Why? Because, as their experience showed, it would take more than a half-heatrted protest - which the TUC couldn't bother even to turn into an official stoppage - to halt the Tory offensive.
STRUGGLE What was surprising about May 14th was not the amount who didn't participate but the amount of grass root support that did. The thousands of union and Labour Party members who downed tools on the day did so not only despite the Tory hate campaign but also despite the TUC's cowardly backdown.
The demands that echoed on the rallies up and down the country -'Tories Out', 'General Strike' have to launch a serious fight within the unions and Labour Party to make the labour leaders live up to their responsibility.
ACTION One day protest actions - combined with rhetoric about the return of a Labour government in 4 years - will not defend jobs, living standards and the welfare state. And the millions who did not turn out on May 14th know it. Only a serious campaign, a fighting campaign, can do that. In this sense, at no stage must the labour leaders be let off the hook. They must be forced to see May 14th not as a 'one-off" act but as the begining of an ongoing campaign to defend worker's rights.
They have to be forced into organising mass opposition against the cuts; to lead the fight against unemployment (expected to rocket to 2½ million next year) and to organise mass solidarity with any group of workers victimised by Prior's anti-union Bill.
DEMOCRACY It is only by increasing the pressure to make the labour leadScotland-which has felt the Tory axe harder than most areas- led the fight-back ag250,000 workers struck on strations.
In Glasgow, an estimated through the town. ground was closed, train services decimated and many of shipyard demonstration marched in a strong anti-Tory protest. buses, railways and SOGAT printworkers were all out.
place in Aberdeen (1,500), Greenock (1,600), Cumbered work of the North-west, big rallies 5,000 marched through the it is also the ainst the Thatcher government.
May 14th and thousands took to the streets in protest demon15,000 - including busworkers, railway workers and a strong NALGO contingent- marched The underthe local factories and shipyards closed- including Talbot Linwood, the Govan and Greenock down.
In Edinburgh, a 7,000-strong The Smaller demonstrations took nauld, Ayr and Dumfries. In the city of Dundee, an estimat- in 1971. ed 20,000 workers- covering all manufacturing and service mausines and tanspor- stopin England.
In the industrial strongholds also occurred. Manchester witnessed a march of 7,000 with big contingents of busworkers and postworkers. In Liverpool, citv centre where the docks and Camell Laird shipyard were out.
In Sheffield, 5,000- mainly made up of engineers and miners- took to the streets. Small demonstrations took place in Bradford (2,000), Blackpool, (2,000) and Leeds where all the buses were out, many facttories closed and some schools took half-day strike action.
In Britain's biggest industrial complex in the Midlands, the response from the factories was patchy but significant protests were held. In Birmingham. over 5,000 demonstrated with particular support mrom the construction sites which closed Similar demonstrations took place in nearby Coventry (5,000), where the buses were out and Rolls-Royce Parkside closed down, Leicester (3,000) and Stoke where the demonstration of 3,000 was the most mil itant action seen in the town since the protest against Ted Heath's Industrial Relations Act Bristol, with over 7,000 workers on the streets, probably held the biggest demonstration All the major factories were affected to some extent or another, although the buses were still running.
In Wales, mass action by 27,000 miners brought all the pits in the South to a standstill. While demonstrations occurred in most maior towns. they were smaller than elsewhere. Liandudno saw a lively march of 2,000 organised by the Wales TUC and in Cardiff 1,000 took to the streets.
In the North and South-east, trade unionists took to the streets to demonstrate their opposition to the Thatcher government. Brighton saw a lively rally of over 2,000 and Conservative-controlled Bournemouth was confronted with the demonstration of over 1,000 through the city centre.
In London, sizeable demon.strations took place in almost all ares. 2,000- mainly public-sector workers- - turned out in Haringay. In Islington, 1,500 joined a rally organised by the local anti-Cuts Campaign. 2,000 took to the streets in Fiayes and 1,000 in Ealingdespite the local Tory council's protest- to meet at a mass rally in Southall Park.
8,000 workers took to the streets in Hackney and a further 2,000 in Lambeth. The biggest action in London was undoubtedly the massive march organised by print-workers in detiance of the Express management's court action to stop then For the TUC, the 'Day of Aition' may be over. But for these hundreds of thousands of workers up and down the country, it is only the begin. ning of a long-term struggle to stop the Tory attacks in their