TO SAVE JOBS TALBOT Home o the Avenger & Sunbeam Linwood workers — out of the gate for the last time? class. In shrinking Markel. success nicals 101cing competitors out This will only be Dus lics. done by cutting wages, imspeed-ups and sacking workers. Every success tor an emplove won at the expense of the WULACIS It is a battle that the working class cannot win without imposing its solutions. If Britain imcontrols, other countries Will inevitably retaliate Import unemployment. they merely export and Inen t only term.
The openly nationalistic character of the TGWU's policy has logical conclusion in the reference o the Honda reference to Honda bounty, being built Cowley, 'Yellow Elephant' Such policies foster racist divisions, put15 M.PH Rootes commissioned plant. Now, that time, as real security here.
development area.
they'd rather pliers, Midlands.
poration.
of the continued to make a loss.
tain.
at Linwood -Shop stewards IT WAS in 1961 that the British car firm the Linwood twenty years and three owners later, it is to be closed. And in all convenor Jimmy Livingstone says, 'There's never been any Geoffrey Rootes explained at the time that they had wanted to build on one of their existing sites. But, 'Government policy changed and we were persuaded to start this new project in a It was hoped that Linwood, together with the Ravenscraig steelworks, would become the centre of a new industrial complex in the West of Scotland, and that this might give it a long-term future.
But capitalists are stubborn people They're not much interested in planning go for quick profits every time. So the sub-contractors, sup.
and others stayed put in the Linwood made a loss each year, and in 1967 Rootes were forced to sell out to the US-based Chrysler corIn 1969 Chrysier built a new paint and machine shop to accommodate the incoming Hunter range. That was the last major investment at Linwood; it is now most out-of-date car assembly units in the world. And it has By 1975 Chrysler was in deep trouble under the impact of the world recession. It came to Britain and demanded £162m in public money and thousands of redundancies as the price of remaining in BriThe initial union response - at least was extremely militant. demanded that the Labour government nationalise the firm without compensation, and announced their intention to occupy the plant and seize all the company's assets if Chrysler But they were stabbed in the back by the trade union leadership, acting for the government in the spirit of the Social Contract. The leading 'left' in the AUEW, Bob Wright, refused to back the and urged the 'play it cool' and try to understand the government's position.
government GM presented an ultimatum - 'accept 8,300 COOKSON not suprisingly knuckled under since they had no alternative to That was the beginning of the end.
Chrysler took the government's money 1978 it sold its entire UK the French company Peugeot's reputation as a ruthless operator is second to none. Several of its French plants are policed by fascist-led Just 10 days after the takeover a commissioned by the unions from an economics study group.
pointed out that interest was in Chrysler's dealer network. Car manufac turing capability, it forecast, would be But did the unions act on this report? Did they launch a campaign among their members for action to defend their jobs?
massive redundancies in tee that gave the somehow avert catastrophe. Some 2,500 workers have already been paid off at Linwood in the months. The inevitable Socialist Challenge 19 February 1981 Page 5