newspapers. than their own organisations.
other papers of the workers' movement.
paper to be utilised tor the centre of our political taske today.
workers who are responsive to the initiatives Inads to sectarian posturing.
our pages to debates and discussion, A LOT TO LEARN learn both masses In struggle demoralisation.
is a big growth of the right in national politics.
it we fall in our or less: 'Social-democracy problem. Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street, London N1.
Distribution 01-359 8371
our tasks SOCIALIST CHALLENGE alms to create a new tradition on the British left. Till now we have seen two types of The first consciously aims at breaking the monopoly of the capitalist press by publishing news stories not to be found elsewhere. (The oid Seven Days and the present Leveller are two examples of this.) Journals such as these play a useful role but they operate within self-imposed limitations: they are not interested in The second type is the party paper. In this category fall Socialist Worker, Red Weekly, Newsline, Morning Star, etc. The use of these papers lies precisely in the fact that they are consciousy unised io bullda particular organisation. Their weakness lies in the fact that they, in general, cannot mobilise forces larger Socialist Challenge, while recognising the merits of nonetheless aims at achieving something different. We want our constructing broad-based class-etruggle tendencles in the unions and we want to place the question of revolutionary socialist unity at We belleve that there are hundreds of thousands of far-left, but are repelled by its lack of unity. That is why we will continue to appeal to other organisations to participate on the Editorial Board of this paper and help to shape its future. We do not believe that any revolutionary socialist organisation today is a party or even the sole nucleus of a future party. To pretend otherwise The International Marxist Group, which is launching unis newspsper, wants itto cecome a paper ot strugale utilised by different groups and by workers and other That is why we will establish special sections in the paper which will be accessible to groups which have no other channels Ication. (Open Forum', Speak Out', ang The IMG does not believe that it has a monopoly of the truth. On the central political questions we belleve that we are, In general, correct, but we still have a lot to other orgenisations and from the We are convinced that unless the far-left understand the fact that internal democracy and open discussions are not a luxury, but a necessity in today's conditions it will not be able to go very far. If it can grasp this raci and operate accordingly then the task of building a unified organisation will be facilitated a hundred fold Can we accomplish these tasks on our own? we doubt it. That is why we appeal both to other socialiet groups in sympathy with our two aims to join with us and try and take the far-left forward. The cynicism and suspicions which exist on the left are perfectiy comprehensible, but If they persist for too long then they become impediments which can only lead to turther We face an extremely serious challenge today. There same time there is a large minority within the working class prepared to fight back against Labour's policies. minority then we will not be able to repeat in five years and Sia nam have trayed. We ourselves will have become part of the was endorsed by the stewards.
above the minimum.
about the strike and its outcome.
"We have got what we asked for - but this is just the beginning. Thestrugglestartsnow.
The company sill deny that the wage stractare is discriminstory. but admit that there are small unomalies". They have said thes will do job-grading for all boerlypaid employees ut a nationallevel. The money at the end of the day will nut be offset against any nationalaward in September.
*Only vur own strength can guarantee saccess. At the end of the day that is all angone has. We will attend all negotiations on our case. Everything will be referred back to the wock force. even the most trivial detail. We have called for a national meeting of Jaeger stewards. Our muss showed that people wunt to maintain the bond that was forged in the strike and spread to other *Within the group. Jaeger in Kilmarock came out on strike with us. LadyDITE THESE TENSES EO OD any work normally done in our plant; so did Collins in Springburgh. They normally work for us but they have boycotted it 'In the Kilmarnock factory the ours. The only difference is that they probably don't have a man in their plant to compare with but that is neither here nor there as they can compare themselves with a man in a different plant belong. ing to the same employer. colpen) лаже sarco слат way ching they concede in our plant they must apply throughout the group. And it will also have an "An industrial tribunal wouldn't evaluation had been carried our probing the we were ar cas as skilled as the unskilled men in our Pay Act is inadequate and one of ropholes is that there isnothing to say that an employer *Our strike was never made official by the NUTGW. The rule The women at Laird Porich and Jaeger have won their demand for job grading. After six weeks on strike in their battle for equal pay, the workers in the East Kilbride and Kilmarnock factories voted on 3 June to accept management's offer, which It will mean that job evaluation is now carried out throughout the Coates Paton textile glant, which the company has been strenuously resisting. When the demand was first raised, at the and of 1975, skilled women al Laird Porich were paid £1.10 above minimum rates, while unskilled men were paid E10 ELLEN NICKLIN, the National Union of Tailoring and Garment Workers convenor at Laird Portch and a member of the strike committee, told Scottish Socialist Ann Henderson can meeling Coates Paton book states that for a strike to be made official in the NUTGW • ballot must be taken in the plant.
The result must then be sent to the execurive board who may chen WORE WILT sanction an official strike. This would have given the company timeto per alot of unfinished worl out of the plant to meet their Our members were not pre paredto wait while this happened It would only have prolonged the WOW SHE PUE Anyway, If it had been made offi $2.50 a week srike pay, so it was THE BATCATOCHELD TOECIE "Heneversuw the officials who were negotluting on our behalf antil the offer came last woek. We never heard from them hy letter or sulted until a national officer comesco manureme somer.
We've had support from as far ?
south as London and as far nort as Aberdeen and Inverness: from trade onion branches, clothing works, miners, Women's Liberation croups, the Working Women' Charter, the Socialist Worker Party, and Scottish Socialists. "At the beginning people didat 3 want to be insolved on the picket lime, but as the strike went on, more and more people participa ted.
We had regnlar strike committer HIT DISE PISS CRETE EDERSO support, what we could do for people facing severehardship, and to organise public meetings to 1 would say we were apposing the Social Contract. All the other legislation which was supposed to tavour workers - uke the Cousl Pay Act none of it worked. But the Social Conrad dacio well worked. Everybody bad their were very disorganised before the strike, and now wel noco to ne more angened in our plant and in our union. Tbe workers feel quite strongly about it. They feel that they ane trade UNIOR ID HOLE WOD BULL LEE CUI on a linb. They paid their money TOLE HIS TO WAS BEHI at ali.
We'll certainly be wanting changes. Wewant to keep in touch with other workers in our union. We want to know what their waet structures are, what their plecework earns. We wunt to keep in touch with them regularly, mot just dispule."
----- pull-quotes -----
*Only our strength generate success