TGWU must back Carousel struggle !

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ANTIBIOTIC drugs have probably saved millions of lives since their discovery, but nevertheless they have their drawbacks.

Firstly, they affect organisms that may • be harmless or even beneficial, as well as diseasecausing ones (pathogens). Secondly, pathogens can often acquire resistance to antibiotics, a fact which can endanger the patient and others.

It would therefore be nice to know that other defences against infection existed, and it now seems that one of those defences may well be the viruses - objects of fear in their own right.

Viruses are the simplest forms of 'life'. They consist of only a few types of molecule, albeit large ones. One molecule is the DNA (or sometimes RNA, unlike all other living things) that General Microbiology).

Smith and Huggins looked at viruses that attacked certain pathogens of the gut. These were strains of E. coli, a normalharmless bacterium that inhabits our guts in billions.

Such strains, known as E. coliK (for 'killer') can cause a severe, even fatal, diarrhoea in animals and humans.

This they do by producing a poisonous chemical in their outer coating which causes a severe reaction in the body of their host.

Smith and Huggins identified phages which attacked only E.coli-K and then gave these phages to calves and piglets together with E.coli-K in doses high enough to cause death. But whereas animals given just E. coli-K died, the ones given phages as well recovered quickly from their diarrhoea.

Two other important discoveries were made at the same time.

Stan Crooke AT THE time of writing, the NGA, one of the smallest unions in the country, faces fines of at least £175,000 for breaking the Tories' anti-union laws, confiscation of its assets, the possibility of being sued by half a dozen newspapers, and court cases against many of its members for alleged offences on the picket line.

In stark contrast to this, Britain's largest union, the TGWU, is failing miserably to provide anything like adequate support for the strikers at the Carousel factory in Glasgow's East End, who have been fighting for over five months now for union recognition, better working conditions, and reinstatement.

Last week, TGWU officials informed strikers that they could no longer use a local shop as their strike headquarters, on the grounds that the union could not afford the bills.

Millions

The TGWU has millions of pounds in assets. The shop was rent-free. Rates were only £17 a week, and those may be waived by the local council.

But now the TGWU officials have withdrawn the keys to the shop. Not that the strikers ever had these keys in the first place.

The lease for the shop was not taken out in the name of any of the strikers, but of a member of the local TGWU Youth Advisory Committee.

On the picket line, the situation is no better. The most recent of the weekly mass pickets had four shop stewards from Yarrows plus three others. TGWU officials are no longer seen at the picketing at all.

Rank and file trade unionists and Labour Party members are not a very frequent sight there either.

On of blacking, progress has been made, despite the fact that the TGWU recently came into possession of a complete list of all outlets for Carousel products. A local union official says that he has lost the list.

An East End support committee to organise backing for the strikers. One of its main achievements was to organise a demonstration in support of the strike in early October. But the TGWU is not prepared to have anything to do with the committee.

The MP for the constituency covering the Carousel factory is David Marshall. He is TGWUsponsored, as is Hugh Brown, MP for the neighbouring Provan constituency. Yet Marshall's involvement in the dispute has been low-level, while Brown's has been invisible.

There can be no doubt that the TGWU officials are now looking for the first semi-favourable opportunity to ditch the dispute. Labour Party and trade union members in Glasgow and elsewhere need to be organising regular delegations to the picket line, and raising finance for the dispute on a regular weekly basis (and taking it direct to the picket line).

And IGWU members must ensure that, instead of dropping the dispute, the union gives it the backing it deserves. HADFIELDS, the Sheffield steel maker which scabbed on 1980's three-month-long steel strike, is to be closed in March next year with the loss of 730 jobs.

The company's latest controlling shareholders, the British Steel Corporation and GKN, who each bought 37.5% stakes in the business from Lonrho in July this year, announced the closure, the latest in a rash of closures among private steel companies, last Friday November 25.

A 'FIVE-YEAR plan' for privatising nationalised industries is to be decided upon early in the New Year by the Government. An aim of the Treasury will be asset sales in each financial year of up to £2 billion, with the overall target of raising between £8 and £10 billion over the full five years.

The first of the big utilities to be floated, on present plans, is British Telecom, with 51% of its shares being • sold in one operation on a partly-paid basis. In order to help private buyers

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By Les