The 1970s: 200 factories occupied in Britain

Submitted by Anon on 9 April, 2009 - 2:40 Author: Tom Unterrainer

In the four years from July 1970, British capitalism “lost” more than five million working days to combined industrial action against a new Industrial Relations Act and government incomes policy.

The British labour movement was at a high water mark following the defeat of In Place of Strife, the 1964-70 Labour government’s move towards anti-union laws, in May 1969. Not only had the TUC thrown its weight — after some delay — behind rank-and-file and Communist Party organised efforts against legislation, but an explosion of shop floor organisation emerged in the form of new shop stewards’ committees and rank-and-file initiatives.

This historic period of militancy coincided with drastic turmoil in the British economy. In the post-war period to 1970 the economy had grown by less than half the rate of the United States. British capitalists were unable to keep up with increasing competition in the global market and were reluctant to invest money to maintain competitiveness. The capitalist class and their Tory government sought to shift the blame to the working class and their organisations through the instrument of a new set of anti-union laws (more restrictive than those proposed in In Place of Strife) and to cut costs. Unemployment which had been very low ever since the start of World War Two, rose to over one million.

These factors, and the example of France’s huge wave of factory occupations in 1968, produced a wave of factory and workplace occupations across Britain. The first of these occupations started on Clydeside in the summer of 1971.

Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) had come up against crisis after crisis since the Labour government conglomerated a number of already declining ship yards in 1966. In the five years from 1966, 30% of the workforce had been slashed and the remaining, severely diminished workforce increased productivity by 85%. Rather than nationalise the yards the Labour government chose to subsidise them heavily. The Tories chose another path and began to “sell” yards for as little as £1 along with millions of pounds worth of loans.

When the new owners failed to turn a profit, and the Tories refused new investment, closures were threatened. With 6000 jobs at stake, the UCS workers staged a “work-in” occupation. This action, combined with two one-day solidarity strikes across Scotland. saved three of the four yards and won close to £50 million in new government investment. This was a significant victory and a magnificent display of working-class action. It inspired more than two hundred other occupations, including at Plessey and Fisher Bendix.

Such action resulted in official TUC recognition of the legitimacy and effectiveness of workplace and factory occupations. But the wave of occupations came to sharp end in 1979, when the Tories regained office. And before then, they had rarely gone politically beyond attempts to keep factories going as cooperatives, or appeals to the government for aid.

At UCS, the sit-in leaders, Stalinist “Communists” opposed any action further than this specific “work-in”. They refused to call out other shipyards — calls that would have been largely answered — and refused to call for the nationalisation of the industry. Jobs were saved for the time being, but the industry was not.

Today, the current wave of occupations has to start a process of climbing out of years of sluggishness, the product of defeat. Individual trade union leaders are accepting the occupations as a fact but are not calling for them to spread. The unions are not organising solidarity actions.

In short, a workers’ plan is needed to give direction.

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.