All Out for December the 12th

As the consequences of the Government's policies become clearer, there is a desperate need for militant action by trade unionists. The fragmentary struggles on the docks, by the electricians, by the busmen and by the building workers - to name a few - need welding into a coherent whole. It needs to be demonstrated in unmistakable’ terms that all these struggles are part of a general struggle against the Government's policies in toto. The erosion of the fighting spirit of the workers! organisations, which has occurred under the Labour administration, must be reversed. This can only be done by waging a militant struggle and showing that the workers? organisations can still be weapons in the hands of their members. Such struggles have to have a focus and be on such a scale that the left is enthused. An opportunity to do just this exists: the Lobby of Parliament on the question of unemployment called by the Tyne and Blyth district of the Confedératicn of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions on December 12th. @course, we can have no illusions that this Government can be persuaded by such lobbies to change its mind: on the contrary, its mind is made up and it is determined to pursue aggressive pro-capitalist policies, no matter what the effect on its supporters. If no iother evidence were available, the butchery of Britain's coal-mining industry, in the name of rationalisation and designed to facilitate entry into the Common Market, would be decisive, But this Government could be intimidated, and the success thus gained be a spur to further militant and uncompromising struggle. So long as this is understood support for the December 12th Lobby should be enthusiastic and unstinting. There are signs that the lobby has broad and important support on the Tyneside, each day brings news of new delegations being elected, the latest being that 40 are coming from the Elswick and Scotswood Vickers factories, 14 from the Hawthorn Leslie shipyards at Blyth and 6 from the Tyneside district of the A.E.U. In London, numerous trade union groups, including the giant London district of the C.S.E.U., are mobilising support. The contracting electricians are following up their successful and well-attended mass demonstration last week with a one-day strike on December 12th. From another quarter, we learn that the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign has decided to postpone its trade union conference, due to be held on December 3, so that its trade union supporters can give undivided attention to mobilising support for the December 12th Lobby. But an all-out effort needs to be made in the four weeks between now and December 12th. The miners, white with fury over the Labour Government's betrayal of their industry, should mobilise support for that day, The dockers, under attack from the Government, their own unions and the press, should throw their weight behind this united effort, The busmen, locked in struggle with their tight-fisted employers, should, wherever possible, call strikes for December 12th and join the lobby. The same goes for many other sections. The October 22nd demonstration showed that thousands can be mobilised for militant struggle by a united front effort. Let all the left groups and journals unite in their endeavours to make December 12th a day to remember. Let us show the Government that we mean business. It is time we had a really militant demonstration against this Government's deliberate policy of creating unemployment. Let every reader of The Week go all out for December 12th,