7/25/2019 PortTalbot190116.pdf

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NATIONALISESTEEL NOW!

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PortTalbot190116

THE NEWS THAT TATA STEEL isaxing 750 jobs at Port Talbot andanother 250 jobs elsewhere is

devastating.Port Talbot has been built on steel with

thousands of families depending directly orindirectly on steel jobs in the area.

The Tories’ worship of the free marketmeans there is a real danger that the steelindustry – and the communities that dependon it – will go the way of the miningindustry under Thatcher in the 1980s.

The closure of the pits ripped apartcommunities who were sacrifice on thealtar of profit.

But it’s not too late to fight back.

Nationalisation not importcontrolsMany people say the answer is to call forstopping cheap Chinese steel imports.

Such moves will only lead to division,retaliation – and imports are not the keyreason for a slump in demand.

And simply giving cash to Tata to“compete on a level playing field” is likelyto see Tata put the cash in their pocketswithout guaranteeing they act to save jobs.

Tata has already been granted a hugeexemption from climate change fines and

unions have agreed to make concessions onissues including job cuts. None of it has been enough to save sites.

Tata’s long term strategy of running its plants down rather than investing means itwould take a huge cash injection to makethem viable.

 Now having squeezed out all the profitthey can, they want to dump the husk thatremains.

The alternative is breaking with bossesand the market. Steel could be nationalisedand production used, for example, tooverhaul railways and mass produce windturbines.

Build a campaign for afightbackThat can’t happen without a major politicaland industrial fight.

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood

has called on the Welsh governmentto “temporarily nationalise parts of theindustry to protect workers”.

She is right – though the whole steelindustry should be under permanent publiccontrol. The unions should call on Labour’sFirst Minister Carwyn Jones to matchWood’s call.

Jeremy Corbyn has alreay called forintervention to save steel in the way the

 banks were saved. We need nationalisationto save jobs and communities .

Huge numbers of people across Walesand the rest of Britain are sick of austeritywhile the rich get richer – a real fight bysteel workers would become a focus forsolidarity and support that could beat theTories.

The first step would be for the unions tocall a major march – open to everyone whowants to save steel jobs and defend ourcommunities, like they did in Scunthorpe.

Port Talbot cuts –we can still ght for steel jobs...

In June we saw 200,000 people protestin London against austerity. In October100,000 trade unionists joined the TUCmarch against the Tory conference inManchester. We have seen huge backingfor the junior doctors’ fight to save the

 NHS.A massive fightback by steel workers,

their families and their communities andsupporters could create the atmospherewhere a serious argument could take placefor workers at Port Talbot to occupy the

 plant to demand nationalisation. No fight can offer a guarantee of victory

 – but not to fight is to guarantee to lose.The stakes are too high to not try – and the

 prospects of success are real.To paraphrase Dylan Thomas – ‘let’s not

go gently into that good night but let’s rage,rage against the dying of the light’ – andkeep it burning in Port Talbot.

Port Talbot steel works