“whereby they are willing to push the bureaucracy to…”

whereby they are willing to push the bureaucracy to one side but not willing to launch a decisive offensive against it is not surprising. All spontaneous reactions have this contradictory nature. But while it is contradictory it nonetheless shows in both its aspects the workers’ contempt for the bureaucracy. The task of conscious trade union militants and socialists The example of the recent unofficial strike at Cadburys Dublin plant at Coolock is a striking illustration of how far the poisonous roots of bureaucracy have entrenched themselves in the Trade Union Movement.

The main feature of this particular strike was the inability of the rank and file trade unionists to control their unions and _ their representatives. As outlined in the article on the nature of Trade Union Bureaucracy, this lack of internal democratic control by the members. automatically presents room for bureaucrats to manoeuvre between employer and workers. Refusal to recognise independent actions by the workers, whether they be unofficial strikes or sit-ins, and to take up the day to day demands of the workers, are practical examples of the manoeuvering of the T.U. Officials, which in all practical instances leads to a betrayal. Cadburys strike is a perfect example.

THE STRIKE BEGINS The pickets were placed on the gate by sixteen young girls from a section of the ‘finishing’ department. They were dissatisfied with their bonus-earnings and were demanding a high earning-level. The production quota, they felt was high enough, but not the earnings. For a period of five weeks they had made continuous approaches to their shop-steward, a female co-worker, who told the girls that they must first approach the supervisor. The supvervisor in question, would not listen to the girls requests and so they returned to their shop-steward. This person informed the girls that she was not satisfied that they had approached the supervisor and refused to take up their demands until they had done so.

The girls became increasingly frustrated and after a series of rebuffs from both Quarters, decided to take action. On Friday 22nd June at 3.25 p.m. they called the Chief Shop-Stewards in question, who refused. to approach management “under such a thesat’’ and more or less told the girls to go to hell. The gifts after discussion decided to postpone further action and instructed the Shop-Steward to begin negotiations. By the following Tuesday, the girls had — heard nothing from either Union or management. So by 10 a.m. they had had enough of “being ignored” and placed pickets.

THE BUREAUCRACY MOVES IN The strike was supported almost totally by the 1600 workers at the plant, But not so by the Trade Union bureaucracy involved. The majority of the Shop-Stewards passed » the girls picket ‘on principle’. The Trade | told you so!”

man-days lost in strikes declined sharply, In 1969 for example 61,760 workers went on strike compared with only 22,274 in 1972 — a decrease back and wait for the struggle to begin, but to Prepare the way for that struggle now. This can