The jobs of 25,000 Chrysler workers and thousands more in subsidiary industries still hang in the balance. As we went to press, talks between Chrysler stewards and management - which is still demanding thousands of compulsory redundancies •- had produced no deal.
The Government's 'rescue' deal has been exposed for what it is worth - a £162 million handout to the American multinational and the sack for at least 8,300 Chrysler workers. At a time when the British Steel Corporation is threatening 40,000 redundancies, when savage rail cuts are planned and unemployment is still soaring, the Chrysler workers now have the opportunity to strike a mighty blow for the right to work of all workers.
SPEARHEAD Stewards at the Linwood plant have demanded nationalisation. Up till now they have rejected all redundancies. And, if things go according to plan, the Scottish plant will be occupied from 5 January - the largest factory occupation for jobs since 1971, when the Upper Clyde Shipyards struggle spearheaded the fight against the unemployment policies of the Heath Government.
An occupation to save all jobs at Linwood could also transform the situation inside the Coventry plants, where the senior stewards campaign for voluntary as against compulsory redundancies has confused the workers fight for jobs.
But the vital thing is for Chrysler workers themselves to act, and to act now with occupations of all three plants. Over the past weeks the press has spent thousand of column inches proving that Chrysler is not simply a lame-duck but a dead duck. Capitalist Chrysler may well be dead, but neither 8,000 workers nor 25,000 workers should let their jobs die with it.
RESISTANCE The press's campaign has been aimed as much against any resistance to first the threatened shut down and now the Government's rescue scheme, as against the track record of the US multinational. This same press took opinion polls on the eve of both the 1972 and 1974 miners' strikes to 'prove' that the majority of the population were against the miners - yet after a few weeks of struggle even the opinion polls showed that the miners had won the vast majority of working people to their cause. Chrysler workers can now do the same in leading the fight for the right to work by occupying their plants and demanding nationalisation to save all jobs.
As for the 'left' Labour MPs, who miserably failed even to NO SAC vote against the Government's 'rescue' package, let alone demand nationalisation, they must be held to their earlier pledges to mobilise a campaign in support of Chrysler workers jobs. Tony Benn, who is said to have argued for nationalisation in the Cabinet, should resign and help lead the fight for nationalisation if he is serious about defending jobs.
Chrysler workers can boost the fight for the right to work by acting now, but national leadership is also needed. The "left' MPs and trade union leaders must be forced to add their voices to the demand for a recall TUC Conference to break with the unemployment policies of the Wilson Government.
The 70,000 strong Metropolitan district cf the National and THE TUC Local Government Officers' Association and Birmingham Trades Council are among those bodies already demanding this. The campaign for a recall TUC should be extended across the country, and right to work committees built in every area to fight unemployment and build solidarity with every struggle against sackings.
RECALL THE TUC!
OCCUPY TO DEFEND JOBS!
NATIONALISE CHRYSLER NOW!
Red Weekly 1 January 1976