Socialist Action No. 147, 29 August 1986
The scan: 147-aug-09-1986-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
No state interference in the unions
proposals!
new
SEVENTEEN YEARS ago the Labour government of Harold Wilson published a white paper on industrial relations, In Place of Strife. In the face of fierce opposition within the unions and the party it was withdrawn.
In Place of Strife never became law. But the attack on the democratic rights and strength of the British trade union movement which it posed was taken up by the government of Edward Heath.
When Heath followed Wilson into government, he introduced the dustrial Relations Act. And labour movement took to the streets in their hundreds of thousands. Five dockers the Pentonvile Hive. jailed for refusing to comply these laws. But massive sentiments aroused against this legislation only forced Heath to do an about face
SoCiAlist
ACTiON
Reject
Labour's
union
to get the dockers out of jail, but helped lay the foundations of his own demise, finally brought about by the miners strike of 1974.
But the Tory party didn't give up the idea of using the law to put more and more shackles on the unions, it simply took note of what happened to Heath's government - and prepared its ground more carefully.
When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 she equally ruthlessly pursued changing the law to weaken the unions. The industrial relations legislation of Thatcher's seven years In- has systematically the democratic rights from trade unions.
At the same time she prepared to take on the miners, the strongest and most determined section of the movement, with first with the planned, in essence, not down the NUM disastrous consequences or the close
The concentrated
when they struck.
change the decisively against the unions.
removed working people, had lost. But Strife, through
Ridley Report which Hone of these how to bring thoroughgoing as the new without the statement jointly
down of electricity supply, then with
use of all the resources of the state against them
During these seven years she has dressed up her determined anti-union legislation with hollow rhetoric about democratic rights and the need to protect the individual in an attempt to
climate of opinion
But throughout this entire period Labour claimed to remain committed against these laws. It would restore the rights the unions, and therefore
from Labour's In Place of Heath's Industria Relations Acts, to Margaret That- unions. cher's own anti-union legislation -
measures are policy goreed br the the Labour Party and TUC leaderships.
INSIDE_
Dennis Skinner on Labour's union policy po
Bill Etherington on justice for miners p8 Diane Abbott on women's demands p5
AT 16/201
DONT IT
THEN SI
THE UNK
NTRODUCING
YOUR NEXT
PERSONNEL
MANAGER
The People At Work: New Rights,
New Responsibilities proposals will
form the centre-piece of the debate at
the 1986 congress of the TUC. If that
policy is passed and implemented it
will do untold damage to the ability of
British trade unions to protect and
further the interests of their members.
For the first time it will be Labour
passing a law against the unions.
If statutory secret ballots and a
new legal body of the National In-
dustrial Relations Court type are in-
troduced under a Labour govern-
ment, it will set trade unionism back
for decades. It will for the first time
mean Labour committing itself une-
quivocably to state interference in the
That is why it is vital that delegates
at Brighton reject the new document
and the fudge proposals contained in
composite resolution tacked
together by trade union leaders to
No. 147 29 Aug 1986 30p
LET
ON
MELA
ERF
avoid a head-on conflict with Neil Kinnock and the NEC majority who support this document.
There is no doubt that Kinnock is refusing to budge on this issue. For him, attacking the trade unions is synonymous with winning the next general election. He has swallowed Thatcher's rhetoric hook, line and sinker. But it is for that same reason that trade unionists too must refuse to compromise. The entire document, and the strategy it represents, must be thrown out by the TUC. Instead, the right of trade unions to determine the content of their own rule books and to conduct their affairs free from interference by the state must be reaifirmed.
That is the single most important task at this year's IC congress.
Page 2 scan of this page
the alliances Labour needs
2 Socialist Action
Action SoCiAlist
BUILDING AN ALLIANCE FOR SOCIALISM
Marxism Today
and the Morning
Star
IT IS a tribute to the power of the Communist Party — whose influence has always far exceeded its membership - that both ts component fragments, Marxism Today and the Morning Star should play a role, both negative, in present developments in the labour movement.
The role of Marxism Today has been looked at many times and Today's policy is that of a coalition government between Labour and the Alliance. main goal as to strike blows against the left.
But a question which is less frequently looked at is the role of the Morning Star. The reason for that is obvious. The Morning Star is today not allied with Kinnock, ( within the labour movement - even less is it in practice aligned with the SDP/Liberal Alliance as is Marxism Today.
But the overall politics of the Morning Star must be clearly understood on the left. They are not simply a question of its obvious subordination to the regimes in although that is a very real factor.
The most obvious and striking feature about the Mornine alliances which Labour needs. For example the union most completely influenced by the Morning Star, TASS, has never voted in favour of the demands of the Women's Action Committee at Labour Party conference — nor has the Morning Star campaigned for it to do so. has never voted in tavour of black sections and nor has favour of it doing so.
The most obvious and striking aspect of the Morning. Star on British 'economism'. It constantly intones about 'Class politics'. But when the actual content of what is being said is considered, it is clear that what is really meant is the primacy of economic ques tions. A harder line, at union front is coupled with crass economism and opposition to the alliances Labour needs. Morning Star sometimes appears as a sort of gigantic version of Militant.
The consequences of this are disastrous for the left. Exactly the counterposition the LCC, and Marxism Today, Labour Party is one representing progressive, democratic, 'alliance based' politics and Militant and the Morning Star representing crude economism. In that struggle, of course, crushed. The small fact that Marxism Today, in particular, doesn't support the key Labour needs is never mentioned.
More important than these siderations, on the politics of Militant and the Morning Star Labour could never build a majori-
That is why, no matter alliances are made, the politics of Militant and the Morning Star have to be decisively rejected by the left.
But a question arises: Why does the Morning Star have this politics? It is a little subtle but very important to understand.
Both the Morning Star and Marxism Today share a common framework where, today, the working class is not to be the leading class in society. politics of the popular front - for that is what its political framework is -class should be subordinated to the Alliance.
The Morning Star does not have a force with strategy anday. The best is can find is a fent strategy today. The best is can bishops, rather than a substantial political force such as the Alliance. framework of its politics.
On the theory of the Morning Star the goal of the working class is to link up with a progressive section of the bourgeoisie — alliance (with a small 'a'). The working class will protect its specific framework in particular its terests. But the working class is not seeking to lead the whole of the oppressed against capital.
The working class capitalist partners. ing Star is just, in todays conditions, an expression of that popular front strategy:
What is absent in any of these frameworks is the reat alliances that working class leads. capital. The working class as the decisive core of an alliance for Labour's left is beginning to develop.
29 Aug 1986 it is transparent. Marxism
It sees its
Willis or the right wing Eastern Europe
is its reiection ot the
Similarly TASS
the Morning Star campaigned in
politics is
present, on the trade
The
want to create in the between those allegedly
Militant and the Morning Star will be
tactical con-
what temporary For Marxism Today its' version of the
- means that the working
Is a teW
But that does not alter the
- on terms set by that
interests within that economic in-
is subordinated to its The economism of the Morn-
are needed. That the the oppressed against
socialism. In short the politics
to win
LABOUR IS heading into its annual conference with a standing in the polls of between 36 and 40 per cent — not enough to win an oyerall majority at a general election. launched on Labour's youth organisation, on the Women's Action Committee, allow the creation of Black Sections in the party. JOHN ROSS looks at the relation between these developments and how "internal' the party are directly connected to winning Labour a maJority.
In 1983 Labour suffered its worst electoral defeat since World War I.
This followed the most severe attack launched on the Labour Party since the inter-war-years all al tack organised above all SDP. With 28 per cent of the vote in 1983 Labour was right down to its rock solid support — the working class cities of the North, the council estates,
At that time sections of the press. and momentaridreamt Margaret Thatcher
that ther could displace Labour altogether as a serious political force.
That they could re-create in Britain a two capitalist party system equivalent to the Democrats and Republicans in the United States.
Defeat the SD Proclaimed goal of This was then the officially
- being express-
as lne SDP/Liberal Alliance aiming to replace Labour as the alternative to the Tories.
This particular offensive was defeated. There is not, and never was, a risk o1 Labour being ated as a party. Even the SDP no longer believes, least in the short run, that it can destroy Labour. It is instead discussing who to form a coalition with. vived this attack it did CreAt strategic issue which has to
was ground down to a clearly munonly positiol.
Mandy Moore (Women's Action Committee), Julie Fitzgerald, and Linda Bellos (Labour Party Black Section)
Kinnock is destroying
Within the party attacks are being
and by refusing to
struggles within Style of the GLC without the content A party whose support is confined manual workers, and bastions in the North, cannot gain a majority in Britain.
certainly had to base itself on its core areas
but in order to break out of them and build a majority around them. This is exactly what Kin. nock has failed to do.
However there have been two crucial, very dif ferent, experiences lected since Thatcher was which show how Labour can gain a majority.
The first experience, a reformist one, was that of the GLC The GLC was the most intelligent reformism seen in Britain for forty years 'reformism' explicitly because its base was the huge f2 billion rates income of tingston niact, unike lys council. Liv'interpreters in Marxism
Today, has never said that the GLC anything other than extremely well done reformism.
But what the GLC did do was to use that massive Tales base to burd whole series of social alliances for Labour
Lo period bou genuine
period genuine popularity in London.
The accompaniment of the GLC was a massive flowering of women's organisation, black organisation, help to the lesbian with treland, and suppos and links
innumerable organisations These alliances were based on the fact that London is the greatest centre of the black population in Brilalli. the Irish population, and
portions of women in work in the country These were areas in which London genuinely was advanced.
Kinnock has attempted
take the 'style' of the GLC - the glossy advertising without taking the content. Whereas the GLC based on flowering of women's
black self-organisation, lesbian and
organisation, and links with Ireland, Kinnock precisely sought to Coman and Crusa such organisation within the alLy
Support
This not an 'organisational' question.
popular because it based itself on a new series social alliances for Labour. Widespread support among women, active support in the black community, amongst young people was added to Labour's traditional base It was these alliances which created the mas. support for Labour and
GLC Self-organisation was the expression
The other example which showed the lessons, in a very different way, was the miners strike. Far from having room for reforms the miners had no choice but to tight They had their backs against the wall. But in that fight, aid ed by the previous example of the women's movement and the black movement, the miners reached out to Make widest of social alliances seen struggle in Britain this century. The miners strike Won. the Financial Times put it, "the largest civilian mobilisation since the Second World War.' Strike dented gale of abuse from Despite unprecethe press and television the onslaught of the state and the attacks bv Kin. nock even the opinion polls showed the popula tion divided equally for and against the strike. Within the working class that meant a massive ma. jority for the strike
The miners created the alliances - with women, with the black community, with every group of trade unionists • that Labour needs. 'The same alliances. on a different basis, that were created by the GLC.
To cement these alliances however, the ones that would create a majority, the Labour Party would have to undergo a dramatic internal transformation. It would have to accept women's rights to control own organisations in the party,
black self-organisation in the party and to create a mass youth movement. Kinnock has gone in exactly the op nosite direction on each of these Issues He has rejected the alliances Labour needs and left the party as a minority.
The result is the lurch of Labour under Kinnock towards coalition. Because by Labounrntenaining
Analysis
Photo: ALAN. FREEMAN
where it is, static and inert, there is no way it can create a majority. There are only two ways a political majority Involving Labour Party can be
The first is to move to the right - towards coalition with Ine Alliance This would be a 'majority' based OIS attacking the working class and oppress ed. it would mean Labou becoming police force for capitalism. • Its result would be demoralising right wing administration
Tening we teena, or a
Tory-Alliance coalition, that would make That cherism appear like liberal regime
The only other way for Labour to create a majori. tv is to consciously seek to ally the party's traditiona working class base with women, …hlack com munity, and other sections of the oppressed. Thes together are 'minorities' but a majority of the population.
That however requires a totally different orientation to Kinnock. quires not clamping down
self-organisation within the party but opening it up to the social alliances that • are needed The demands of the Women's Action Committee, of the Black Section of the needs to make links with the demand of Ireland for independence, are not internal affairs' of the party. They are directly linked to the only way it can create a majority in society.
Kinnock by his present COUSC S Crove ever alliance that could make
majority society. The fight within the party for the demano of the Women's Committee, the Black Sec tion, and the other groups with whom Labour must ally are not a 'diversion' from winning the election They are part of the fight for the only way Labour gan secare a majocts m
voley batters craters
Page 3 scan of this page
Politics Today
tracted 600 people to
Women's Action Committee,
Section, and Campaign
Democracy speakers
coverage in the Observer,
Labour left -
its politics into existence.
Labour Left Liaison is
what might first be termed a Cicale
strategic left within the Labour Party. It does not alm to bring together 'all the left'. It 1s based implicity, and increasingly
explicitly, on strategic
line for the Labour Party.
It is therefore not looking Just to the next election,
important as this is, but to remoulaig entire Labour Party and embark1ng stalegy for socialism in Britain
As Neil Kinnock, and • his supporters in the LCC, manifestly lack ail y
strategy whatever for socialism, it is going to be the forces assembled in the LLL, together with similar currents in tne Pariamentary Labour Party and the trade unions, that will be the strategic driving force of the Labour Party. It is therefore worth spelling out what that strategy is as it is implicitly inscribed in the demands of the LLL and as it is increasingly explicitly being spelt out.
The first crucial point
that Labour has create, consciously build, à majority for socialism. The idea that suriasil can be meroduc ed by a minority of the population. or that there exists majority socialism in Britain, is absurd. Creating that matended meeting, perhaps even outnumbering the attendant press. legendary figures represents the EETPU. All assuming that the media attention doesn't discourage him from turning up.
Oncer assembled Management Committee will hear a report from its executive. The main issue will be the CLP's amendment to Labour Party conference. It will be explain-
LUAL the agreed by the last GMC alling fo the reinstatement of Cir Amir Khan and Kevin Scally was tact our or order The relevant section of the CLP's stanialis will be cited stating that 14 days notice given any resolution seeking to
Building a
strategic left
THIS SUMMER has seen major publicity given to activity on the Labour left. The New Statesman on 15 August devoted four pages to the rise of Labour Left Liaison (LLL). The public meeting held on 22 July in London by the Campaign Group — which at-
hear Campaign Group, Labour Party Black for Labour Party received prominent Guardian, Telegraph, Financial Times, and other papers. The Observer carried another article last Sunday dealing with the LLL. JOHN ROSS looks at the tasks facing this new
- and the opponents it faces in bringing
jority is the most fundamental task facing socialists today. Even winIlle a launtv musice une Labour Party is of no use if it is not on a basis which can win a majority for socialism in society.
The first core of the majority for socialism is, of course, Labour's traditional working class base.
Without maintaining this as its core Labour is going to get nowhere.
All of the main currents in the LLL are in fact marked by their serious the trade unions. The CamVal Price, CLPD paign for Labour Party Democracy traditionally among the strongest trade union links of any campaign in the party. The women's Action Commit Tee has also been progressively winning trade union support the support 0I a turtner two unions, the NUR and
Sparkbrook: Right in chaos
ON TUESDAY 26 August tbe Management Committee of Sparkbrook CLP will assemble in the Mermaid Pub on the Stratford Road. It will be a well at-
Among the delegates will be a few such as the estate agent who
Some brave soul will remind the meeting that at UNL was agreed that amendments
By Mick Archer
to Labour Party conference would from the floor, prO• cedure adopted by many CLPs because of the tight timetable between LITC publication of the resolutons and the closing date for amendments: Nonetheless save for a miracle
Linda Bellos and Marc Wadsworth, leaders of Labour Party Black Section
UCATT, for its demands
this and only llcul -
losing even
Golding's NCU. The
major union, the NUM, to support it in 1984 JE WOl the vote of the NUR and NUPE last year, and has recieved its first supporting amendment from union, the ACTT, this ycal. Miners
But it was the miners strike which radicalised and developed these forces
and brought them together. The key forces in the LLL were those brought together around
Photo: A Freeman the defence of the miners
strike - in the same waj
that the core of the force grouped around the LCC
today were those who re
jected what the strike represented. De-
fence of the miners strike also radicalised the Campaign Group of MPs. Core
The first 'prototype' of the alliances the LLL represents was, massively greater scale, the huge social movement generated around the miners strike. The ties of Amir Khan or a sudden surge of integrity the view of the EC will be upheld. It will then
announced the waiting. press. Any delegate disagrees with the official version of
publicly says so will probably face
the NUM to the women's
black community, to the lesbian and gay movement, other trade union, are ex-
actly the type of alliances the LLL is about creating
Of course the LLL differs from the miners strike
that the campaigns which make up were often organised first through the constituencies and then went into the unions for support. But that does not alter the core of the matter. None of the key lorces In ne ble Is content to remain in the constituencies.
link developments across the entire movemenT taking 1n the CLPs and the unions.
emerging strategic line for the labour movemenl as sucil.
Expand
These alliances precise-
way that Labour must expand its or politics and its tion of politics and social base. The miners strike was not just based on trade union solidarity
f the traditional type although t centrally i cluded The miners strike allied a core industrial union, and other disciplinary action at a later date.
For many the decision to overturn a vote of constitutional the CLP will come as no surprise. last November officers have done their best to stifle opposit-
unions supporting it, with women inside and outside the working class, with the Diack community, and with many other social
. short it enor mously expanded the alliances of the labour : movement.
Majority
Dhoto this conception
which creates the strategic
element, implicitly and in-
creasingly explicitly, in the
LLL's approach. Because
it is ridiculous to claim, as
do the Labour right, that
the orientation the LLL
represents is one towards
'minorities'. Male workers
women, the black com-
young people,
these are not a minority
Inese are the maiority of
society. Out these Labour can create a real alliance for socialism in Britain, which is a majority. Break
This is why the break of the LLL with anything remotely resembling the politics , ot Militant or the Morning Star was so decisive. Because the politics of these currents cut Labour off from the decisive alliances which can make it a majority in society - and a left which cannot explain how Labour will win a majority in society is a left which can never lead the party.
The process that led to the Ci callul Left Liason in reality represented a sea change ir the entire orientaion of the Labour left. The Labour left which had existed in the early 1980s was significantly marked the influence of currents such as Militant, the influence of the Morning tion in Sparkbrook constituency to the expulsions
campaign for Amir and Kevin's reinstatement. Sparkbrook members who
igned petitions have bee threatened with disciplinLPYs action. The local
has been warned that it will be closed down.
•Labour Party NEC members directly involved in the dispute, and in hear-
those expelied, apre deter-
votes on the Appeals and Mediations Committee of the Labour Party and of the NEC itself. M, etestituent very. CLP, constituency ficers explained that Amir and Kevin were expelled for "what the constituency
New
Statesman
star. and groups such as Briefing - which had seen Militant as an integral part of the Labour left and in some sense as progressive.
Labour Left Liaison is totally different. It defends Militant from ex pulsion and _through
Witch Hunt News done the most effective work against expulsions But this is from the point of view of Labour Party democracy. Politically Labour Left Liaison wanted nothing to do with Militant whatever In fact the plattorm ot the which includes as among its most central points sup port for Black Sections and the demands of the Women's Action Committee makes it clear that
cannot be member of the LLL.
New
That support for the demands of the Women's Action Committee and the Labour Party Black Sec-
also makes it clear that Labour Left Liason is
Morning Star influenced forces
Unlike Militant and the Morning Star the LLI does have a strategy for how to win a majority for Labour to tie its traditional working class base to a massive series of new social alliances, and recasting the labour movement on that basis. By putbelieved to be a calculated public campaign designed to damage and denigrate other members of the ParSparkbrook busag Wild accusations
'under sremists have been fed t 'outside the press. Yet at the end of the day support for Amir and Kevin's reinstatemen continues to grow.
Now the expulsions seem certain to be debated by this year's Labour Par-
conferenc A resolu-
tabled b Ladywood CLP calling on the NECto readmit them into mem bership has attracted sufficient amendments to ensure a discussion. Consequently the national campaign is turning its attention winning the 'necessary support gst the trade union delega-
Socialist Action 29 Aug 1986
Top SDP-or's
Lonely hearts: a traveller on the love trail tells tales
Media: Phillip Knightley on sycophantic royal coverage
AND - new columns on eating; economy; see the RSC go crazy
WHAT HAPPENED
TO LABOUR'S
LEFT?
broad left, between Matersiov:
Hatton, and it i again growing in strengthy Tony Bonn
ting forward that strategy the LLL 'breaks
mould' of existing
framework of the Labou left
It is precisely because
the press understands that the LLL represents some thing new, and potentially has been giving it such at.
tention. What is emerging is a quite new type of force in British politics
Prevent
It is also for this reason thạt many obstacles still exist in the way of the type of politics the LLL reDICOCHES Not bougeoisie but the Morn.
Star, Militant and ultra-leftists such carothing possible to pre will do vent the type of reshaping of politics on the left represented by the LLL
Given these obstacles many ups and downs unexpected stens forward and reverses, are to be anticipated. It may not possible to succeed first time round. But whatever the short term problems and immediate results, new force is breaking it way into existence in British politics tions. Given the inevitable pressure that avoid damaging divisions at this conference this will not be an easy task. However the cam paign is appealing to all those involved in deciding their • CLP or union policy for Labour Party ference back the Ladywood composite.
Amir Khan and Kevin Scally's expulsions have
Labour Par damas to
credibility Labou Party campaign for their reins tatement could
nly a successfi
igu to acticie mediate reins ai this year. bring thi close expulson. where.
Page 4 scan of this page
4 Socialist Action 29 Aug 1986
Labour Youth
Campaign Group
THE NEX1 meeting of the Labour Youth Campaign Group (LYCG), on 30 August will discuss campaigning priorities in Labour Clubs and student unions in the first term of By Anne Kane the new academic year. These priorities will be based on the fight of LYCG for a campaigning Labour students organisation, and a campaigning NUS, through active support for all struggles of the working class and op-
paigns for democratic change and representation organised by the Labour Party left in
This meeting will help coordinate meetings in Labour Clubs with speakers from campaigns such as the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, the Black Section, the Women's Action Committee, the Labour Committee on Ireland, and the
during the first term. in particular immediate y around freshers weeks. Also for discussion will be ormly pan aroups in Labour Cluos, a sulldent broadsheet for the beginning of term, and a fringe meeting with speakers from the Campaign
Over the last year students have dominated ac-
demonstrations and boycott actions in the colleges. Students came out in thousands to protest against the bombing of Libya. In the wake of the Sinn Fein college tours organised through the LCI, NUS became the first mass organisation in Britain to commit itself to support for British withdrawal
vigorously agalst allacks On places, granls and DHSS payments. Student unions have been present week after week at the Wapping pickets.
organised current or leadership capable of drawing
LUTELIC
which goes nowhere; NOLS is used to help attack and witch-hunt the LPYS; and on the Middle East and Zionism a reactionary sentiment is developing which adds up to opposing the right of return of the Palestinian people. All this flies in the face of the type of political activity thousands of students
building organised support for the demands of the Labour clubs and NOLS. That is, to get NUS not just to oppose racism in the abstract or tell individuals just to get involved in groups like AntiFascist Action, but to fight for political power for
students to fight for Black Sections in the Labour
Many currents inside NUS are fond of saying students must alv with the labour movement. For the Democratic Left this means an alliance with Kinnock, while SSIN has written a whole policy bulletin on the fight for a campaigning NUS which never concretely promotes the only real alternative
This alternative - an alliance with the left in
already in the campaigning work of LCI and Black Sections amongst others. The weight that has been given to the demand for Britain to İreland and by the understanding of the LCI of the potential for winning support from NUS is the best example of the importance of building such a curIclle Over the next year the LYCG wants to deepen
this orientation of the left campaigns, win further support on policy and fight for NOLS and NUS to be led by the type of alliances that have emerged in the Labour Party.
• LYCG meets at 2pm, on Saturday 30 August in the Cole Room, the Fabian Society,
• Both the youth and student networks of the LCI have produced bulletins on their recent ac-
bulletin contains information on policy gains in NUS and plans for the next term and the youth bulletin on recent youth and Ireland action, how to involve your LPYS in the activities of the LCI and fighting for policy inside the LPYS.
Following a very successful youth and Ireland dayschool in Glasgow in July, LCI youth are planning
Sinn Fein. NUS and the labour and trade union
more about this, get copies of the youth or student bulletins, or get involved in other activities contact LCI student officer, Conor Foley, or the youth of-
Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights
is passed at NUS Birmingham with speakers from
Kirk, LCI, BM Box 5355, London
AUGUST SAW an extremely successful campaign waged around amendments for party conference by
tactic to try to keep key issues off the party con-
the left earlier in the year it had not been possible to effectively counter this. At the resolutions stage only
were already secure and on the agenda.
resolutions. It has secured
will be discussed at Labour
were In ally case putung out their own material it is Is particuially stilking
the collaboration has to be
up
decision of the Labour Coordinating Committee (LCC) to oppose the 'advisory body.
Following representations made by the Labour Party Black Section the LCC executive adopted resolution at the beginning of August stating: "This Executive Committee reaffirms its support for Black Sections and does not regard the Black and Asian Advisory Committee as a political solution to the question of black representation in the party.' copy of the resolution has been sent to all members of the committee.
Commenting on the
The rally held by the Campaign Group London on 22 July including speakers from the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, the Labour Women's Action Committee, and the Labour Party Black Section as well Campaign Group speakers - was an enormous MULLEN.
Successful campaign
on amendments for
party conference
Liaison (LLL) and the campaigns within it. The unprecedented number of resolutions on nuclear power to party conference had been used by the Labour Coordinating Committee (LCC) as a
ference agenda. Without effective coordination on
Labour CND's resolution calling for the removal of all US bases from Britain, and the Women's Action Committee demands for the five women's places on the NEC to be elected by the women's conference,
duced a special newsletter
LCC opposes Black and
SECTIONS
3V328 80826 nihe Labour Pay
LCC's in the Guardian David Rose wrote: organisations on left have criticised advisory committee
Black
soft left body which strongly Kinnock.
This LCC Is a
conference.
Asian community London. has steps of Hampstead
The
announced Tony Benn, Hefter, Les
on Black Sections and the Khan and Scally Reinstate-
Campaion for support for for maintainance of accountabili-
in the selection of MPs, WAC's demand for an electoral college the demands of the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and
Rights and of the Labour Committee on
While the out-
will not be known until the final agenda for
conference
Pue inial results sent to
initial results sent the u from individual constituencies are Lette Seven amendments have OCCAN sCul
The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy has secured more than enough amendments ensure that accountability of MPs, and opposition to the fraudulently entitled 'one member, one vote' is discussed
The Women's Action Committee successfully secured amendments on its proposals for an electoral college at women's conference to elect the five women's places on the decided to sever relations with the committee. The chair of the committee, Jo Richardson, has also made it clear at press conference earlier in the year that she does not inted to continue on the committee after the conference.
If, as is anticipated, the London Regional Ex-
against any relations with the Black and Asian Ad visory Committee it will already be dealt devastating blow
Defeat of this committee will open up the way to democratic and elected BACK and representation in the par-
John Tocher of the AEU, Amir Khan, Narendra Makanji, Secretary of the Labour Party Black Section, and Ann Pettifor of thomens Action Commit- executive the
Ine meeung will chaired by Graham Stringer, leader of Manchester council.
The meeting at 7.30pm at the Free Trade Hall.
a wide selection of socialist and radical literature. The following
post:
strike
pop Women Under Apartheid
46p p&p For Their Triumphs and For Their Tears: Women In Apartheid South Africa
påp Part of My Soul
pop
Women and the Cuban Revolution
156pp, £3.95 + 28p p&p Women and the Family Leon Trotsky, Pathfinder Press, 78 pp, £2.95 + 18p p&p
Women Press, £3.95 plus 28p p&p
for postage and packing.
from Birmingham's Other Bookshop, SILENTNIGHT BOSS.
SCABBS GAME SUPPORT I SILENTNIGH STRIKER:
NEW!!
dispute
finish.'
the Silentnight strike
Tony Benn and Bob Cryer MEP.
the miners' but born of the same stuff
PO Box 50, London NI 2XP.
News
Other Books
The Other Book's mail order service offers
, anti-imperialist
selection on and by women is available by
Shifting Horizons: a testament to women in the Lynn Beaton, Canary Press, 265pp, £5.65 + 40p
International Defence and Aid Fund, 120pp black and white photographs plus text, £3.50 +
Hilda Bernstein, 136pp, IDAF, £3.50 + 34p
Winnie Mandela, Penguin, 164pp, £2.95 + 28p
South Africa: The Struggle For A Birthright Mary Benson, IDAF, 314pp, £4 + 59p p&p
Edited by Elizabeth Stone, Pathfinder Press,
Cosmetics, Fashions and the Exploitation of Joseph Hanson and Evelyn Reed, Pathfinder
Cheques and postal orders payable to Other Books. Orders with payment should be sent to: Other Books, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. If the total value of books ordered is over £10, then simply add 15 per cent
These and other books, together with a wide selection of magazines, posters and postcards are also available
137 Digbeth just off the main shopping centre) (phone 021-64.
SUPPORT SILENTNIGHT
STRIKERS Price 50p. All profits to Silentnight Strikers
Voices of the Silentnight
Although we have lost our jobs and our
families have suffered financial hardship
everyone's morale is very high ... the dispute goes on an I am with it all the way to the
Javed Akhtar, Silentnight striker Socialist Action supporters in Huddersfield have put together this pamphlet in solidarity with
— now over one year old. All
profits go to the strike fund. It's a collection of the views of the strikers, poems and contributions by
Filled with photographs it provides the story of a real ongoing struggle. Smaller in scale than
Support the Silentnight Strikers: 50p + 20p post and packing. Available from Other Books,
Page 5 scan of this page
must support WAC's slate
News
THE LABOUR Women's demanding that women in the Labour Party have real power. viously, is through Labour women's conference. At this year's national women's conference, first time, we asked women in the party — both constituency and trade union women the women's representatives on the Labour Party national executive committee.
Trade unions decide who their representatives are on the NEC. WAC is demanding that women are able to do likewise.
Women's conterence held 'shadow elections' for the women's section of the party's national executive.
Delegates from the constituencies and from many areas. These include the Transport and
Union of Public Employees,
has already begun to bear fruit.
One of the four unions support Labour Party conference,
to submit an amendment
OIC VUI SIA resolutions.
The ACTT latched on to
the paragraph Tne
Newham North West
resolution which showed
how we have turned our at-
building all
organised voice for black
workers in trade unions as
well as the Labour Party.
The other unions
which support us are the
NUM. NÜR and NUPE.
Why the left
Action Committee is
The democratic engine for that, ob-
for the
who should be
trade unions took part.
That gave us a slate of Diane Abbott, Margaret Beckett, Frances Morrell, Joan Maynard, and Clare Short. All democratically elected bv women to represent us within the party.
WAC's demands, and WAC's slate, are logical, fair and democratic. Trade In the Labour Party and the trade unions, women must have the right to choose their own representatives.
Trade unions and the
Black Section campaign
BLACK SECTION conference urged the national committee to launch a concerted campaign in the trade union movement and that is what has been done. We reorganised our trade union work so that we now have trade union coordinators for all the key
General Workers Union, General and Municipal, National
Association of Scientific and Technical Staff, TASS, National Union of Railwaymen and the communications unions. This
Former NUR chair, Ernie Taylor, made a spirited speech in favour of Black Sections at the union's annual meeting. Ernie is a long-standing. member of Mossley Hill CLP in Liverpool and was the only black person on the city's district party executive unWas disbanded by witch-hunters from national headquarters.
The health union COHSE has done it again.
It is well-known for drawing subscriptions from a large percentage of black who do not get
By Diane Abbott
unions would object if others elected their representatives. Women representation on decision-making bodies. And its reputation as maverick umon Is unacl lined by its opposition to
women's, youth but trade
This year, though, COHSE passed a resolu
(OLference supporting 'posiuve discrimination for women in the union. What delegates had in mind was 'automatic places' on COHSE's ecutive council. But it IS still 'no' to Black Sections and no mention of black
This information the Black Section campaign taken from the latest issue of Black Section Newsletter. Get Black Section speakers invited to union branches and union broad left Contact the Black Section Trade Union Convenor, c/o 122a Ferndale Road, Brixton, London SW4 7SA.
are asking to be accorded
same measure of democracy.
And all the evidence is that together women they come up with radical and progressive policies. Those policies are in the interests of the whole labour movement. Trade unionists in particular have an interest in supporting the demands of Labour women.
In the themselves women are organising in a parallel way. Let's not forget the reason there's a women's LABOUR Party Black Section activists are planning a presence at next week's congress of the TUC to encourage greater support for self-organisation among black trade union members.
They will also be taking the opportunity to lobby
for support for Black Sec tion resolutions at the tor. thcoming Labour Party annual conference.
At a Monday lunch time fringe meeting, TUC delegates will hear the case for black self-organisation
in the unions argued by an impressive plattorm. It includes Diane Abbott
Narendra Makanji and Russel Proffit from Black
Section, as well as black trade unionists such as
presentativ from the
JALG( Black Workers
Group and a speaker from
the strike committee of
Kenure Plastics, where
stest London workers at the
went factory in
Feltham are all Asian.
*Black Section is keen promote the self-
'officer in the TGWU, the biggest trade union in this country, Is oecause wonnel demanded that. One of the original constituent parts
today's transport workers union was an allwoman trade union.
There is a tradition in the trade unions, that goes back to the nineteenth century, of women organising
in the 1980s should take cognisance of that • 2170 support the demands of Labour women especially
choose their representatives on the NEC
Black Section plan is
TUC fringe meeting
ole in the unions paul
ple in the unions
Sharma told Socialist Ac.
"Such initiatives by black workers would be in line with the TUC's own policy passed at the 1984
congress
We will also be taking
he opportunity of lobby
ng delegate Brighton
or support for the issu
áised b , Black Section at the forthcoming Party cat i conference. infinite party orrange our right to organise the Labour Party. Black Section, and opposing the Black and Asian Advisory Committee up by the Labour leadership to head off our demands. It also means backing the call for
Amir Khan and Kevin
expelled by
Hattersley's Sparkbrook saucily. reinstated into the Party.'
• Labour Party Black
Section TUC fringe
meeting will be held: Mon-
day 1 September 1-2pm,
Royal Albion, Old Steine,
Brighton.
IRELAND
UNFREE
The bitter fruits
Accord
marching, throwing
terror. But this year, Anglo-Irish Accord becomes even
particularly chilling.
The
children, their homes and property.
by Loyalist paramilitaries on
ting makeshift barricades.
North Belfast were attacked.
Woodside Estate
began tionalist taxi driver,
Belfast.
On 12 July every
Dervock, Dunloy, magh and Derry.
of the border, Unionist Party MP Peter Robinson.
armed WILl
the unoceupied police station.
and blocked the roads.
Simultaneously,
dows, and fired shots into the air.
Derry. The army and
prentice boys parade
Robinson, led the parade.
Gerry Adams as 'gangsters' who were,
campaign fits into
Aden, Cyprus, and Kenya.'
be Protestant violence British media.
the nationalist community.
Ireland.
Socialist Action 29 Aug 1986 5
of the Anglo-Irish
THE SUMMER period of sectarian loyalist marches is always a tense one for the nationalist community in the North of Ireland. It is a time when loyalist blood runs hot -
bottles, and asserting their so called 'British' identity by a reign of
as the reality of the clearer, the period of summer Loyalist marches was
marching season reached its first peak around 12 July. After weeks of inflamatory outbursts by Unionist politicians the loyalists vented their feelings in attacks on Catholic women, men,
Two young married men were shot and killed
12 July itself in Belfast. According to official RUC figures, which grossly underestimate the real situation, there were 71 attacks over the weekend of the twelfth. Na. tionalists defended their areas as best they could, in some places such as Dunloy and Ligonield erec-
The marches on the twelfth were preceded by a series of attacks earlier in July in Belfast. On Friday 4 July several homes in the Oldpark area of
On 10 July mobs in the predominantly Loyalist
Portadown attacked nationalist homes with stones and petrol bombs.
On 10 July Loyalist mobs armed with axes
attacks in Manor Street in North Belfast while RUC landrovers stood by. On 11 July a na-
and a young nationalist woman, were fired on by Loyalist mobs in North
Catholic business in the village of Kilkeel was attacked. On 14. July petrol bomb attacks were carried out against Catholle homes in the Lower Falls Road area on Belfast. Other petrol bomb attacks took place in Lisburn,
Ballyabinch Ahogli, Rasharkin, Limvady, Ballymoney, Maghera, Ar-
This is the background to the much publicised loyalist march into the village of Clontibret, south
which was led by Democratic
Just before 2 am on 7 August, several hundred
cudgels, wearing balaclava masks, invaded Clonibret. The loyalists daubed 'Ulster has awakened' on the local school, uprooted sighposts, trees, and gates and attacked
The loyalists then marched in paramilitary formation to the crossroads at the centre of the village
in an incident not widely reported on British television, 500 Loyalists, in around 150 cars, attacked the mainly Catholic village of Swatragh. The armed loyalists set up roadblocks, began searching cars, smashed win.
On 12 August the British army was directly complicit in a further loyalist show of strength in
RUC saturated the na.
The Loyalists, Democratic Unionist Party leaders Paisley and
Five days earlier, on 7 August, the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) had released a video to the press announcing their intention of stepping up the sectarian murder of Catholics. The UFF were rightly termed by Sinn Fein presideni
"tolerated by the British government because their murder
the : classical "counter-gang strategy" perfected by the British government in
What is taking place in the North of Ireland is clear. It has nothing to do with 'Catholic versus
- as it is portrayed by the It is a systematic campaign by loyalist bigots, acting with the protection of the RUC and British army, to try to break the will of
There is going to be no end to this type of loyalist bigot violence until Britain gets out of
Page 6 scan of this page
"A recipe f
'The Labour leadership has made a dramatic shift to the right and accepted that attacking trade unions is a good idea for a
6
In Place of Strife
Mark II
FOREMOST AMONGST issue to be debated at the 1986 congress of the TUC is the question of what attitude towards the joint Labour Party-TUC policy document on industrial relations. 'Britain needs a new approach to industrial relations, it begins, 'an approach that gives our people a better deal at work' With that, it outlines a series of proposals for state intervention into the affairs of trade unions, proposals designed to shackle union power to take industrial action. This 'new' approach, in fact, is based on accepting the anti-union framework which Tory governments over the past two decades have fought to establish. It is tougher than the Wilson government's In Place of Strife proposals.
TURNER looks at the provisions - and pitfalls - of People At Work: New Rights, New Responsibilities, and the response of trade union leaders so far.
COLLECTIVITY is the word which provides the Challe Labour's bitter industrial relations pill. •Collective strength workers to obtain better pay and conditions,' the new policy statement inLones. •Collective enables workers to reach a considered and collective view on the conduct of the industry ... Collective organisation enables workers to exert a social ana pollncal intiuence on all issues of concern to the interests of working people ... (our emphasis).
But, paragraph 16: 'Providing this positive framework is part of the way
Labour demonstrate its readiness to assume responsibility for managing the nation's economy. It will do so in partnership with workers, cmolovers.' Demonstrate to Clearly, it is to the owners of capital that the Labour Party leadership intend to prove their ability to control and restrain the demands of labour. And the carrot with which they hope to tempt trade unionists into pance Is none orner lan a Labour rictory at the next general election.
The stick contained paragraphs 70. 71 and 72 of the document presented to the TUC congress paragraphs 59, 60 and 61 of the draft paised by the Labour Party NEC). IN
soon unes aad TUC leadership reveals its intention to make statutory provisions for secret ballots before strikes and to introduce a 1980s version Heath's infamous National Industrial Relations Court.
The core of these paragraphs is this: *The will also entail laying down general principles for inclusion in union rule books based on a right for members to have a secret ballot on decisions relating to strikes, and for the method of election of union executives to be based on a system of secret ballots On election, Labour government in consultation with the TUC will establish a new independent tribunal that will have the duty of acting on complaints by union members that the statutory have been breached. And it is around this decisive part of the document that debate at congress will centre.
Jute Union Communication Workers (UCW) and the general and municipal workers (GMBATU) have
resolutions focus on this debate. Amendments are in from the transport workers and
unions, and USDAW, SOGAT and TASS, among others.
The UCW calls for a 'workers rights act' …to provide
Socialist Action 29 Aug 1986
the democratic rights',
GMBATU charter of legal rights for all people at work'. Included in the original UCW resolution was 'the right to have an individual secret ballot before asked to participate in industrial action'. This makes absolutely specific the intention of Neil Kinnock and the Labour NEC majority, an intention which has caused some mooes reinterpretation in trade union Labour Party circles since People At Work was published.
quently changed, the UCW and the refer to strikes.
equally clear. One would delete the above quoted ballots in the UCW replace it with: 'the right to determine CAROL their rules and constitution in accor-
dance without state interference.' would make clear that 'a change in politica and economic direction' is
working peopie
much press speculation in the run-up to congress, and of intense lobbying
U1
within top trade union and Labour Party enables
altogether the paragraph on secret ballots. It would organisation have replaced it with a call for 'the
complete abolition of the anti-trade
ment together confidence in Labour doing just that, and also paragraph:
La combination of positive rights and legal immunities. These should avoid
will over-reliance on judicial interpreta-
tion and should support, not underIllice provellells through
and bargaining. whom?
reflected by this amendment, which had been at the centre of much preTUC concern.
NUM slapped down a amendment, while Ron TGWU expressed himself 'quite hap py with the composite
amendment, he claimed, was a mere aspect of the resolution as a whole. Regardless of these shifts, issue which will continue to dominate Labour Party 1986 congress remains for or against
state interference in the unions.
of Ted dressing congress next week, the issue
is ditching trade union rights for the election of a Labour government next time round. Trade unions legitimat refusal of interference by the state in colecuve bargalning must be subor dinated, as far as he's concerned, to a union Labour victory.
secretaries such Jimmy Knapp of the NUR are backing him in that, against the interests of their own members.
Labour the next election is completely false. It is not the Labour leadership's abject capitulation in the face of Tory anti-union laws, but a clear — principles fighting — alternative to Thatcher's
attack on trade union rights which will win Labour the support it needs for electora victorv. No gmount of humbug about collectivity the fact that People At Work is a major challenge to democracy and trade union strength. Delegates to the 1986 congress of the TUC must throw out the fudge cobblfrom ed up by trade
secretaries along Party-TUC document -state intervention in 'positive
while the demands a 'wide-ranging
being
and
Il Is unis waica nas been sudse-
in a deal between TGWU, just to
The amendments of the NUM are
provision for secret resolution,
convention and A second
protect the interest of
The amendment - the subject of
deleted offending sub-
this governwith an assertion of
with the following final "Congress believes that
the process of achieving im.
collective
It was the position of the TGWU.
At the end of this process the
clarificatory Todd of the
agreed betUCW.
the real
For Neil Kinnock, who will be ad-
And as Ron Todd an
But this view of what will win
and
can hide
trade union
union general with the Labour say no to
election manifesto.
THE LABOUR leadership has sharply shifted its ground in the last 12 months. It has come to accept that legislation designed to interfere with the right of trade unions to decide for themselves what's in their rule books is no bad thing. That is the meaning of the joint Labour Party-TUC policy People At Work: New Rights, New Responsibilities, which will be presented to the 1986 congress of the TUC and to Labour Party annual conference.
Although the Labour ship has voted in parliament against the Tory imposition of secret ballots on trade unions, now it seems that same leadership has made a dramatic shift to the right and accepted that attacking trade unions is a good idea for an election manifesto. But we already have a clear
example of what happens when the Wally leadership course.
66 People at Work is a
Strife. It has built within it the operation of a new legal body not dissimilar to statement,
the National Industrial Relations Court of the Heath era, which would result in a minority who refuse to take part in leader- industrial action being able
to take their trade union to court. 99
minister Barbara Castle introduced In Place of Strife. That piece of
LABOUR'S NEW POLICY
'The miners strike showed what to expect when the state is unleased on striking workers.
adopts such a
rejuvenated In Place of gest
ment helped In 1969 the then employment
proposed legislation finally ran t ground at a Labour Party nationa executive meeting at which one o the principal opponents was non other than Jim Callaghan. The tr ade unions, by and large, were host ile to it, and eventually the whol ethos that gave birth to In Place o Strife had to be put on one side b the Labour leadership.
Following that, the Labour Par ty opposed the introduction int parliament of the Tory govern ment's Industrial Relations Acts i the early 1970s. The unions and th party participated in one of the big
demonstrations London, when the 'Kill the Bill campaign resulted in well ove 100,000 people taking to the streets That resistance by the labour move
to destroy the Tor government of Ted Heath in 1974.
Heath's legislation created al industrial relations atmosphere sur
Page 7 scan of this page
or disaster"
ON THE UNIONS
rounded by strife. It was a recipe for a disaster, culminating in 1972 in the magnificent march to Pentonville jail when five dockers were imprisoned for refusing to observe the Industrial Relations Act.
66 The party leadership is
busy arguing that ballots should be made a legal requirement for trade unionists, but they have no plans for ballots in the Stock Exchange, in Lloyds, or in the City of London generally. 99
The Conservative at that time had to find ways and means of circumventing their own law, of preventing it from being carried out. Heath sent an official sol-
icitor to Pentonville jail to rescue those trade unionists.
That bizarre sequence of events showed that such laws couldn't work. It seems a wierd quirk of politics that the shadow cabinet, a prospective Labour government, shouId be putting forward the same ideas as a formula for good industrial relations.
People At Work is a rejuvenated In Place of Strife. It has built within it the operation of a new legal body not dissimilar to NIRC, the National Industrial Relations Court of the Heath era, which would result in a minority who refuse to take part in industrial action being able to take their trade union to court. As somebody aptly put it, the new Labour Party-TUC policy document could be described as a scabs charter.
People At Work represents a retreat by the Labour Party leader-
ship in the face of Tory propaganda. The Tories have tried to create a climate of opinion in which trade unions are held responsible for the nation's decline. But the evidence of the last seven years knocks that into a cocked hat.
Everybody now knows that the very essence of Tory monetarist policy has produced mass unemployment and has run down Britain's manufacturing output. There has been a f10 billion shift in the balance of payments - from £5½ billion surplus on manufacturing accounts in 1979, to a deficit of about £4½ at the present time. That has not been as a result of trade union activities. In fact, the number of people belonging to trade unions has dropped by nearly two million in that period.
66 Delegates at TUC
congress have to ask themselves a simple question: will this policy assist the average trade unionist to further his or her wages and conditions, or will it put a break on collective bargaining and industrial action? The answer is that it will put a break on realising better wages and conditions for workers. 99
There is no evidence that the industrial might of the trade unions has managed to stop the government in its tracks. Most independent observers would argue that some of the most bitter industrial struggles which have taken place in the last seven years have resulted in victory for the bosses and for the Tory government. I wish we had scored some bigger industrial victories, but the truth is that we haven't.
The Labour leadership's strategy for winning the next election is to take Tory claims at their face value - and to adapt to them. But if the message is that the next Labour government will be partial to the bosses and not too keen on trade union militancy, then many of those men and women who hanker after a job but can't get one under Thatcher will be unsure of what sort of prospects they face with Labour in power. If the message is thatthe next Labour government will do its damndest to shore up the rotten system we live under, then all those people who suffer by it will have no confidence that Labour will start the job of radically changing it.
A manifesto which pledges Labour to fight for the rights of working class communities is the only way to ensure a victory at the next general election. Defence of trade unions must be at the centre of such a manifesto.
Trade unions exist to act in a
By Dennis Skinner MP
collective fashion to further the wages and conditions of men and women at work. But the party leadership is proposing that the next Labour government enforces secret ballots and gives individuals who don't like what the majority in a trade union are doing the right to attack the very unions that they belong to. It is a policy which has the seeds of discontent sown within it.
At the Labour Party NEC which passed this policy, the left attempted to stop the document from being presented to party conference. That policy was carried by 17:8, with Tom Sawyer of NUPE abstaining. Only Tony Benn, Eric Clarke, Frances Curran, Eric Heffer, Joan Maynard, Jo Richardson, Dennis Skinner and Audrey Wise were prepared to vote against it.
Several attempts were made to take out those passages that established a legal framework for industrial relations, which dealt with setting up an industrial relations court and imposed secret ballots. But the majority of the NEC _ the right wing and the 'cuddly' left - went along with or supported the inclusion of paragraphs 59, 60 and 61.
66 The very essence of
trade union strength is to be able to take on the bosses as quickly and effectively as possible. The bosses don't have to hold ballots when they lock people. out.99
The party leadership is busy arguing that ballots should be made a legal requirement for trade unionists, but they have no plans for ballots Inine Stock Exchange, in Lloyds, or in the City of London generally. Instead, financial instititütions have the right to operate selfregulatory procedures, to the extent of not even allowing the law to interfere.
Recently parliament : was told that this 'self-regulation' has allowed Peter Cameron-Wells and Peter Dixon to get away with £39 million. Now they are living a life of luxury in America - and not one single
Socialist Action 29 Aug 1986 7 NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS
(WERS
RCH member of the fraud squad has paid them a visit
Some Labour Party leaders are responding to criticism of the People at Work policy by engaging in semantics. Don't be fooled! They are trying to argue that secret ballots will only be imposed in respect of certain strikes.
66 The Labour leadership's
strategy for winning the next election is to take Tory claims at their face value - and adapt to them. 99
The fact is that most strikes are unofficial in the very beginning. They have a tendency to be given otficial status only after a couple of weeks of action. It is in cases like these, — - strikes about important issues affecting wages, on privatisation, and so on — when secret ballots will have to take place. In the wake of those ballots certain minorities will have the right to dictate to the majority.
All this means chaos in collective bargaining.
The very essence of trade union strength is to be able to take on the bosses as quickly and effectively as possible. The bosses don't have to hold ballots when they lock people out; they don't have to hold ballots when they decide to attack workers for no good reason; management doesn't have to ballot the workforce before getting rid of a shop steward Management is a law unto itsell, but no legislation is being drawn up. to restrict the power of the bosses.
Delegates at TUC congress have to ask themselves a simple question: will this policy assist the average trade unionist to further his or her wages and conditions, or will it put a break on collective bargaining and industrial action? The answer is that it will put a break on realising better wages and conditions for workers. And it would be a nonsense to have a Trade Union Congress passing a resolution which etfectively places serious obstacles in the path of improving the lot of workers.
Page 8 scan of this page
'Sacked miners still need your support'
Women and the unions
8 EIGHTEEN MONTHS after the end of the miners strike the NUM is stil fighting for the reinstatement of 468 sacked miners. Six languish in jail. And that means the National Justice for Mineworkers Campaign still has a job of work on its hands. year's Trades Union Congress and Labour Party annual conference we will be holding fringe meetings to publicise the plight of victimised miners and organising an art exhibition to help raise money for them and their families.
In many cases the Coal Board is refusing to take
in conciliation and pall totally ignoring decisions of industrial tribunals. have a classic example of
One of our members was alleged to have nit scab on 5 Nove 985 1984.
On April 1985. six weeks after he'd returned to work, he was summarily dismissed sacked to this day.
Management claim he was sacked for gross
the terms of his contract of emplovment. but when we tried for concilliation they retused to take part in the procedure because the contract employment was suspended wher went on strike. For the purposes of reinstatement the
JUSTICE EMPANADO
VORKERS
SEPTO NOTE, COLKAN OF YE
• CHESTER DARL
Railwaymen
policies concerning
discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act.
By Ann Henderson, NUR
The recently published
Equal Opportunities Commission report reveal-
ed extensive discrimination against women in the
ail industry. Responsibili-
ev for this lies largelv with
the rail unions, and women
members have been organising to take these issues.
Women lave gained confidence through participating in labour movement women's conferences, and learning from each others experiences. But these policy developments are not only the result of that women torm less than 10 per of the R. membership The debates the broader labour movement, within
TUC, encouraged
have "once to and reawakened male trade
For example, the stand taken by the TUC on sexual harassment was impor-
Socialist Action 29 Aug 1986
At this By Bill Etherington, Chair of the Justice for Mineworkers Campaign and General Secretary of the Durham Mechanics
contract was oreacnea, Dul for punishment it was in
We have managed get Durham Mechanics member reengaged but that means he loses all : his previous rights and conditions in addition, of course, to having been without wages for particular man was involved
A security guard came
coal and set his alsation dog on one of them. In the scutile ensued my member made his escape, OTE. was caught police, whose evidence OVER THE last few years the National Union of has adopted a number of positive women. Commitments have been given by the union to fight sexual harassment at work, to establish women's advisory structures at local and national level, and to take up cases of
tant for women in many. An increasing number of unions now have women's committee structures, special recruitment leaflets, and dealing with harassment and discrimination, although some are more advanced than others. This is partly because WIll high unemployment, union declining and unions are looking for new recruits. But those new women members have a right to expect something from the union.
Expect
For over a 100 years unions have been happy to take membership subscripoft women, yet still nave BIOL denieved equal pay, equal . opporLultily. vironment free from narassment and discrimination. Women will again be in a tiny minority at this
made plain that he wasn't
The Coal Board kept him sacked for 14 months because he wouldn't give them the name of the other who escaped. That miner
1x months WaLe because of malice by the Board.
These sort of examples show what the NUM is up against in trying to get our victims reinstated. The Justice Campaign gathering information from the different Board areas in order
cases.
Scotland
In Scotland for example, a striking miner is still sacked because he was found to be on Coal Board property unlawfully. He
Persuaded the pols toint
onlo taking scabs into the pit, to encourage lein nol lo go l work. When they got to
because was a picket, the police wouldn't stop the bus and let him off.
When it stopped in the yard management nabbed him being their
without permis sion. That is one of the calcon must clly case. I've ever come across.
Another example from the Scottish area is the case of a miner sacked because he refused to move off the public pavement. Management aren willie down the footpath and said no picket could cross it.
This fellow challenged their right to do so was subsequently backed
by Lne JOCA COUCH who investigated But the Coal Board still sacked him for it. year's TUC congress, and dIC completely under-represented at all level of union structures.
which have
tessue. been thoroughly debated at this year's Scottish TUC and women's con-! ferences, from the perspective women trade unionists, have no guarantee at all of being raised congress. The
movement's jinancial support.
There are hundreds more examples of the Coal
ed members are victims of
LICIDES decimate the coal industry and smash the National Union of Mineworkers and they still need the support of the labour movement as a whole.
Funds
Although the receivership of the NUM's funds has been lifted, we've yet to Women in the unions are fighting to establish their rights
frustration women feel with situation is reflected Hite growing support for • changes which
the STUC and women's TUC conferences. Changes such as extra women's seats on the
the right general council. of the women's conference
submit resolutions the congress and STUC agenda, and other steps
Over 460 miners remain sacked, of which six are in jail — they and their families still need the whole labour
get our money back. It is important labour movement that money is still needed. CLPs
Over 400 organisations have alllialed Justice Campaign. That includes a hell oi a lot o constituency Labour Parties and many trade unions which didn't necessarily support during dispute, and that's very for positive action for women within the labour
The resolution from COHSE at the TUC this year, by number amendments, calls on the TUC to make the fight for equal pay number one priority. Thi resolution must be supported, but the tight to actually implement it will be
encouraging.
But the financial situation of our sacked and jailed members is worse now than ever it jority have fallen into the social seculil poverty trap
The NUM's national solidarity TIMO needs your money more than ever. This vear's lUC and Labour Party conferences are an opportunity to show your determination to de
fend the victims of the Thatcher government's atthe real test. ago, in the 18h05, the Yar One hundred committed itselt to equa pay. If we are to be sure of advancing the position of women workers, women must have a central place in all the labour and trade union movement structures. Ministry
The amendment from NUPE refers to the pro-
government establishes ministry for calls for conference to sup port that This move within tae Labour rarty l to be welcomed but car
be successful if it is backed up by women takIng their rightful place within the Labour Parts structures and future government Already we can see that the number of women selected
parliamentary didates for Labour is tiny.
Recognising the conti-
under-representation of women in the Labour Party, the Labour women's conference has repeatedly passed resolutions calling for the right of women to
Womens
NEC conference submit
News
tack on the unions.
the Justice for Mineworkers Campaign is: €50 per annum for national bodies, £25 for regional bodies, and f5 for local ones
applications for affiliation should be addressed to the Cam. paign Treasurer and sent
Durham Mechanics Office, -LO The Avenue, Durham DHI 4ED. policy resolutions to annual conference, and other constitutional measures which provide for positive discrimination the Labour Party.
Support have been growing in the labour and trade union movement for these demands. Many delegations of trade union women have supported these decisions at national Labour women's conference
This year the NUR agreeu to support we righ of Labour women's conference elect the women's seats on the NEC UCATT did likewise. And the proposal only defeated narrowly number of other unions
These moves for change are closely tied to developments in the trade
Weren in the Labour Party and women in the unions face the same under-representation harassment. They must be supported demanding their rightful place.
Low 5, las and bad conditions, of childcare facilities. , discrimination all hold the whole movement back T.n f whole movement must take these issues on board and listen to what the
members saying.
Page 9 scan of this page
Growing repression in
Gorbachev's test ban proposal
International
tional Liberation Front).
crops,
population.
Since January govern-
repression the cities has escalated. At least tive trade unionists have been killed, 10 wounded, 36 captured and more than 400 workers have been sacked tor trade union activities. Eight worko aces have been cupied by the army during industrial disputes. Industrial action having been declared illegal in 97 per cent of disputes this year.
The repressive
PROTEST
LONDON SATURDAY 13th SEPTEMBER ASSEMBLE 12 NOON UNITED STATES EMBASSY GROSVENOR SQUARE (NEAREST TUBE BOND STREET) test ban treaty. He stated: In taking believe that people in all countries
background of Soviet foreign policy.
It is clear why Mikhail Gorbachev mular test ban treaty. It i5 much emphasis award of under mining the United States Star pry weapon A number of
weapons Reagan relying on for Star Wars, in particular X-ray Lasers for destroying misstics and satellites, are best powertons without is ing sush- explosideploy them.
The Soviet kadershir
El Salvador
ON 13 SEPTEMBER the El Salvador Solidarity Campaign is calling for a picket at the US embassy to protest against the worsening human rights situation during the past eight months in El Salvador. Repression backed by the Salvadorean government has increased on all fronts. Since January the Salyadorean Armed Forces (FAES) have launched four major operations against civilian populations in the areas controlled by the FMLN (Farabudo Marti Na-
These involve massive bombings, assassinations, destruction of homes and
and the forced displacement of civilians. Hundreds of civilian deaths and casualties have resulted from this 'bomb and burn' strategy. More than one million people have now been displaced from their homes - one fifth of El Salvador's
methods have Low also been directed at destroying the human rights and religious organisations
By Barry Gray that are campaigning against the government's Human rights and relief workers nave been held incommunicado for days, extrajudicial 'confessions' calracicu under torture, and the more useful 'confessions',
AGAINST WAR ATROCITIES AND US INTERVENTION
FOR A PEOPLES RIGHT TO LIVE EL SALVADOR WILL WIN LAST MONDAY Mikhail Gorbachev announced the extension of the Soviet Union's unilateral nuclear
this step we of the world, political circles and the international public will correetly appreciate the long silence at the nuclear test sites' The Soviet leadership is now concentrating on agitating for a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. BRIAN JAMES looks at this proposal against the
has made it clear that an agreement on arms limita for is it umposed 09the proposed Soviet summit later this year. Gorbachev, announcing the extension of moratorium, challeng-
prehensive test ban treaty "This event would undoubtedly be the main real outcome of the meeting and considerable step on the way
The US State Department immediately
where 'suspects' implicate Lennse ver others FMLN members, televised 101 LIC
fink any grap that is to
Many group that ooposes government policy to the FMLN in order to justify silencing their opposition.
These attacks on the popular movement result
the assassination more than 20 people each month. They bring the civilian death toll SINCE 1980 to more than 60,000.
Government efforts to destroy the FMLN'S civilian support, and
tion however are not succeeding. Salvador's president Duarte is becoming increasingly isolated both internally and internationally. Popular opposition to his government's
particularly 'economic package' (a set Grustenly measures alted at directing more national resources towards the civil war) is growing as the costs of pursuing the war place great strain on the economy.
Unemployment Salvador is over 50 per cent and inflation is running at more than 30 per cent a year. So far during 1986, half million workers have taken part in strike action. Over 50 demonstrations and protests have been organised.
The May Day demon-
by UNTS (National Unity of Salvadorean Workers), broad trade union organisation that includes unions which were supporting Duarte's policies until 100,000 year, this attracted
people. demanded withdrawal of the 'economic package' and that Duarte engage in a dialogue with the FMLN-
La coalition of the EMLN with the Revolutionarv Democratic rront. to secure a peaceful solu tion to the conflict.
At its second general assembly in July UNTS
to US intervention in the Coulill
nearly $2 million a aay or ala lo proposal. In other words
continue to push ahead with Star Wars 10 face vac.
However Gorbachev's proposals has succeeded in Lane suaDor not usin the anti-missiles move-
but political circles in Western curope and the United States. The US House of Representatives has voted
non-binding resolution which cuts off funds for all US over kiloton if the Soviet Union continues its moratorium Holland and Denmark have expressed support for
comprehensive Owen, of the SDP has also Indue such a proposai.
The proposal for comprehensive nuclear test Dall represents an important part belicial
Duarte. It also demanded that UNTS should be par-
the she diment bad the
government and the FMLN-FDR
The FMLN-FDR itself has continued to offer public dialogue government. The offer has been directed at all narts ot Salvadorean society, as method searching toI and implementing political solution to the conflict.
The offer is flexible and the FMLN-FDR arguing for the establish-
Not Last olla government' in which they al C Culouncill along with other forces. The transitional ment would develop and implement agreed political solution up to the point where fair and free elections could take place. It would economic and land reforms in favour of the majority of Salvadoreans, reactivating the productive economy as a mixed economi system tackling the problems of unemployment and poverly. ll would also ena all forms of human rights
• oursue I ternational policies based
10- vee and self-determination.
This offer of dialogue has attracted wide support within El Salvador forc
19%. The no August
August preparatory that took place in Mexico between the government and the 'FMLN-FDR indicate policy being pursued by Gorbachev at present. It is putting considerable effort into attempting to rebuila
with China, establish links with Japan, and maintain its relations with various West euro pean countries. The aim is to gain a breathing space
the Soviet economy and utilise partial conflicts between major capitalist powers against the United States.
The extremely dangerous aspect of this policy is
may hell be prepared top
well be prepared CONCOURS Grease ple in dee United States other tral America, in order to try to get concessions on Star Wars. However a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty is itself a proposal which should be supported by every socialist.
the political pressure the government is under.
Despite their lip service
the principa dialogue Duarte and his Us advisors pursue the military solution to the contict. Us alc is supplying the sophisticated hardware to duct the war from the air
attack helecopters with rocket launchers machine guns A37 bombers; AC-47 gunships as used in Vietnam that CanKera arca size of football pitch with 600 rounds cond; US pilots fly reconnaisance DUL'
guerilla movements with infrared equipment from a height of 10,000 feet.
To evade detection the FMLN operates in small units that concentrate on sabotage operations inflicting rates on the FAES. Almost 3,300 casualties were in flicted on the government forces in the first six months of 1986. This was 25 per cent higher than 1984.
Large-scale operations, such as the capture of the largest FAES barracks in the East at San Miguel in June demonstrate FMLN's ability to concentrate its forces and disperse them with few casualties
despite sophisticated aerial surveillance equipment at the FAES's disposal.
The FMLN's strategy rests on this combination of political and military
the demand tor dialogue simultaneously with taking the war into all 14 departments of Could in order to alter the military balance forces.
The US recognising the failure of their current policies, increasingly backing repression, claiming that the FMLN's tac-
are designed to proVUKO •TOLeSI against human rights violations at the US embassy is aimed building campaign in Britain against the growing repression in El Salvador. Mikhail Gorbachev
West Germany
'soft' on immigration.
border.
and jet
seeking better jobs New Zealand
New Zealand ports. and
country supporting the pact.
membership.
the
the
think that is a tragedy?
Pacific
the
of free zone. This will bring them into
Kanak liberation movement. immediately related to them.
problems.
Spanish State
French territory.
Sebastian
Socialist Action 29 Aug 1986
WORLD
There has been a vicious, racist campaign against the entry of Tamils into West Germany, led by the parties of the right, who are attacking the Socialists and the Greens as being
They have also denounced the East German authorities for allowing in refugees from countries such as Sri Lanka — after denouncing them for 25 years for refusing to allow West Germans to cross the
There are estimated to be some 50,000 Tamils in West Germany. The right, who make a distinction between 'political' and 'economic' refugees, are claiming they are in West Germany
It is this which lay behind the much publicised voyage of Tamils from West Germany to Canada. But the result of this campaign is that Tamils are in danger of being deported back to Sri Lanka where they face death and torture.
• Earlier this month New Zealand was
expelled from the ANZUS defence pact because it refused to permit US ships to dock in
The US wouldn't disclose whether or not the ships carried nuclear weapons. This has caused considerable tension in the region, with Australia as the only remaining
The pact itself does not require the participants to use or deploy nuclear weapons. I| was only when New Zealand tried to apply its non-nuclear policy that it became clear that the US regarded this as a condition of ANZUS
Economic reprisals against New Zealand might be expected. Meanwhile economic tension between the US and Australia over competition in agriculture is causing further tension. Hawke has said: "Australia is being held hostage to the economic bastardy of the European Community and the United States. This policy has caused disintegration of the body of support for the policies which underlined the ANZUS alliance. It hasn't disintegrated but it is weakening and I
The upshot of a recent meeting of 13 Pacific states, at the 17th South Pacific Forum, was a calling for turning the Pacific into a nuclear contradiction both with the USA and France. The same meeting demanded that the question of New Caledonia be placed on the agenda of the UN decolonial commission. This has been seen by French commentators as a defeat for French diplomacy and a victory for the struggle of the
The new French government has moved backwards even in relation to the meagre measures proposed by Mitterrand, which forsaw a referendum on independence for New Caledonia in 1987. The Pacific Forum demands that participation in this referendum should be restricted to the Kanak people and those
It stated that if the result of this plebiscite did not go towards independence, it could only exacerbate the
The Spanish and French governments are both having to weather a rising storm of militant opposition to their terrorisation of liberation fighters in the Basque country. The Spanish government has been conducting a dirty war of assassination and imprisonment against ETA. The French government recently decided to cease offering asylum or refuge to Basques in
It has begun expelling them from France, often without an extradition demand and without provocation. Txomi, the main leader of ETA, was deported in line with this. As a result there have been huge demonstrations in St
It is clear that the climate of opinion in the Basque country is swinging towards ETA and the political party which supports it. This has promoted a crisis among the conservative Basque nationalists, PNV, which has reversed its policy of support for the existing autonomy statute on the basque countrv and called for it to he renegotiated. Most important of all, it has called for negotiations with ETA, something which the Spanish government steadfastly opposes.
Page 10 scan of this page
ALLIANCE SOCIALISM 22-23 November
*****************x*****************x**x******x***x*****x**********xxxxxxxxx***.*
10 Socialist Action : 29 Aug 1986
Maurice Bishop
Tribune of 18 July carried a dishonest article, 'A merican frame-up in Grenada courts'. This claimed that Bernard Coard and his supporters have been framed by US imperialism for the murder of prime minister Maurice Bishop. It continued 'the circumstances surrounding Bishop's death ... are shrouded in deep mystery'. There is no mystery.
In November, 1983, a major statement appeared in the world's press in which Cuba's Fidel Castro gave detailed evidence of the guilt
1 Bernard Coard and his 'Pol Pot group'. The statement explained: 'On October 12 Bishop was removed from office by the central committee on which the conspirators had gained a majority ... He was placed under house arrest.
In the 19th the people took to the streets an freed Bishop while on the same day Coard' group ordered the army to fire on the people, and Bishop and other revolutionary leaders were murdered ... Coard's group objectively destroyed the revolution and opened the door to imperialist aggression.?
Earlier this year, one of the 19 accused of aiding the murder of Maurice Bishop turned state's evidence. Granma Weekly Review of 1 June reports Fabian Gabriel's evidence that 'the firing squad was commanded by Calistos Bernard, who showed Bishop the execution order from the centra committee. Gabriel testified that Bernard took the bodies from the spot where they tell and supervised their incineration at Camp Fellow in the south of the island'.
These vital facts are left out of the Tribune 'briefing'. But there is no mystery here either. The 'brieting' is 'based on informaton provided by Caribbean Labour Solidarity'. CLS is a longstanding supporter of Bernard Coard. Today CLS cynically use the banner of human rights to cover up for Coard's crime against the Grenadan revolution. That Tribune should fall for this is unfortunate. Perhaps in future you should get your briefings from the respected Cuban embassy or from the organisation which is the heir to Maurice Bishop, the 'Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement'. Thẹ MBPM has a support group in Britain whose address is supplied: 41 Broad Lawn, New Eltham, London SE9 3XI (Tel 01-851-3283).
Celia Pugh (This letter has also been sent to Tribune.)
Zionism
On behalf of the Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine I would like to welcome, and make a few comments upon, the two recent articles in Socialist Action on Zionism.
Linda Balfe is right to say that Zionism accents the logie of anti-semitism but it isalso the case that without anti-Semitism there would have been no Zionism, and once embarked upon their project the Zionists recognised not merely the "futility' (HerZt's words) in combatting antiSemitism but the dangers to their own movement if such a fight were to be successful. It is not mere v that at worst. certam Monists actua v collaborated with anti-semites' but that the whole history of the Zionist movement consists of this from the czarist autocracy, to Balfour, the Whites in Russia and finally the Nazis. It is this which gives the lie to the accusation that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are the same.
Dave King's account of his experience with the Union of Jewish Students rings true to a number of us who have worked in NUS. No one should however by surprised that an organisation with the closest of links with the Israeli Embassy and undoubtedly the Israeli inteligence organisation, Mossad, should use the tacties of entrapment and personal vilification of individuals. What is surprising is that a paper such as Socialist Organiser should refuse the right of reply to sunneute seatacket andaeetsodczası Students in NOLS, which is controlled by SO, has a position on Palestine and Zionism which is further to the right than the leadership of NUS itself, in so far as it equates support for a democratic, secular state in Palestine with antiSemitism.
The only disagreement that I would have with Dave King's article is over the question of support for the Soviet Jewry campaign. Whilst socialists support the call for the right of anybody to emigrate from the Soviet Union, this partieular campaign, focussing only on Jews, is thoroughly Hanay Tony Greenstein Steering Committee, LMCfP
Initial speakers include
Tony Benn Venue: Sir William Collins School, London. Make cheques payable to Socialist Action.
Please send me.
Name
Address
I/We require
BUILDING
_F O R-
The second annual 'Alliance for Socialism' weekend of debate,
discussion, and agitation sponsored by Socialist Action. Linda Bellos Marc Wadsworth Betty Heathfield Diane Abbott
Martin Collins Vladimir Derer Alan Meale Jeremy Corbyn Ken Livingstone Ann Pettifor
Price: £6 for the weekend, £3.50 per day (£4 and £2 unwaged).
, tickets for 'Building an Alliance for Socialism'
... places in the creche for children aged.
AN Topics include * Which way for the left?
* Women and the labour movement
*Black Liberation Peter Heathfield
*Defending the unions today *Central America * South Africa
* Ireland * NATO and the US bases
* Justice and the miners
Pre booking special offer £5 for the weekend until 21 September.
Page 11 scan of this page
TUC must support the printworkers
In the Unions
OUR FIGHT is your fight! That is the message that striking printers involved in the News International dispute took to their colleagues at the Observer last week. A few days earlier the Observer management had announced the closure of the present building, and the transferring of printing to other sites outside London. Hardly had the new attack in the Observer sunk in on Fleet Street then Robert Maxwell was in dispute with the unions over conditions for his new evening paper.
Seeing the example of Wapping, and Murdoch's
Dustillg other Fleet Street proPres da cab to jump onto the bandwagon. The stakes Wapping becoming still clearer for printworkers either
ditions fought for and won
Wlally yeals
The forefront of the battle remains at Wapping Every mass demonstrations continue to snow une dele! mination of the sacked workers tight DACK Time and time again they nave their ingness to defy the courts by blocking the Highway, the main road outside For-
Wapping. This despite the fact that the national leadership of
A MASSIVE attack on the jobs and conditions of British Rail guards is underway. It's part of a more general drive to get fewer rail workers to do more work for less money, and to eventually hand over entire networks to private firms.
By Ray Varnes, Kings
Today the guards are the sharp end, management pushes ahead with Driver Only Operations (DOO). So far the union leadership hasn't given a lead that can start to turn the situation around. wo recent орportunities have been missed. Number one is the TUC. For the first time in its history, the NUR has submitted a resolution on Hallois other than transport policy. While its resolution on South Africa is to be welcomed, the end result of no second resolution means broader support to keep guards on the back of every train won't be recorded this year.
Secondly, Jillully Knapp missed another opportunity in nis political report to the union's naEMERY reports.
It's now nearly three months since fifty Asian workers were sacked at the small injection moulding застототкение dasacs at Feltham, West London.
It has been three months in which the majority of the workforce has continued to work. Scab workers, supplied principally by the
agency, Olympic Staff, have been keeping thing, going in the moulding section.
The sacked workers, members of the AEU, had their dispute made official just two weeks ago. That delay has been a biller blow: lorry drivers and
SOGAT issued an instruction that the court order to cease blockıng the road, and to restrict the mass demonstration to a small square opposite the plant should be obeved.
By Pete Evans
Included in the court order were new restrictions on the right to picket for example, the six 'legal' nickers were Tastructed that they were allowed to give mortalion , Dullol allowed to ask the scabs not to go to work!
Members of SOGAT showed what they thought of this in the recent elections to the SOGAT NEC where candidates identified with the strike won a sweeping victory in the London region.
New attack on rail workers
tional last
update
jobs
The attack
wnere wee
Although
per cent
take action.
Since there is support in keeping the But the ploy
Kenure plastics fights for jobs
FIFTY BLACK workers have been on strike against their sacking at Kenure plasties in West London for over three months. The dispute is a symbol of what is taking place in British industry today. LEWIS
others have found it ready excuse for the picket line and official channels for gaining support have remained largely closed off.
The tragedy is that none of the sacked workers joined the union until after they were dismissed. The AEU, like many OLIC hesitated to grant officia
under these slalun wul" cumstances. Yet there are
thousands of facItaly tories like Kenure Plastics.
The pressures against union organisation are greater now than at any time since the 1930s. Kenure Plastics is part of a
picket line.
with the situation Wapping.
SOGAT, the strikers are
the the strine labour
the rest ol labour movement, and in . particular other printers faced with the same attack
their rights. the leaflet from the Times Clerical Chapel
CATe vene it serier
lobby the Observer
'we do feel strongly that now is the time for doubtedly had made roads into unity
Depots affected DOO steamroller tactics management. The
which monitoring during the three trial periods -
Guards
three months while
demoralised and none velage calling. Cheap
At other management
jobs lost none substantial
negotiated the NUR
the labour movement has learn How lalt
What led to the sackings? Kenure is typical of the more exploitative secLOTS of British manufac turing industry. workforce black male workers, black and white women, are trapped in the low pay/long nours syn drome. Basic rates in the molding section were Just £2.33 per hour. Sixty hours a week and more was no exception. Unity
Previous efforts at unionisation had failed in
general atmosphere fear, patronage. In May 1986,
affairs Ins sorry stale Ur came to an end. Unity
out among the workforce. In a defiant
Sacked SOGAT printworkers hold a tea party for Wapping children behind the
you to act together...and bring the boycott
InLO Fleet Street itself.
'In doing this you will show not only Murdoch but your own companies that there will be no going back on the stand that we have all taken the preservation of our, rights and the retention of our
But if the struggle is to
full support of the rest of
can be claimed.
Some prominent left wing activists have responded to the situation by proposing second ballot of guards which they believe would get a majority today. But a se
opportunity for managemiche interfere in union business, with no broader strategy to defend jobs, will solve nothing
An aggressive campaign is needed, led nationally by the union, to hold the line in the industry and to start to map out a strategy to broaden the struggle beyond railworkers especially to workers like the miners, and to the labour Partv This is the way to lay the basis for industrial action which will be required to put a halt to the attacks faced by railworkers.
But how will we get to the where have a united membership which understands that it will take a serious fight to keep our jobs? Certainly not by sector by sector ballots!
The first requirement is to ensure that intensive
gesture the moulding section (totally male, Asian section) rejected a pay of
them on just 2a50 an
hour. Following this, over just €2.50 time was refused.
Yet with an arrogance typical him, the boss issued his ultimatum: You must all sign contracts promising to work shifts Dismissal follows a refusal like night follows day.
More support for the victimised workers has come and gone yet • little practical progress has far been made boycotting Kenure products halting material supplies, especially of bulk plastic granules Noryl Oroglann and ABN®
The newly elected left Labour council Hounslow, and in par-
the labour movement. Until now the role of the TUC has been disgraceful. Faced with the scabbing role of the EEPTU, the TUC has tried to evade its responsibilities with fake attempts to get negotiations going (involving the EEPTU!) every time looks like the strikers could take the offensive.
The talks for this week are specifically designed head off any fight at the
monitoring is underway.
and every LDC (shop stewards
details of the agreement on DOO. A national meeting of LDCs would help pre-
ilala cal from taking outrageous liberties with little resistance. Stand
But secondly, the union must give every en-
to workers who are able to take a stand a local level. Where it is possible to take some form of action, links with other grades and depots, and beyond the industry, will be vital However workers will never have the confidence to act unless they see that monteroers are sendusty campaigning today in defence of jobs.
There are a number of concrete steps that would won't have a resolution, The TUC but support can still be mobilised in defence of guards and sas equally dards on trains.
ticular the deputy leader Dave Wetzel, (formerly of the GLC) has helped pile on moral pressure. Councillors themselves have donated hundreds of pounds to the support fund, not to mention Port-a-loo. Trade Union Support Unit have helped with organisational pro
More black activists, including Black Section
SUDOUILCLS have strengthened their links with the sacked workers. •Needed
More support urgently needed Industrial tribunal dates are set for early September, but the granting of officia status by the AEU must be seized on and the oppor tunity to win this dispute underlined. Kenure Plast aser.
Socialist Action 29 Aug 1986 TUC conference over the role of the EEPTU the basis that it could endanger a settlement! But in reality only by settling ac-
with the electricians leaders. and puttin the full weight of the TUC behind the print unions, can the strikers get the upper hand, and a real settlemen oe anieved one based on the sacked
YELLY LICIOD back and full union rights being gained.*
The NGA motion to the TUC conference, calling for the rejection of the General Council's decision not demand that the EETPU instructs its members to stop scabbing needs the full support of the whole movement
The has to mobilise support for the picket at Wapping, and support the printers in their defiance of the court restrictions on picketing. With the support of the rest of the labour move.
the strikers defeat Murdoch and the tide of defeats in Flee Street reversed. That vital to defend every union and job in the country.
with the Con. Terence. sponsored all
for guards
sure Labour's
will be
ting the
But will
serious monitoring; holding line where
the for
right simply as
build up their own
ing and more rail workers to the
that
not but it should of an overall,
jobs.
tics may be a small 'back street' factory but in many ways it is typical of the struggles in the 1980s witl fear, divisions, widespread disorganisation, self-employed agency lorry drivers who will cross any picket line, etc.
This must not be allow ed overcome the solidarity of working peo-
one TGUW member said No employer Hounslow should be allowed to get away with treating ing people like this. We owe it to ourselves to help LUCI WI
Donations, messages of support either:
Workers SupRoad, Fund, 18 Staines
Hounslow, Middlesex.
11
NUM
AT THE NUM conference in July Arthur Scargill was said by some South Wales and Scottish area leaders to be 'out of touch with reality'.
Scargill argued that 'sooner British miners will have to take
and united ac tion to halt the continuing disintegration of thi coal industry and the further ¡decimation of jobs.' It has become clear in the last few weeks exactly who is living in the real world
In South Wales, miners voted overwhelmingly for a ban on the production of
during protest the pavment of the f5.50 award. At Hatfield Main in Yorkshire miners struck on 26 August in a one-day
the reinstatement of sacked miners
Hatfield Main and Armthorpe branches have both imposed an overtime ban as part of a long-term campaign of reinstatement for sacked miners and the outstanding pay rise
thorpe who were sacked for disciplinary offence were reinstated at different pits after 'the fl million strike
The Coal Board is pro. posing to close Seaham in
Durham coalfield transfer the worktor end mothball the and Vane Tempest colliery. The Seaham workforce voted overwhelmingly to fight the closure and a ballot of the seven organised or an overtien has ban as part of an area wide campaign.
1S this growing militancy which has given rise to the rumours of a "gesture of goodwill' the new in-coming head of British Coal, Rober Haskam - reinstatement of a substantial number of sacstanding es.50 pay rise sacked .men New attack BRITISH COAL man. agement has launched a new offensive against the NUM in Leicestershire. Last year Lei cestershire miners voted decisively to stay in the NUM. But now a new attack is being launched by management headed up by the UDM organ isation.
Ellistown and Bag worth pits in Leicestershire have been linked into single complex by British Coal. • Bagworth has 100 per cent of its 900
in the NUM whereas at Ellistowi management claims 50 per cent of the 500 workers are
I the UDM organisation. Management has been treating Ellistown and Bagworth union represen tation as separate so as to avoid there being an over whelming NUM majority in the compex.
Last week British Coa management unilaterall handed over the NUM of fice Ellistown the UDM - declaring that its
policy was to recognise on and it was recognising UDM at Ellistown. This was despite the fact that power group workers gave the NUM a clear majorit
in Ellistown This attack was met by walk out by 250 workers a Ellistown 09 t000L=3
Page 12 scan of this page
ANC renews call for sanctions
Demonstrators demand release of Nelson Mandela
Revistered ag a newspaper with cne rost Urnice
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CONGRESS EAKN BREAKING R through the press blackout imposed on South Africa by the State Emergency, Winnie Mandela has put out an international call for sanctions against the apartheid state. Speaking through an interview with Cubap radio she condemned the stand taken by London and Washington against sanctions.
'Had it not been for their stand, she emphasised, 'apartheid would have long been dismantled. But
long as Pretoria has these allies, powerful countries in the Western world, the United States and Britain it will continue perpetrating acts
NUM calls on the TUC for campaign on South Africa
La to the evil ON MONDAY the Reagan administration handed down another ultimatum against any real economic sanctions against South Africa. Rejecting the proposal of Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda for a summit between the African frontline states and Reagan, the US State department declared this would be pointless without a commitment of the frontline states to: 'restraint and a negotiated settlement.' In other words no dismantling of apartheid is acceptable unless US interests are preserved. And the United States for 40 years has refused to take one meaningful step against apartheid. This US approach ison and US governments, in line with position short, were directly hoping taken by Thatcher at the that Botha's policy Commonwealth mini- repression would work. summit during the summer The international press at which she blocked all aided them in that by meaningful sanctions scrupulously observing against South Africa. It South African censorship was also in line with laws. An attempt was
speech at the made to present the picbeginning of August in ture that black resistance which he declared: 'Sanc- had ceased tions destroy America's But leaks in the censorflexibility, discard diplo- ship laws, and the activity the criser this was ren of some courageous interthe crisis. was res- national journalists, ponded to by Bishop Des- allowing the real
110W mond Tutu with the situation to become clear. words: 'I found the speech Despite the repression, nauseating ... I think the COLLIS West, for my part, can g, high level. Only five of the the hell. Reagan's hundreds of 'urban counhypocrisy is shown up by cils' set up by the regime i the fact that throughout the black township al c the summer he has been now functioning Mass tightening sanctions unrest has spread into against Nicaragua three of the 'bantustans.
of Britain Armed attack ANCs and the United States cluding by the
the summer military wing Umkhonto have been to hope that We Sizwe (Spear STING
repression in South Africa Nation) have continued. under the of Natal two armed at-
Emergency would smash tacks on the houses of hack Cresse and black collaborators took thereby reduce the interna- place on Friday and Mon-
publicity South day.
Africa was getting. This major SCHOOL
would reduce the pressure boycott has also been takfor sanctions. The British ing place in Sowetc
Winnie Mandela speaks out
fine mos can right disinvestment.
tions rights just token sanctions, man-
humankind has ever seen. datory sanctions in their
'We see no other way entirety. That way Ine peaceful solu- minority regime will be
tion other than methods brought knees
whereby this country Already, the downfall of
could strangled LIC rand has been a vert
economically. That the telling lesson to our op-
country be isolated. That DECOSOLS And for the first
foreign companies leave us time, we saw white South
to fight our battles and not Africa reacting the
finance bloodshed, country's repression only
and the ar- because lt, pocket
maments that kill us every beginning to be hit hard.
Each time we lower Sanctions. she went Of
each coffin, each time we 'are the only peaceful
pick up a body of our peo-
doors that are open to us
ple in the streets, we know We are originally a ver
the allies of that bloodbath peaceful people Up until
and Great une ous • the Atrican Na-
Britain. tional Congress did not
TOst CUtO against 'We know of no other the black bore
way, owne
avenue that is open for us country's racism, bore the
worst insult to his dignity,
other
against our country, a violation of the most
ecert with ti where the army has been
opened killing one person and in- • 011 Monday
juring others in a crowd of
The clamp down on the trade unions has been temporarily more effective with the Congress South African Trade Unions (COSATU) unable to repeat the successfu calls for general strikes or 1 May and 16 June. But in the townships the campaign by the ANC continues The ANC has repeated its calls for inter national sanctions against the apartheid regime.
Six unions have submitted resolutions to thi year's TUC congress on South Africa. The NUN
particular, has forward stating: 'Congress plauds the black working
Africa struggling to throv off the twin yokes of apartheid and capitalist exploitation and pledges its total support for the liberation movements of Southern Africa. • SAC ticularly the ANC TU, UDF, and SWAPO. The NUM calls for total sanctions against South Africa.
The TUC must adopt as one of its top priorities the demand for sanctions
must force
four ayer men omic,
off economic diplomatic, s with South and cultural ties with Africa and pledge full support to the frontline states facing South Africa's reprisals.
fundamental of basic human rights. It is now apparent that the government was and is in no was prepared to change what-
Struggle
'And could no longer stand the humiliation of being oppressed by a minority We took the only honourable stand that was open to us, that
accepting the evitability of armed strug gle. All we are saying is we
Coll longe LUTI
other cheek: you have
been hitting us all these years. The government
then found a way of not
individually
but literally occupying our
LOWESTION unleasing the worst violence any country has ever seen.
← Socialist Action No. 146, 4 July 1986Socialist Action No. 148, 12 September 1986 →