Y ON THE FARES! NUR La And, word of mouth January London Transport district council THE decision by the Law Lords and their Tory friends last December to attack the cheap fares policy of the GLC blatant attack on the living standards of London workers, and on the jobs, wages and working conditions of London Transport workers.
The decision means that fares will increase threefold by June, that services will be cut, that jobs will be lost.
that transport workers will be asked to pay for all this by accepting even lower wages.
There is no doubt that the mass of workers recognised the attack for what it was -Toryinspired robbery of the poor to pay the rich. There was widespread anger and willingness to fight back. A lobby of County Hall in support of the cheap fares policy called at three days notice just before Xmas attracted over 500 transport workers — despite being organised by The scale of the attack, the anger of the workers, and the wide support in the community demanded a decisive and rapid response. But this was not forthcoming. It was well into before the leaders of the various unions mer. And then the main line of march was a propaganda campaign aimed at explaining the attack to the public.
While this is very good and should be supported it is not the main task for the union eaders. In a widely scattered membership like thai at London Transport a clear central lead is essential. But the union leaders are ducking a fight. Aware of the anger of their members they have delayed their response to allow the initial militancy to cool down and leave the door open to management to move and downplay the effects of the Law Lords decision.
Despite the lack of a clear lead from the top the hirst meeting of staff reps showed that thi policy has not succeeded. Held two months after the Law Lords' decision the rank and file call was for action as soon as possible. Under pressure from the staff reps the one-day strike was brought forward to 10 March. In addition there is a lobby of parliament on 11 March and a rally on 13 March. The question which LT workers want answered now is what happens next?
The opposition to the Law Lords in London's working class is massive. The meetings on this issue have been the largest seen for many a day. The unions should give a lead to this opposition.
The first step should be for the union leaders to organise mass meetings in all the depots and win support for a policy of non-collection. Of course this puts big pressure on individuals, but with a clear lead from the unions, and a guarantee of support against any victimisation it can be done. This would need to be backed up with days of action and mass demonstrations.
To organise this the conference of workplace reps should be recalled, to coordinate action and take the initiative from such leaders as Sid Weighell and Terry Duffy. For London Transport workers this is a fight for jobs and working conditions. The time to act is now while the massive public support is still growSocialist Challenge 11 March 19