Grave danger to workers

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AFTER THE collapse last autumn of the 'Operation Hard Rock' civil defence exercise, and many Labour councils' response of setting up 'nuclear free zones', the government has turned to compulsion.

In effect local administrations and their workforce are to be conscripted.

Consultation with local anthorities and the unions affected has been next to nil. While the details of the proposed legislation remain murky, the government's low-profile approach is readily understood on examining the little that is known about the new regulations.

Councils will come under the direct control of the Home Secretary. Whitelaw will be able to give individual councils specific directions on how they are to carry out civil defence duties.

These will include providing suitable war headquarters and equipping them, and training a civil defence volunteer force.

Councils will also be in charge of organising and training their own workforces in civil defence. Training will include such things as the Parks and Gardens Department digging mass graves, building workers converting underground car parks into bunkers, and schools being turned into supply dumps.

All such training will have to be done outside of working hours, probably at weekends, and without pay. The overall cost of developing such "defence' will fall on the local authorities.

On their, past record, the Tories may well tack and turn, watering down or conceding certain points of the plan; to break up and minimise opposition. However, that all depends on the opposition.

So far, opposition has been limited to the official response of various local authority associations and the TUC. The TUC is arranging a meeting with the nuclear free zone authorities to coordinate opposition, and has also expressed concern over the failure of the government to consult with the TUC and the industrial relations implications of conscription.

Such protests are important: but the decisive: opposition would be for local authority workers to refuse to cooperate. Given the widespread hostility to the war machine and support for CND, a firm response from the unions, linked where possible to a stand by councils, could throw the whole idea back in the face of the Tories.

It is of the utmost importance that coordinated resistance is organised. The first job is to convince people - many simply do not believe that even this government would go so far as to get local authority workers practising digging mass graves for a post-war world. that showed up their weakness as union leaders.

The pay-off was £500 and £85 for every year worked. This came a couple of weeks after the strikers had rejected a similar "offer". This won't even make up for the money lost by the strike.

Pay-off

The union president Lambert argued at the mass meeting that the strikers should accept the feeble pay-off - the vote went 44 to 14 to accept.

There are two significant reasons for the failure of this dispute:

1) The role of the Hosiery and Knitwear Union full time bureaucrats.

Their organisation left a lot to be desired - they managed to secure a hut for the strikers to sit in but put no effort into organising a continuous district levy to boost the strike dispute fund.

Union members in other parts of Nottingham didn't even know there was a dispute on at Daleside.

They didn't hold to the strikers' wishes of fighting for reinstatement; instead they opennay are asking supporters to nay are asking support send resolutions to the send resolutions to the Home Office, c/o David Waddinglun 4,000 lucky young unemployed workers will get a unique opportunity from September. At a staggering wage of £25 per week - less their board and lodging costs - they will be able to join Margaret Thatcher's armed forces.

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They will get all the square-bashing, ear-bashing and haircutting that goes with army discipline: but it is not clear whether - like the regular army - they will actually get the chance to kill workers and youth on the streets of Ulster, or patrol the Antarctic wastes in defence of Tory imperialist grandeur.

It is certain that none will be allowed anywhere near the military High Command or its nerve centres in bunkers deep below the countryside, where the decisions on launching a nuclear holocaust would be taken.

But this does not mean JOHN HARRIS THE TGWU Biennial Delegate Conference could become an important battleground over the new social contract or "National Economic Assessment" recently agreed between the TUC and

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must fight wage control