I swear on my honour that I have not received unemployment benefit or social security allowances during the period from 1 to 31 August 1973. I am taking part in the struggle for full employment, against the restructuring of the company, and in defence of the gains we have previously won. I will continue the fight decided upon and led by the entire workforce of Lip. This payment represents the salary due to me for the month of August. It comes from the proceeds of the sale of watches: NEW COMMISSION This statement was signed last Friday by each of 1,167 workers from the Lip watchmaking factory in Besancon in eastern France, evicted by 3,000 armed police on 14 August after occupying the factory for two months. The pay-out was the second organised by the workers themselves since the struggle began, financed by the "illegal' sale of watches "illegally' produced in the illegally occupied factory. MORALE-BOOSTER The successful completion of this operation was a big morale-booster for the Lip workers. Three weeks after their eviction, they have now even restarted the production of watches in a secret workshop with parts smuggled out before the police moved in, Despite thorough searches, the police have failed to find any of their large stock of completed watches, or to locate the missing machine-parts, computer tapes etc. without which it will be impossible to restart the factory.
Moreover, the self-organisation of the workers remains as solid as ever. Every day the course and conduct of the struggle is discussed at a mass meeting of all the workers in the local cinema, where all major decisions are made. And the commissions originally set up at the Last Thursday the dignity of one of the lesser start of the occupation to deal with particular aspects of the struggle have been reconstituted and are functioning as effectively as before.
A new commission has also been set up - the , Anti-Repression Commission. Since the police took over the factory, there have been countless incidents of police harassment and provocation of the local inhabitants. At one state they even fired gas grenades into nearby blocks of flats and into the railway station, nearly igniting a tank full of diesel fuel. There have also been numerous arrests as a result of the skirmishes between police and workers outside the factory.
The press has attempted to portray those arrested as 'outside agitators", and this refrain was at first taken up by the reformist trade union and political leaders, anxious to safeguard the respectability of the struggle. But it was quickly stamped on by the Lip workers themselves. In issue No.7 of their bulletin, Lip-Unité, they stated quite unambiguously: "The clashes are the result of the occupation of our factory by the police. Although we think that these people are fighting in the wrong way, we know that almost all of them are workers like us or others who seek to support our just cause.? The Anti-Repression Commission is not only providing legal assistance for those arrested, but has also taken on such tasks as arranging for the care of families where the father has been jailed, fighting the cases of workers who have been sacked after being arrested, etc NATIONAL SCALE The key to the Lip struggles however, remains its extension on a national scale. When the police were sent in three weeks ago, it became a trial of strength between the French Government and the whole working class. The Lip workers are well aware of this, and have devoted an increasing share of their resources to the activities of the Popularisation Commission. This has sent delegations all over France to explain and build support for the aims and forms of struggle adopted by the Lip workers At the level of solidarity actions, the response has been willing but unorganised. Token gestures but no central initiatives have come trom the trade union leaders, who are still waiting eagerly on the results of the negotiations between the Government's representative, M. Giraud, and the Lip workers. The fourth session of these on Tuesday ended in deadlock, but a fifth session is expected to take place on Saturday.
However, it is precisely the relationship of forces established in the broad class struggle which will determine the outcome of any negotiations. In this respect, the national march on Besancon", provisionally planned by the Lip workers to take place in three weeks time, could provide the centralising focus which is so urgently needed. Its effectiveness, though, will depend on the ability of local militants to organise for it beforehand through broad-based preparatory committees which can unite all those forces prepared to take action on this question.
EXEMPLARY METHODS But at the same time, the Government's ability to keep the situation under control is increasing ly being threatened from another angle. In the last four months the Lip workers have developed or rediscovered many exemplary forms of struggle. Now these are being taken up by other sections of the French workers' movement for use in their own struggles.
First to follow the example of the Lip workers were workers at the two shoe-making firms in the town of Romans, who briefly occupied their factories last month. But now instances are rapidly multiplying: strikers at a clothing manufacturer's in Cerizay have decided to restart production of certain lines in order to finance their struggle; hatmakers at Saint-Die have taken over their factory after it was declared bankrupt; workers at a chocolate factory in Grenoble threatened with closure have set up their own committee to keep a daily check on management's actions. So far only small firms have been affected. But it can only be a matter of time before such methods are adopted in a struggle involung thousands of workers. The Government cannot • afford any more than the working class to sit this one out.
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WORKER LOCAL 32; UNITED ME STA