Charlie Horton - but only through the firm action of black members of the had been made by a local Labour councillor to get the meeting at the Community Relations Centre called off. The black warden or tne centre rerusea, and threatened a walk-out of all black CRC members if the cancellation bid went At all the meetings Tariq emphasised the need not to let up after the 4 July demonstration, but to support the 11 Julv demonstration, continue the campaign for labour movement support for black self-detence as the tirst and necessary step to workers defence, and fight to repeal the immigration laws. oraDour eus ike root ara sell. These opportunist social democrats are willing to publicly denounce right-wing oppression and brutality in Chile and South Africa, but when it comes to the racist offensive in Britain they say nothing.
Ali also denounced the ambassadors of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, who in the midst of numerous racist attacks had called on Asians to cool it and show faith in the British police -doing a good job.
hose who attemot to counterpose black self-defence to workers' fete to get off the financial hook. who are said to be because the management couldn't afford the back pay which resulted from a strike last November, after the management had unilaterally introduced industrial study engineers in an attempt to push down manning levels. The management owed the workforce £316,824. So they adopted the tactics of the village But there was more to it than that, as stewards discovered. The development of the Rover plant and the new "flagship' of the luxury Rover are key to the implementation of the rationalisation and mass redundancy plans of the Ryder Report. The new Rover will replace both the old Rover and the large Triumphs. This will enable British Leyland to stop production at the large Canley plant in Coventry. The company will then be reduced to three main assembly sites - Solihull, Longbridge and Cowley.
But things are not going according to plan. Leyland manage, ment has not recruited enough workers or installed enough tools to make the magic figure of 2,000 units per week. At present only 100 cars a day are coming off the tracks. least one motor industry correspondent. Management claims that working conditions in the new Solihull Rover plant are wonderful". Production workers are supposed to think it is 'just fantastic". The paintshop, in particular, 'is the most advanced in Western Europe'. Among its 'startling' new innovations is the provision of ducts to get rid of the poisonous carbon monoxide fumes generated when the cars are driven off The Times correspondent gushed: "Leytand's new showpiece has gone a long way towards restoring the national pride of at One fact overlooked by these enthusiasts is that workers in the paintshop have taken to striking from 12.30 pm in recent weeks in protest against the conditions in the paintshop. Funny how differently things look from Fleet Street, isn't it....?
Cuts students This letter is in reply to the letter from John Webster printed in your issue of 24 June. As members of a College of Education Union which had a strong occupation for three weeks, we find his remarks unbelievable to say the least. We fail to see the point in achieving unity with either the National Union of Teachers Executive or for that matter the TUC when those bodies are acting in compliance with the Labour Govemment in its attempt to ram the cuts down the throats of working people.
What we are interested in is unity with all those forces prepared to fight the cuts (e.g. Lambeth NUT), not with those who mouth opposition but in reality accept the cuts. We speak from some experience in this matter since our Principal, Mr Jack Taylor, was at the time of our are all NUT members as well). In Bristol it is our occupation and the campaign generated by it which has caused NUT members in two comprehensives (none of whom are 'revolutionaries') to pass motions on class size, not the local or national NUT executives.
Rather than attacking co-ordinating committees - incidentally, ours includes Rolls Royce shop stewards committee (AUEW), Commonwealth Smelting (RTZ) TGWU shop stewards, four branches of ASTMS, both Bristol and Bath NUT, two NATFHE branches, and has received a message of support from the Liaison Committee of all NATHE branches in Avon (Redland also received messages of support for our occupation from the South Wales Miners) - John Webster would be better employed leadKed Q. What have the cuts meant so far?
To July KEN LIVINGSTONE was one of only two Greater London councillors who actually spoke against a proposal to increase council rents last week. One of the founders of Labour Against the Housing Cuts (now Labour Against the Cuts), he was also selected as Labour parliamentary candidate for Hampstead last week Red Weekly spoke to him about the effects of the cuts in the London area and how he saw the fight against them developing.