recommended that safety cover be removed, that steel users are now picketed, and that further pressure be put on the docks.' The fact is that the strikers have been drowned in sympathy. Now they need support from the rest of the trade union movement. Action *The Engineering Union declaring that all steel be boycotted in all engineering plants.
*The leadership of the Transport and General Workers Union working overtime to make sure no TGWU lorry drivers cross picket lines.
*The TUC calling solidarity strikes of engineering and transport workers.
Already rank and file engineering workers have shown their solidarity. In Sheffield at GKN Shadow, GEC Traction and Davey Loewy production has been halted This is the kind of action which can win the steel strike and make sure that no scabs - with or without iron bars - pass the picket lines. THE 180,000-strong National Union of Railwaymen has called for a general strike on 14 May.
This date had already been chosen by the TUC as 'a day of action' - a phrase which can mean all things to all people.
Now the NUR has demanded that the TUC general council calls upon all trade unions to instruct their members not to report for duty on 14 May in order to demonstrate the depth of feeling in th movement against government policy.
Speaking ealier this week, NUR general secretary Sid Weighell said that the union executive felt that it was not sufficient to wave banners in Trafalgar Square.
Added Weighell: "This government is not listening. The only way we can influence them is to stop Britain for 24 hours.
The NUR call should be backed by every trade unionist.
Every day a new Tory attack is promised or launched — whether it be on union rights, on the welfare state, or on the living standards of working people. More cuts are promised in next week's budget. In this context Wednesday, 14 May should not be seen as 'influencing" the Tory government, but as a pointer to the way the government's whole offensive can be defeated. And that does mean a general strike.