Interview with Birmingham militant A dramatic increase in the level of militancy and organisation has taken place in the Birmingham building trade over the last year. This period has seen a trebling of union membership, a militant and largely success. ful campaign against lump labour, and the use of several tactics new to the trade in Birmingham such as go-slows, work-to-rules, and the occupation of sites and cranes. These struggles, not surprisingly, have been accompanied by a growth in influence of the Building Workers Charter Group, which enjoys the support of several leading stewards including Pete Carter, Chairman of the Joint Shop Stewards Committee. The Charter, throughout the course of these struggles, has exerted a strong influence on the tactics of struggle used by the men, and on the development of their political consciousness.
The first major struggles to take place in Birmingham were against the use of lump labour (see The Red Mole, 30) and originated with a strike at Woodgate Valley site in support of demands for E1 an hour for all men and the end of the lump.
Since that time, this site has been the spearhead of the militant building workers movement in Birmingham and was the first site to be occupied ( against the continued employment of blacklegs). The employers were not slow to realise this, and with the help of the strike-breaking tactics of local UCATT officials, they were able to inflict demoralised. Half way through May, Bryants transferred fifteen leading militants to other smaller sites. This was at a time when 1100 houses on Woodgate Valley remained to be built on our side of the job alone. A vote was immediately taken to come out on strike against the transfers and for the dismissal of the blacklegs.
After two or three weeks we lost the support of other sites. About fifty men on our site were scabbing and about half of the men who had been issued with transters accepted them. During all of this time we had still received no co-operation from the union officials. During the third week of the strike Woodgate Valley Al site came out on strike over the transfer of fifteen men from there who, incidentally, were all Indians. By the end of the weekAl had completely collapsed and only about twelve men remained out on BI site. The men became totally demoralised and voted to return to work the following day.
7: KILL against the transfers or whether they would side with the gaffers. The officials said they could do nothing about it and would have to accept the transfer or the sack. To this, even the blacklegs and men who had become demoralised by the defeats reared up at the official. He was eventually booed out of the canteen with a general foreman on either side of him for protection, leaving the convenor steward, with no power left, to accept his cards.
Do you see a new resurgence of militancy in the Birmingham building trade and what role should be played by the Building Workers Charter?
Although we have suffered a major defeat, we see this as losing a battle but not the war. Although most of the stewards are still out on the streets, they are working within the Charter Group - holding factory gate meetings, printing propaganda leaflets, expl aining the Charter's positions and the role of the union bureaucracy. The Charter Group are trying to organise one-day stoppages, all-out stoppages, go-slows, etc. in support of the National Pay Claim and the national strike. The officials are only calling out selective sites, having a El levy on other members, and not asking for any support from the sites that are still working. Although the funds of the Charter Group are very low, we have engaged a full time worker to go round the sites and do the job the officials are failing to do. The union officials were with us all the way when we were organising the fight against the lump and for a 50 percent pay rise, but when we challenged Since the article on Jaguar workers and the Social Security (page 5) was written, the press have launched a campaign against Social Security payments to the strikers, starting with an article in the Sunday Express of 16 July. The press would seem to be divided on the exact approach required; the Express is content to blame it all on the Jaguar workers, whereas the Mail and others favour the Reds-under-the-bed approach, attacking the IMG for putting such ideas in the innocent workers' heads. All are united, however, in the belief that such practices cannot be allowed to go on. As the Sunday Express put it, "This open use of Social Security payments... to keep the crippling Jaguar strike going is certain to set off fresh demands on the Government to change the system." One M.P. has already put down a question in the House of Commons about the whole business.
This is only part of a growing propaganda offensive by the State against the use of the Social Security as a strike fund. The capitalist answer to strikes is always to hold out until hardship forces the workers back to work, but this becomes rather difficult if
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JAGUAR Editorial Note