THE PROUD boast of The Times is that for 170 yearsto 1955—it was published without interruption.
Street's presses were brought to a halt.
interference by printworkers in the bosses' press.
OCCasIOns when printers their union.
industry. Their wage levels attest to this fact.
for bigger profits is at the top of the agenda.
The new technology offers this in abundance Frogramme for ACHon up in negotiation with the press barons.
time-honoured way of demonstrating that they taking unorncial achon.
new coor.
numerous publications at relatively low cost.
higher profits -two or three years.
their own members. to win the backing of other workers.
Thomson's would hit the group's money-spinning spectrum represented by the national press.
the rest of the printworkers in Fleet street If vou agree with these principles and want to be involved in activities by Socialist Challenge supporters in your area, fill in the form below and send it to us.
* I am interested in more information about activities in my area.
* I would like additional literature and enclose 50p to cover costs.
[Delete if not applicable] NAME ADDRESS Send to Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1.
Socialist Challenge 30 November 1978 Page 2 Those include 1926, which saw the General Strike when most of Fleet The General Srike had been occasioned by the refusal of printworkers on the Daily Mail to handle an anti-union editorial, and it resulted in an unwritten agreement between the press barons and ine print union leaders: that there would be no editorial The concordat stands virtually intact to this day, and on the few have stopped the presses particularly vicious article or (more correctly) demanded that there be a right of reply, they have usually faced disciplinary action from The barons were prepared to pay a certain price for their freedom of the press. The print chapels on Fleet Street have gained a degree of organisation scarcely to be equalled anywhere in British But the barons are now anxious to call a halt. The growth of television as a major purveyor of the ruling class's ideas and the passing of the ownership of almost all the Fleet Street papers into the hands of multi-national corporations has meant that the need printworkers agree to go quietly; a prospect which their leaders are willing to face. A couple of years ago they put their signatures to • a plan for mass reounaancies arawa It was thrown out by the chapels. Now Times Newspapers, on behalf of the Thomson Organisation (expected profits this year: £126m) and the rest of Fleet Street, is attempting to implement it.
The lockout scheduled to begin today is simply the capitalists' "mean business'.
The business in hand is to eliminate a quarter of the 4,300 jobs on The Times and the Sunday Times, together with big penalties for As Jake Ecclestone, the journalists' father of the chapel at The Times, said on these pages last week, there is great potential in the For the workers in the industry, the streamlining of production techniques could mean a shorter working week, longer holidays, and higher pay. For the working class as a whole, it makes possible None of this, needless to say, is in the minds of the bosses. As with automated techniques in other industries, the objective is — which will be accompanied by longer dole queues.
The Royal Commission on the Press estimated that for an investment of £50m (including redundancy payments), Fleet Street could scrap 7.000 ions and save tzum a vear, silicon brought in elsewhere, according to a report prepared by the Department of Industry, will mean 3½m unemployed in the next The plans of the print union leaders to confront the lockout at Times Newspapers are largely a matter of rumour, not least among The f5 a week levy on printworkers in Fleet Street to support those locked out is one of the few positive measures. The decision of NATSOPA to hold a mass rally last Tuesday is another.
But demands have not been clearly formulated. Little has so far been done to bring together the various unions involved, and little The strike that the NGA seems likely to bring throughout papers. A complete stoppage on Fleet Street (one of the rumours) would locate the struggle on the doorstep of the managements who would benefit from a defeat of the workers at Times Newspapers.
More boldly, defiance of the lockout by bringing out The Times under workers control would vividly expose the narrow political Even if this is not possible printworkers and journalists should jointly produce a daily bulletin ('Our Times'?). For this they will need the support of years THIS MONTH has seen the alternative political positions