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UR By Martin A small prefab industrial unit on an estate in Warrington is now the centre of a decisive test case for the British labour movement.

The print union NGA is picketing Salim Shah's Messenger Newspapers printworks, demanding a closed shop and reinstatement of six NGA members sacked at the Messenger office in Stockport.

The High Court last Thursday, 17th, fined the NGA £50,000 for refusing to lift the picket - which is in breach of the Tory anti-union laws. The NGA national council on Tuesday 22nd decided unanimously to refuse to pay the fine and to continue the pickets.

The NGA has asked the TUC for support. Civil servants' general secretary Alistair Graham said on TV on Tuesday evening that he expected the TUC to refuse that support.

But whatever the TUC General Council says, the feeling on the picket line is that the fight will go on. The NGA showed its ability to defy TUC surrender instructions and go on and win earlier this year in a dispute at the Financial Times.

The next legal step is seizure of the NA's assets. If the courts do that, the labour movement's response must be all-out strike action.

Anywhere and everywhere that militants have the strength and the influence to organise it, there should be immediate indefinite strikes.

We should demand that the

JOHN SMITH (IFL)

TUC supports the NGA and calls an immediate one-day general strike if the union's funds are seized, while launching a campaign to prepare for an all-out general strike if the Tories and employers don't back down.

'General strike' may seem a million miles from where the trade union movement is today: but in the class struggle depression and quiet anger can quickly change into action - given leadership. Shah prints his papers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the NGA is calling for pickets. from Tuesday morning to Friday morning.

The factory is on the Winwick Quay Trading Estate in Warrington (Exit 9 off the M62, just after the Burtonwood Service Area.

The issue will be: can the trade unions function as trade unions, or are they to be shackled by the state? Can the courts deprive a trade union of its abilitv to function iust because it tries to pursue an industrial dispute in a militant way?

Agitation to prepare for strike action should start now. NGA leader Joe Wade has talked about bringing out Fleet Street, and that would be a good start.

In the meantime, we need hundreds and thousands on the Warrington picket line.

The picket on the night of Tuesday-Wednesday 22nd-23rd was the biggest night-time picket yet. At 2am, when Shah Continued back page