IGNORING THE PLEAS OF THEIR UNION 'LEADERS, HUGE SECTIONS OF THE SCOTTISH struggle which have left the bureaucrats standing helplessly on the sidelines. Among these are the The 6,000 lorry drivers on strike have traditionally been a weakly organised sector of the Scottish surprise, have appeared outside not only container depots, but also steelworks, food manufactures, and computer and electronic plants. Factories as diverse as United Glass and the India Tyre Co. Ltd. lorry drivers and the teachers. have been shut down.
And when teachers came back. this term the situation exploded. They have formed democratically elected Action Committees in both the East and the West of Scotland to coordinate action for an immediate increase of C15. About 40 schools and over 2,000 teachers have already come out on strices organised by the Action Committee.
Together with the clear break from the bureaucracy and the forms of organisation created, one last point needs to be empitasised. That is the sheer scale of the movement:
Dustmen are out on strike leaving 15,000 tons of rubbish lying about on the streets of Glasgow. - An unofficial strike of sewage workers micans that 100 million gallons of untreated sewage are being poured into the Clyde every day.
-Meat supplies have stopped since the 90 slaughter-house workers in Glasgow walked out over a pay claim.
-For the second time in a matter of weeks Glasgow bus and tube workers are out on strike, bringing all Glasgow transport to a stop.
working class are voting against Labour's social con-trick with their feet. One out of every ten workers in Scotland is on strike and all these strikes are unofficial. No less than ten separate groups of workers have gone into struggle. Many have taken up forms of mass The Scottish working class has shown the way to the entire working class of Britain by turning "thumbs down' on the social contract, by going into struggle to achieve their own aims, and by starting to carve-out the forms of struggle necessary to win them.
working class. But in this strike, flying pickets have been formed which, much to the employers* - Hoovers of Cambuslang have been out for seven weeks, despite repeated public attacks on them by John Boyd, right wing member of the AUEW executive.
Jimmy Jack the Scottish TUC leader, has publicly appealed for all the strikers to return to work. Jack Jones, speaking last week at a Scottish T&GWU conference, called for an un derstanding by trade unionists of some austerity measures | which| may have to be atlempted. But despite all these attacks the strikes are continuing The events in Scolland are the first decisive thumbs down to the social Scottish working class, with a sure class instinct, repelled the attack of the Scottish Nationalists, and other capitalist groups, on Labour scats. In the West of Scotland Labour won 20 out of 22 seats. In this vote the Scot tish working class was in the leader:
of Britain.
But the fact that there are 10 proups of workers out on unofficial strike within two weeks of the genThe authorities are putting every calls for restraint, shows clearly that people voted Labour despite its leaders right wing policies.
working class in Britain, Faced italist crisis important sections of to defend their living standards. The importance of unifying the demands and struggles flows logically ship of the whole of the working class the whole working class forward apainst the disastrous policies of the COLIN MOPHERSON move. The police justify the ban on marching down Fleet Street by chiming that the demonstration would offend tourists and churchpocrs!
will be speaking at the rally and that a bumber ofother Labour MPs have sponsored the demonstration has not stopped the police and the chill servants taking action.
Militants should be clear that the police intend to do every bing the; can to disrupt this demonstration, JE there is any trouble on Sunday the blime for that can he laid unbositatingly at the door of the police who obvsously are conducting a campaign of provocation. cral election, against all of Wilson's What is happening now in Scotland has vital lessons for the whole with the barsh realities of the capthe Scottish working class have seen though the nonsense of the social contract and embarked on a struggle The sabotage of the bureaucracy has been combatted through the develGlasgow dustmen show what they think of the social con-trick: *a load of rubbish; but one local Tory MP wants to call in the troops