Andre Henri, convenor of Gilly and militant of the Belgian section of the Fourth International, confronts the bosses The contrast is marked. But alth ough the battle of Imperial may be Jost (and even that a not certain while the Hull worken hold out! the war itself is far from over. Indeed, by picking up a few hints on tactics and stratery trom our contrades in Cally we may well be in a position to swing future battles a different way. WORKERS DEMOCRACY One of the most importunt elements in their struggle, from the moment when the plant French-based Multi-national BSN announced its Intention to close the Gilly plant of its Glaverbel subsidiary, was that of workers democracy, From the very beginning all major decisions were made by daily mass meetings of the entire workforce, thus guaranteeing their maximum involvement on a day to day basis. An clected strike committee to ensute overal Lo-ordination was esta lished, with its delegates responsible to and recallable at any time by the base. This in turn set up a series of comnissions to oversee particular aspects of the strugele such as fundraising, publicity, ele.
But this democratic orpanisation of the struggle was not confined to the workforce. In contrast to many tactory occupations in Britain, where outsiders have been regarded with extreme suspicion and often kept out entirely, the Gilly workers welcomed all supporters of their strugele with open arms.
Indeed, the strike committee even arranged a series of meetings with delegations from various political groups to discuss their ideas on how the struggle could be advanced. In this way it was possible to draw on the widest possible range of exper jence and ideas in charting the way WORKERS CONTROL Following on closely from this were the elements of workers' control and management introduced.
From the start the workforce challenged the capitalist ethic of private property by occupying the tuctory. But there was the problem of the furnaces —if they were allowed to cool down, then at the very least the workfore would be laid off for a whole period.
So the workers decided to contnue production on a limited scale hat on their terms, by manutact —multi-national's job cut plan SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTY JOBS SAVED. A multi-national firm halted in its fracks. That is the proud achievement of the 600 Belgian glassworkers at the Glaverbel plant in Gilly after six weeks of unprecedented struggle.
Yet in Britain those six weeks saw a different tale. Three thousand redundancies announced by the multi-national Litton Industries at its Imperial Typewriter plants, were mot with only a queue for redundancy pay at Leicester and a defiant gesture at Hull, where the workers mistakenly believe that they can protect themseives from the storms of international recession by simply sitting tight and wrapping themselves in the Union Jack. Martin Meteyard sell it without fiest calling them in Jo trim it. Finally, as the struggle follow the example set by the Lip watchmakers in 1973 and sell the pass directly to the public to boost their strike fund. This met with a huge response and was another blow against capitalist legality.
INDEPENDENT ACTIONS But it was also necessary, of course, to extend the struggle beyond the Gilly factory. So did the workers place all their hopes on persuading the union bureaucrats and the left MPs of the Socialist and Communist Parties to resolve the situation? Not a bit of it First they launched their struggle, and then they demanded that these people back up their action if they. were at all scrious about fighting unemployment.
In other words, they used their own independent actions as a focus for building support and forcing the bureaucrats into action for fear that they might be left behind altogether.
In this way they were able to organise support through a regional action committer of the FGTB (Belgian TUC), address an emergency confercrence of delegates from every factory in the Charleroi area, get a series of stoppages throughout the glass industry and of a mote token nature in otber industries; and finally pose as a real possibility in the situation the calling of a regional general strike.
INTERNATIONAL But amidst all these developments the Gilly workers did not lose sight of one very important fact -they were up against a ruthleas multi-narional whose rationalisation plans involved shutting down at least O factories in four different countries.
The international resources of such a monster could only be fought by mobusing internationa working class solidarity apainst it.
So from the first the Gilly workeis sought to make contact with the other factories in BSN's glass-making sector, particularly in france. Delceations met, the issue was discussed in the various factories, collections of 1,500 glassworkers from BSN's supporters together with a small delegation from Germany outside BSN's headquarters in the Paris suburu or Levallon of policemen who refused them ed, "We haven't come hundreds of stairs. On the top floor they found made clear to him that 'we're not going to foot the bill for the crisis Thas the giant multi-national found itself forced back on the defensive against the international soladanty of it workforce. A couple of days later, and a proposed settle ment guaranteeing every single job SETTLEMENT cement. The strikers had originally force, whereas this settlement envisaged that some would be absorbed into other factories while others area.
Gilly plant thus ensuring that the high level of organisation they have ermore, while the new enterprise is being set up, the workers allocated will continue to be employed at Gilly on the basis of work-sharing with no loss of pay usal of the trade union bureaucrats to icad a strugale in defence of jobs, a mass mecting of the Gilly worker decided undoubtedly correctly- that this was the best national solidarity - a demonstration French and Belgian plants and their Guarding the offices were a line entry. But the demonstrators shoutmiles for nothing! and after a bit of pushing all 1,500 of them poured into the building and started up the the head of BSN. Riboud, in the restaurant so they all crammed in and of capitalism', as one delegate put it.
* was on the lable waiting to be signed.
Of course it was not a perfect agr demanded no dispersal of the work* would be employed on a new enter- * prise to be established by BSN in the But the majority of the workforce will continue to be employed at the built up will not be destroyed. Furth In the face of the continued ref au démantelemen