middle. Pieceworkers would have the opportunity to make up some of their lost earnings by stepping up production while day worken, penerally the lowest paid, would have no such opportunity and would feel that they were carrying the can.
The idea of local strikes is equally disastrous as the struggles over the 1972 claim showed. The chances of localised struggles succeeding against such a powerful organisation as the Empiocering Employen Federation are remote to my the least.
If the Executive Council of the AUEW were serious ahout smashing Phase 3 then they should have been campaigning in the membership for the only action that could posably win the daim -an all-out national strike, Local and tal confersors of shop stewand should Mass meetings should have been held in every factory and strike committees clected in every area, Instead we have had 200,000 leaflets for over a million members.
STRIKE BALLOT As well as the proposal for the overtime Dan there was a move to hold a hallot of the memhership on the question of a national strike. It is important for militants to be clear on this question since there has been a great deal of confusion spread, not least by the CP, concerning the need for a ballot. The rule book does not state that a hallot is necessary for a national strike. The National Committee more or less have the power to do what they like, including calling a national strike, Since the crucial question is not whether there is a ballot but whether there is a strike, the NC should have used its power to call a strike on 3 January.
As far as union democracy is concersed, it should be made clear that a ballot is not a democratic way of deciding on a form of strug gle, In a bailot the memhership vote as isolated individuals without having had the opportunity to be involved in a real discussion on the way forward, Almost the sole pressure on them is propaganda poured out by the capitalist media. If any of the bureaucrats in the AL. EW are really concerned about democracy then they should be campaigning for discussions and votes to be taken at mass mectings organised by shop stewards committees These mass meetings should also he used to allow the rank and file to organise to conduct the struggle themselves. If the Executive Council had been campaigning in this way for a national strike since the claim was adopted by the NC, the confidence of the mass of the engineering workers to take on the Government would have been much greater than it is today. But no doubt the bureaucrats who sit in offices boasting about 'our demooratic rule book' would think that this was taking democracy a bit too lar!
RECALL CONVENORS' CONFERENCE The problem for militants whose hopes have been dashed by the NC's decision is what is to be done now. The Executive Council should be Gooded with resolutions condemning the dec Wing that the NC be mec shop stewards committoe, District Committee will not he moved by resolutions alone. The main aim of militants must be to initiate industrial action independently of the official leadership. Only if this is done will the Executive Council he forced to act.
The conference of conveners which was held last month should be immediately recalled by those who sponsored it, Every shop stewards committee should pass resolutions to this effect If those people du not recall the conference then as many of the major shop stewards commitlees as possible should jointly organise a conference themselves. The conference should condemn the NCh decision and cail a national strike and organise it by electing a sinke committee and holding mass meetings in all the major engineering centres. Local strike committees should be clected to organise the struggle in the localities. Only if this kind of action is initiated by the rank and file will there he any hope of the NC being recalled Last month's conference called upon the NC to give a positive lead on industrial action up to and including a national stoppage. Nothing can be less positive than a decision to do nothing until the miners struggle is over. What are the sponsors of the conference going to do now? Since most of them are in the Communist Party they are in a real dilemma. The Morming Stor has been calling for i united effort against Phase 3 and for a recall TUC to organise the whole trades union musement for a struggle against the Tories, What, then, will the CP say about Scanion and Co's sabutage of the unity of the working class?
All the signs are that the CP is using the 3-day week as a diversion from the struggle over the national claim, If the engineers find themselves mainly preoccupied with defensive, struggles against the 3-day week this will be a setback for the whole working class's offensive against the Tories. Are the CP militants going to continually backtrack in onder to cover up for Scanion's betrayals, or will they denounce the decision of the NC and fight for a national strike against Scanion? How they answer that question could be vital for the outcome of the present confrontation between the working class and the Tory Govemment.
at abe TUC-G Hugh Scanion and lobbyist meeting of union les that sums up the ers' movement: Sca and retreat, or the against the Tery attack eral strike For en work for a n only alternative to this it the Scan • Trag a national settlement within Phase 3, and loca militants left to go it alone against the coe