"MARXIST REVIEW"
Theoretical Journal of the Revolutionary Marxist Group (Irish supporters of the Fourth International) "What is Trotskyism' - Ernest Mandel "Permanent Revolution' - Robert Dorn "Thesis on the National Question' "Trotsky on Ireland' - James Conway 15p post free from: R.M.G., 58 North Great Charles Street, Dublin 2, Ireland (bulk rates on request)
FOREIGN SUBS: Asia/Africa/Australia/N. & S. America: £6 per year (airmail); £4 per year (ordinary). Western Europe: £4 per year. A ballot vote by members of the National Graphical Association has decided that the union should remain registered under the Industrial Relations Act. The reason for this is the vacillation of Bonfield and other members of the National Council over the last year. This clinched the 2,000 vote victory for registration.
Bonfield put the matter like this: of course, everyone is against the Act; but, you see, there are problems: first a very complicated legal difficulty threatening the very existence of the union if it de-registered; secondly the enormous sums it stood to lose by de-registering. The uion executive managed to overcome the problem of survival for a year, but there remained the money question, which became the executive's trump card. A delegate meeting in Scarborough voted overwhelmingly to de-register and to campaign for this amongst the membership. But, as the mover had said in his speech, "I was beginning to come to the conclusion that he [the General Secretary, Bonfield] was speaking against the motion which is now up for discussion" What Bonfield had in fact done was to give delegates a paper with a list of grim financial possibilities facing the union if it de-registered. And this same list was to go out to the membership "We dare not put out a ballot paper democratic Mr. Bonfield.
The General Secretary called his figures "Facts but the real facts are that the National Council filled up three quarters of its circular with legal garbage and accountant's jargon. This material was put together in such a way as to pretend that de-registration vould mean the end of the union. Then, tacked on to the end of the letter came the following: *Nevertheless, brothers, for the sake of the unity of the trade union movement, we recommend...etc."
One right-wing delegate had tried to back the manoeuvrings of the Bonfield leadership by saying, "Let me quote Aneurin Bevan who said you do not walk naked into the Council Chamber. I say that you do not go into a fight naked". But what that delegate forgot and what Bonfield tried to obscure was this: when the working class must fight it must not walk into the council chamber of the enemy in the first place. And the whole purpose of the Act is to give trade unionists no place but the council chamber for the fight. The whole purpose of the Act is to strip the trade union movement naked so that it has to beg the employers for clothes. And the lesson from th NGA is the trade union bureaucracy, even in Mr. Bonfield's left-wing costume, cannot be relied upon to lead the struggle against the capitalist offensive.