MECCANO= WORKERS FIGHT Staff Were Taken Un
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CLASS STRU&&LE 14n11119Jiil!JQ!;I•111:ti;JJ1•111111•1:rJ;§IieJltl(tlil:lt111tt«lllni:J;JII!JI:I Vol.3 No.25 December 13th to December 26th 1979 fortnightly Sp MECCANO= WORKERS FIGHT staff were taken un. Work was going out and targets being met. HARDSHIP Wages were low at Meccano. The basic take home pay for operators was £40 per week~ ~ith bonus achieved on an individual basis , take home pay could be £50. Meccano was on of the first to settle in the engineers recent national dispute. The factory closure can only bring incre ~ sed hardship to the 940 workers. Liverpool ' s un employment level of approx. 12% is already much higher than the national average. In some areas of Liverpool such as Speke and Kirby, unemployment stands ·at 20% and even 30%. In the case of Meccano Class Struggle was told of one whole family work ing there and being hit by t he closure. At 4 Q'clock on Friday the 30th of November workers FIGHT BACK at Meccano in Liverpool were- bluntly told that the ~ · ,.4Ji.~·- The workers are taking the only course open to factory was closed and moving out lock~stock and them and that is to fight. The s tocks of toys and barrel. Not even the statutory notice of 90 days machines the workers are holding are s aid to be was given. A failure which even arch-reactionary .worth £2,000 , 000 . This puts them in a r elatively Thatcher had to ~eak out against . The part-timers strong position. But the Air-Fix bosses will use who finished at 3 o'clock didn't even get the any amount of guile or state violence to get hold luxury of this 40 minutes notice. of their assets. And these arrogant capitalists The object of the. sutmnary closure seems to have know that in the final analysis the workers are ~ ·. been one of preventing the workers from organising dependant on another capitalist or the state tak-:ip;/ .· to fight the closure. But it had the completely ing over the factory if any jobs are to be saved. opposite effect. Workers immediately organised a But support for the workers'. struggle on Merseyside sit-in rota'and shop-stewards called upon the work is high. The dockers have offered not to handle force of 940 men and women to report for work Air-Fix exports. In the course of the struggle the normally on the Monday morning. At. a mass meeting workers will learn many lessons. Most important!'~~·: , the workers unanimously supported the shop that only t he socialist revolution can give the stewards' call to fight the closure and 'rwork-in" . ~9 working class the power to re-organise production NEW MANAGEMENT according to a socialist plan,.giving full employment and ending capitali st waste. In its race to compete with other toy manufacturers Make the bosses pay for their crisis. Air-Fix (Meccano's parent company) installed a new managing director Ray McNeice. On his arrival about Send financial aid to: tMeccano Fighti ng Fund' 8 months ago, he laid on coaches to ferry workers c/o Mike Egan, GMWU, 99 Edge Lane, L'pool L7 2PE to a meeting hall where he introduced himself. Being the kind of "go-ahead" management Meccano needed, McNeice promptly had his office re WE URGE OUR READERS TO TAKE OUT SUBSCRIPTIONS carpetted; The dullness of the office decor offend TO OUR JOURNALS NOW. ed him so much.he allocated £30 to each office for CLASS STRUGGLE* inland abroad indoor plants. And while McNeice and his associates were in Liverpool "putting Meccano on its feet'' for 13 issues ...... £2.25 D £3.25 0 th~y made sure they lived in style, £30 a night was for 26 issues . .•.•. £4.50 c==J £6 .50 r===J pa~d out to managers lodging at the Holiday Inn. REVOLUTION* Only recently four new company cars had been bought and there is talk of some expensive presents being for 4 issues .....•. £1.95 r===J given. Please tick the appropiate bo x. ,' While pleading poverty the management were con Send to New Era Books, 203 Seven Sisters Road, stantly threatening redundancy. But the closure was London N4. a complete bombshell. In the week previously 10 new on N4. PRICE INFLATION BRINGS MORE POYER I Y After the fanfare sent up to announce the measly is cut almost to the bone. And to be sure, the Tories Tory income-tax cuts, Chancellor Sir Geoffrey Howe have not given up their dream of introducing charges announced recently: for. hospital beds. The eost of gas .is due to go up "If public sector spending and pay expand out of by a little under a third. This after the gas Board control then the alternative of higher taxation has made a record profit of £365 million. So much fot is one of the things that will have to be the benefits of North Sea gas. There are benefits, faced." but not for the working class masses. Bread rose by Not surprisingly this announcement was directed at another 2~p on December 3rd. The list is endless. workers considering strike action to secure a just And still bourgeois politicians and propagandists wage claim - the miners in particular. Although such refer to the crisis "we" are facing and call upon increased taxation shifts more of the burden of the working class and trade unions " • • • to set aside capitalism's economic crisis onto the backs of the outstanding differences in pursuit of common working class, the Labour leaders will no doubt objectives." What "common obje_ctives''? The working gloat over the statement. It vindicates their class and oppressed peoples are being forced into "solution" for capitalism's ills. Roy Hattersley increased poverty and misery while fabulous wealth stated to the demonstration against the cuts that is falling into fewer hands. public expenditure must be funded through higher taxes. REALITY OF POVERTY PRICES ROCKET Poverty in the United Kingdom, an extensive house hold survey in 1967/68 written by Peter Townse~, Hardly a day passes without price rises on staple was published recently. It is of course already foods, necessities and services being announced. out of date. But the survey shows that 10 years age >lortgages up to 15%. Rates to go up by a quarter ur the level of poverty according to official minimum :.10re. Local councils in England and Wales are like standards was inaccurate. According to these stand ly to change rate-payers £600 million more than the ards - that is at or below the Supplementary Benefit ,;overnment is allowing for. National Insurance Level - 5 million people were living in poverty. contributions are going up while the Health Service Peter Townsend's survey revealed that the various LABOUR HIJACKS MASS ANTI-CUTS AGHT Over 50,000 workers took part in a massive demon how much Callaghan's brand of treachery to the stration through London on November 28th against working class has beeome exposed, the booing. puhlic spending cuts. The demonstration was reported dr'OWiled the cheers as he took his seat on the in the bourgeois press to have been the largest platform. But this does not mean that social since the marches against the Industrial Relations democrac~~ not capable of winning another Act. It began at l-30pm from Hyde Park and contin breather: and convincing enough workers for Labour gents were still leaving at 4pm. to win another election. This is where Benn comes Banners reading: BLOODY BIG TAX HANDOUTS FOR THL in. He won applause when he rose to hi s feet to RICH IS ROBBERY and another showing a worker speak. And fine words he spoke, describing the trying to behead Thatcher a.s an "acceptable cut" demonstration as a protest against " •• • the power of expressed the mood of worker! anger. Huge numbers those who nave over a long period of years domin of miners from nearly every coal field turned up ated British politics - landowners, bankers, showing the magnificent spirit of class unity among industrialists and the mass media, whi ch tries to this advanced section of the working class. 7,000 confuse and divide us .•• " students from around 60 colleges, universities and But what of the confusion spread by such as polytechnics also took part along with public Benn who use ringing phrases to hide facts. Facts service wonkers, engineers and transport workers. such as those published in the December issue of The focus of the demonstratovs' anger was , the NUPE journal Public Se'PVice. Here it is Margaret Thatcher, who was riduculed as "Queen revealed that in the last five years, local Maggie" by one old-aged pensioner. This kind of government spending has been cut by 14%. Twothirds bitter hatred for the Tories pervaded the whole of this results from cuts carried Ol,lt by Labour. mood of the demonstration. And the Labour Party Benn is no friend of the working class. He has which lead the march hi-jacked this anger for given up a title connecting him with an old dying its own deceitful purposes. aristocracy. Now his sights are on a title which has more power in the modern world~ He has decided CALLAGHAN DROWNED WITH HECKLING to use the talisman of "socialism" to gain this As is usual with workers' demonstrations lead by power and prestige for himself. But for Benn, the Labourites and the revisionist "Communist" Party socialism is the strengthening of the power of the of Great Britain ('C'PGB), the bulk of this march bourgeois state and more or total state inter was led to Parliament.