Intimidation by Scabs Fails

La Union recogmised in Roller Bearings. But when we approached the management over this they didn’t want to know anything about a union in the factory. Because of the stubborn attitude of management we decided to go on strike. We had no other course of action to take but to withdraw our labour. The strike has been going on for six weeks now.

QUESTION: Why do you and the other workers on strike feel so strongly about having a union in Roller Bearings.

MILITANT: Because of the bad working conditions there. For instance the hours of our evening shift are from 4.30 p.m. to 1 o’clock the following morning. Because there is no public transport services at that time of the night anyone who hasn’t got a car has to walk fivemiles back to Limerick if he has his home in Limerick. The normal hours for an evening shift in the Shannon Industrial Estate are from 4 p.m. to 12 midnight and CIE lays on buses for anyone working there. Because our factory is half way and eight scabs led by TONY HACKET; he lives in GARRYOWEN and PADDY MURPHY from Farranshone came along and beat them up. These company thugs have frequent meetings with the management. We have no proof that HACKET and the others are being told by management to beat us up but they are being told that we are endangering their jobs. This is a deliberate attempt by the firm to build up the scabs resentment against us and this had led to violence being used against us. In fact while one of the strikers was walking through Limerick one of the scabs tried to kick him. But the eejit missed and the scab got the worst of it. QUESTION: How effective are the pickets in stopping supplies entering the factory? MILITANT: Well most lorry drivers won't pass the line. The drivers delivering oil to the factory won't pass the picket and the Company has to send the scabs into Limerick by car to get oil. The only person who passes our picket is the local postman, unionists as handy punch bags. MILITANT: In order to keep the fight going and to keep up our morale we need solidarity and financial assistance from the workers of Limerick. Weekly collections in factories in the Limerick and Shannon areas would be a great help to us. Unless we get solidarity we will become isolated and Hacket and his gang will think that they have a free hand to deal with us. It is a bad thing that scabs can attack picketers and get away with it. If one firm is able to break a strike with violence others will try the same trick.

I think myself that a support committee of Limerick and Shannon workers should be set up to build up solidarity with us. That way support of us would be better organised. If this committee was effective the scabs at Roller Bearings would be unwise to continue looking on trade will only add momentum to any initiatives of the committee. It is also imperative that the lies of these bodies be exposed to the workers. Indeed such a campaign can only strengthen, extend and thoroughly ratify the demands of the committee.

The campaign could be built around such activities as: Publishing Bulletins of Price Increases. Distribution these around T.U. meetings, Tenants Associations, Supermarkets etc.; Arranging public meetings outside shopping complexes with leading militants.

The campaign could be extended with the formation of committees of trade unionists atid housewives on a more permanent basis who would carry on the campaign over a long period The campaign would not be taken up in the abstract; as the subject of rising” prices is a real vital one for all workers. The opportunity to take the lead exists, the DS & RFC must grasp it now!

BUTCH ROCHE PRAT EEO EAS EIT EI Fa SE

initiated by the Conservatives. areas in Belfast. on resistance.

BRITISH LABOUR USES TORY POLICY Increasing internment, British Army raids ana a generalised stepping up in the harrasment of the anti-unionist population in the North, have been the results of the British Labour Government’s continuation of the policies Ex-Squadron Leader Merlyn Rees has settled into office and is getting down to the serious business of governing the six counties — over 40 newly interned, promised extension of the Emergency Provisions Act, and new restrictions imposed on entrance and exit of anti-unionist Rees has entered the stage of six county politics in much the same manner as Whitelaw two years previously: first with the “carrot” of promises designed to seduce further wearied or reformist elements of the anti-unionist population from the resistance campaign; secondly with the “stick” of military repression combining both selective harrassment with general restrictions on the liberty of the whole anti-unionist people, in a frontal assault The imbalance of British policy is obvious — a in attacks. loyalist military group is legalised after two ‘months stated ceasefire, yet all republican armed groups, including the Officials with their two year’s of ceasefire, remain illegal.

By this decision the British government has again shown that the imperialist power cannot afford to move against the sections of the population upon which its domination depends.

A further aspect of the package was the expression of the intention to extent the Emergency Provisions Act. This Act, as iniquitous as the Special Powers Act it replaces, A few days after these announcements the intention of the British government to séal off anti-unionist areas, New Lodge Road, Upper Falls and Short Strand, with special eight foot high barriers giving limited access to and from the zones. Whitelaw had Motorman as his act of appeasement to the Loyalist reaction when he smashed by military force the defences of the anti-unionist areas, now Rees had stepped up repression with the same aim by penning in the same areas.

The campaign of loyalist assassinations and sectarian attacks on anti-unionist areas was ignored by the British government, Tory and Labour. The British Army adopted a policy of looking the other way, sometimes literally when attacks were made within sight of their observation posts or check points. Again it was an example of the reluctance of Imperialism to move against what is in effect its base among the general population. The Loyalist terrorists were in any case, objectively helping British imperialism in its attempts to demoralise the resistance campaign. The SAS even participated But it is not sufficient to list the repression and to state that the Labour Government is following the strategy of the Tories, for the nature of the Labour Party will play a crucial role in the coming months.

Their strategy at present is in essence that of the Tories — devoted to preserving the Assembly and stabilising Ireland under the nominal control of the Southern Government and in the North, internment and the repressive legislation of the Emergency Provisions Act in the North, the

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the SDLP and Faulknerite Unionists. It is a strategy supported by direct military repression,