According to various reports we have received there seems little doubt that the mass of Ford workers consider the recent struggle as a big victory. According to their shop stewards, they feel more confident and have a new-found sense of their own strength. This feeling can be understood: the settlement is much less onerous than the original Fords proposals; the "penalty clauses" have been drastically reduced; and most Fords workers will be materially a lot better off.
However, this approach is completely mistaken and the union negotiators must be criticised for agreeing to the settlement. Although the penalty clauses in the settlement were only a shadow of the original ones, an extremely important principle was conceded in allowing any penalty clauses whatsoever. It is clear from unity of the workers and their fighting spirit that if the strikes had been extended - complete victory could have been won. As is usual, the trade union leaders had been influenced by the Government's talk of the national interest being threatened.
Whilst this particular settlement is seen by most workers in Fords as a victory, it is a different matter for other sections of the working class. The Fords workers are highly organised and can defend themselves against further encroachments. However, other sections are not in this position; with the penalty clauses being accepted at Fords AFTER a MILITANT FIGHT there is every possibility that they will now become a general feature of industrial settlements. It is no accident that a short time after the Fords settlement, Vauxhall management has proposed a penalty clause agreement. The docks' employers are trying to impose a similar pattern on dockers.
Thus a terrible responsibility lies at the door of the "left" leaders of the AEF and the GWU. The left must subject them to criticism for this settlement not as do the SLL and other sectarians who will see in this settlement proof of the PERSONAL degeneration of these people, but a political explanation based upon a sociological analysis of their role. The basic thing wrong with these trade union leaders is that they lack a theory with which to construct an effective strategy to fight the Labour Government's policies. Militancy by itself is bound to lead to this type of settlement. An offensive anti-capitalist strategy is needed; this however, must have an organised focus to be effective. Thus whilst we criticise Scanlon and Jones for the Fords settlement the real answer to this problem is the building of a revolutionary organisation in the union movement.