GM WORKERS are rising up all over Europe against the GM-Magna deal, under which plants in Spain and the UK and Belgium are to close, and over 11,000 workers will be sacked. The number is made up of 1,800 sackings in the UK, 2,700 in Antwerp, 2,100 in Spain and 4,500 in Germany.
Last Saturday 20,000 Spanish workers marched through Zaragossa in Spain and made it very clear that every action that was necessary would be taken to halt the sackings there and keep the plant open.
Today many thousands of workers are answering the call of the European Metalworkers Federation and rallying outside the Antwerp Opel plant which is due to be closed. They too will be determined to keep that plant open by all means necessary.
It is an absolute scandal that the Unite motor workers union leadership will not be participating in this mobilisation, which will see workers from Poland, Germany, Belgium, Austria and Spain massed outside the plant.
Unite’s joint leaders Woodley and Simpson are still playing the anti-German card, blaming the German workers for the fact they they have not mobilised to defend the jobs that are under threat in Luton and Ellesmere Port.
They have been busy however, giving full support to the Brown-Mandelson government and giving the Labour Party up to £11 million in recent years to stave off its bankruptcy.
They are playing the anti-German card all the better to cling onto Business Secretary Peter Mandelson and the Brown government.
Workers are being told that the Unite trade union with its two million members can do nothing to defend jobs, and that Mandelson and Brown are the only hope.
In order to seal their alliance with Mandelson, Woodley and Simpson are opposed to any action to defend all the threatened jobs.
They oppose any occupation of the plants to stop them closing.
They oppose a campaign to see that the plants are nationalised to defend every job, and blame the German workers – the same workers who came in their hundreds to Luton in 2001 to march and strike with the Vauxhall Motor workers, till Woodley sold out the fight and broke up the unity of the working class which was developing.
Hanging onto Mandelson’s coat-tails and refusing to fight makes the closure of both UK Magna-GM plants certain.
News Line urges Luton and Ellesmere Port workers to unite with the workers of Europe to demand that all Magna-GM plants throughout Europe are nationalised and not a single job or plant is axed!
Such a policy means fighting Mandelson and Brown.
Luton and Ellesmere Port workers must see to it that mass meetings are held at both plants without delay to decide on policies to defend every job.
They must occupy both plants and launch a national campaign for their nationalisation to prevent Luton and Ellesmere Port being turned into ghost towns.
The whole of the working class must be mobilised in this struggle along with the workers of Europe.
Such a movement will be stronger than the Brown government and must remove it to bring in a workers government that will carry out socialist policies.
This is the road that we must take.
Workers of Magna-GM must unite throughout Europe.
Not a single job or plant must be axed.
Magna-GM plants in the UK and in Europe must be occupied and nationalised to defend jobs!
