[In the late 1970s, however, the Labour government…]

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In the late 1970s, however, the Labour government, under pressure from the IMF, began a round of cuts in the National Health Service, and this prompted the modern round of occupations. Hounslow hospital paved the way and was quickly followed by Elizabeth A whole series of occupations then occurred - St Benedicts,

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demanding - an immediate meeting with the Prime Minisțer!

To back up the demand for a This action is obviously desig- meeting, the STUC would be ned as a 'respectable' version of "involving all sections of the Scottish community in a massive all-Scottish campaign which even Mrs Thatcher will not be The shipyards are threatened able to ignore," as STUC General Secretary Jimmy Milne put it.

A concrete example of this "all-Scottish campaign" was provided three days later by the local District Council, when it announced a meeting in opposition to the closure involving Roy Hattersley, David Steel, Gordon After the abortive negotia- Wilson (chairperson of the Scottish National Party), Archbishop Winning from Glasgow, "a senior representative of the Church of Scotland" and 'the heads of industry"

This class-collaboration 23, though this would be bandwagon still entertains faint hopes of persuading the governagreed to the introduction of ment to intervene and provide 3-shift working on one of the two further subsidies for Scott Lithgow, but their major goal is The Scottish TUC reacted to now to find another buyer for the yards, in spite of the unions' Scott commitment to oppose privatisation of the nationalised shipyards.

But some union leaders have already thrown in the towel completely. After the collapse of last week's talks, Jim Murray, former general secretary of the Boilermakers Union (now merged with the General and Municipal Union), declared that 'the closure of the Scott Lithgow group is inevitable.

But Alec Ferry, secretary of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU), declared: 'BS sees Scott Lithgow's closure as inevitable. That is not the trade union position."

And Duncan McNeil, convenor at Scott Lithgow's, pledged no-cooperation with any attempt to close the yard.

Joe Brown, chairperson of the Clyde CSEU, pledged an all-out strike by all the Clyde yards if the plan to close Scott Lithgow was implemented. The Clyde CSEU is a heavily bureaucratised body, and previous pledges of strike action have failed to materialise. Even so, pressure HOSPITAL occupations are not new. Radcliffe Hospital in Nottingham.

Garrett Anderson. Lithgow: over 4000 jobs at stake should be mounted to ensure that this latest pledge does not meet the fate of its predecesSOTS.

The class collaboration strategy runs directly contrary to any militant tactics to prevent closure. If the goal is to attract new layers for the shipyards, then trade union militancy must off Prevented lest it "frighten potential buyers.

A successful strategy for defence of jobs must be based on appeals for class solidarity from fellow workers, not on vague calls for mobilising "Scottish public opinion". And it must rest on working class struggle, not attempts to persuade the government as to what is "really" in the "national interest"

The rejection of three-shift working by the mass meeting last Friday January 20 is evidence that management may not have an easy ride. The task now is to build upon this initial advance and to win solidarity action for Scott Lithgow's survival from shipbuilding workers throughout the country. A series of one-day strikes hit Ford's car plant at Halewood last week when workers at one of the two long-distance delivery companies which distribute Escort and Orion models to dealers decided to stop work.

100 drivers, employed by Tolmans, are in dispute over the annual wage negotiations. So far more than 1,000 cars have been stockpiled in the plant's compounds; a figure increasing by 300 cars a day.

TRADE union leaders representing 900,000 council manual workers rejected a 3% pay offer made on Monday January 23 by their local authority employers.

The pay negotiations — one of the most important in the public sector wage bargaining season - were due to have been completed last November, but unions feel that political intervention by the government is delaying the deal and giving support to the ruling Conservative group on the employers' side in sticking to the 3% cashlimit provision for public service wages.

Further talks probably won't take place for about a month, thus pushing back even further a settlement date.

IN an important test case in the High Court which began last Monday, brought by eight tax inspectors, the Inland Revenue faces court orders to stop the unilateral imposition of "sweeping and far-reaching" working practices without consequent guarantees of job security.

The eight, members of the