20 MAY 1976 If the kid glove fails then use the iron fist. This was Hugh Scanlon's message this week to the AEU National Committee as he forced wage cuts down the throats of his members.
It was a performance which should break all illusions in the present role of the official trade union Every trick and threat in the book was pulled out.
He threatened to resign from the TUC negotiating committee if his position was 'undermined' by the union's rejection of wage controls. He claimed that rejection of the pay deal would bring down the Labour Government. He said that any move to challenge the Government's policies would lead to a Tory Government 'being unleashed on us.
was a performance which could not have been bettered by Carron, Boyd or any other rightwing leader of the AEU past and present.
It was also a speech which had not a single point of contact with reality. Resign from the negotiating committee as a threat? Nothing could be better, when all that this committee has negotiated is a 6 per cent fall in real wages last year and up to another 5 percent this year.
Bring down the Labour Government? The utterly disastrous policies of this Government are already ensuring that. The huge losses suffered to the Tories in the council elections are only a foretaste of what is to come if the wage cutting, dole queue creating, welfare slashing policies of this Government are not defeated.
Unleash a Tory Government? The only way to defeat the Tories if the betrayals of all those who support this Government's policies let them back, is in the same way that Heath was brought down through the mass action of the working class.
HEALEY No. 151 PRICE 10p Scanion, by fighting for wage CUTS and against the struggle to defeat this Government's policies, fights for the disillusionment of millions of workers - which will not only bring down the Labour but will leave the working class demoralised before what would be the most vicious Tory Government since the 1930s.
Toolmen He has fuelled that threat not only by his speech on Monday, but also by his previous action in ordering the S.U. Carburettors and Longbridge toolmen back to work when they attempted to defend their living standards.
But at the same time as Scanlon was speaking, another section of the labour movement was showing A hundred and fifty delegates at the South Wales Miners conference voted overwhelmingly to reject the pay deal.
The resolutions before the NUM for £100 a week for face workers and before the AUEW for a £28 increase reflect the real will to fight which still exists in he 2001 movement. Instead of giving leadership to this fight, Scanlon and the other 'lefts' have aided the Government at every step.
Despite this open sabotage, the struggle against the policies of this Government can go forward. The next big step is a massive turn out on 26 May and to fight to win the miners' ballot against the pay deal. Despite all the sabotage of Scanion, the Communist Party and the lefts, a powerful day of action can be built and the right in the NUM can be defeated.
Fight back It is only the launching of such a fight back which can begin to turn the tide against the disastrous course which the trade union and Labour lefts are supporting. It is the first step to the building of a class struggle opposition and a new leadership in the labour movement. Scanion-forcing wage cuts down the throats of his members
2 Teachers/Students Red Weekly 20 May 1976