Kinnock's Trade Union Congress RON TODD, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, summed up the main line of this year's Trade Union Congress (TUC), when, speaking in favour of the resolution which commits the TUC for the first time to support state interference in trade-union rule books, he said: "A vote for the composite is a vote of confidence in the document, in [Labour Party leader] Neil Kinnock, in our own democracy and members."
we cover operauons or the pon- the covert operations of the political police - their scope, their nature, their targets, and their deadly threat to democratic rights.
Second, to grab with both hands and use in every possible way the new legal weapon that has been won to extend democratic rights.
And third, to join with the Political Rights Defense Fund — with contributions and statements of support to help raise the tens of thousands of dollars that will be necessary for the next round of legal battles, in which Leonard Boudin will represent the SWP and YSA.
Judge Griesa's ruling leaves the door open for further restrictions that can be imposed on goverment interference with political and trade union organization and action. It sets the stage for the next round of legal proceedings. Griesa states in his decision that he will grant the SWP's motion that the FBI and other goverment cop agencies be permanently barred from any further use or distribution of secret files obtained illegally or developed from illegally obtained information."
The judge announces that a further proceeding will be necessary to identify precisely what documents and records fall into this category." Literally millions of pages of files, in the hands of the FBI and a dozen other federal agencies, are involved. The forthcoming hearing before Judge Griesa will allow the attorneys for the SWP and YSA to pursue the question of which of these files were gotten illegally, and exactly what should be done with them now. These hearings can be the occasion for carving out still further victories.
This presents an immediate opportunity, which - with continued moral and financial support — we will pursue as far as possible.
REDMOND O' NEILL
The week of the TUC was orchestrated around this theme, subordinating all other considerations to uniting behind Kinnock with the aim of winning the next general election. This approach put Kinnock in a powerful position to dictate terms to the congress.
Kinnock's first need was to put the maximum distance between the TUC and the 1985-86 miners' strike -even though that gigantic battle did more damage to Margaret Thatcher's Tory government, including at the polls, than any other event in its entire seven year period in office. Other struggles which "disrupted" the Labour leadership's line for the election were not to be supported. Consistent with this the TUC General Council fought, unsuccessfully, for the resolutions supporting workers fighting at Wapping, and also at Silentnight, to be remitted. (1) These were both carried by very large majorities.
The second of Kinnock's terms was that the trade union movement accept key planks of the Tory anti-trade union laws - and specifically the right of the state to dictate the content of trade-union rule books in relation to ballots over strike action. This was carried in the TUC/ Labour Party Liaison Committee document and in Composite [motion] One adopted on the first day of the congress by a large majority on a show of hands.
The third element of strategy adopted was an economic policy organized around a "National Economic Assessment", which is just another way of saying a social contract in the same mould as the one which proved so disastrous under the last Labour government. Its core is a set of priorities, which it is claimed would first reduce unemployment by one million in two years, second attack low pay and third, only afterwards, set about raising the living standards of the rest of the working class. In other words it proposes to finance Labour's programme at the expense of sections of the working class instead of the capitalist class.
It was this type of catastrophically disastrous incomes policy which allowed Margaret Thatcher to get elected in the first place. More to the point this economic policy will not work at all. Wage controls divide workers
Unfortunately progressive meas ures, above all the TUC's historic support for a statutory national minimum wage, are situated within this overall framework. So a policy of a minimum wage, which has enormous potential to unite the working class and draw significant numbers of unorganized workers into the labour movement if fought for decisively, is situated firmly within an economic strategy which counter-posed it to the living standards of other sections of the working class. And wage controls are a sure fire way to divide the working class.
1. The Wapping and Silentnight dis. putes are both prolonged strikes against redundancies. On the Wapping printworkers' strike against press magnate Rupert Murdoch, see articles in 'International Viewpoint' No. 97, April 21, 1986 and No. 103, July 14, 1986.
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International Viewpoint 29 September 1986
Describing Kinnock's speech on the second day of the TUC, which was billed as the high point of the week, the Kinnockite journal New Statesman eulogised in an editorial under the title "A Prime Minister in Waiting" It declared: "The TUC speech underscored what has emerged as the central Kinnock theme: that organized labour's place would be separate from, and subordinate to, his own as a future prime minister." The Kinnockite leadership of the trade-union movement established the dominance of its political strategy for the first time at this year's TUC. The fight for a Kinnock-led Labour government is presented as the answer to the problems facing the trade unions.
Membership of TUC affiliated unions has declined to 9.5 million. More significantly the proportion of the workforce in TUC-affiliated unions declined from over 50 per cent in 1979 to only just over 40 per cent today. The Kinnockite majority in the TUC's approach to dealing with this is purely electoralist.
The proposal is that a Labour government should legislate rights to join a trade union, "protection" against unfair dismissals and against low pay — all measures that naturally must be supported. The unions will then recruit on the basis that their role will be to make sure employers carry out these laws. What was not considered was the situation in the meantime of those such as strikers
Striking printworkers at Wapping continue to fight (DR)
RUPERTS REWARD THE SACK! 24 at Wapping, those at Silentnight, the miners, or those like the striking Asian workers at Kenure in West London who are fighting for union recognition and decent wages. Nor was the question asked of what is done if Labour is not elected, or is elected but does not carry out its promises, or is elected but bends to employers. Furthermore the demobilization of the labour movement involved in this strategy will not aid Kinnock, but Thatcher.
While the Kinnockite leadership of the TUC attempted to present an acceptable face to the press, two decisive issues - from the standpoint of strengthening the unions for the alliances Labour needs and for the unity of the working class - were not considered at all at this year's TUC. There was no discussion of the selforganization and representation of women and Black people in the trade unions - in order to make them more effective instruments of fighting for women workers and against racism.
These issues simply did not figure on the TUC agenda. This is despite the fact that the number of women in the unions continues to increase, and the growing pressure from women workers for forms of organization and representation that can allow their voices to be heard and influence policy.
Some unions are now discussing the establishment of reserved places for women on their National Executive Committees (NECS). The demand of the Labour women's conference for women to elect the women's section of the Labour Party NEC is paralleled in similar struggles in the unions.
At present the women's conferences, including the TUC women's conference, have little or no power.
The women's section of the TUC
General Council is not elected by women workers at the TUC women's conference but by the TUC itself.
The movement of women into the unions has explosive potential to shake up the present bureaucratic structures of the labour movement. But, despite brave words, the steps being taken to meet the needs of women are completely inadequate. This is a decisive strategic weakness of the trade-union movement.
•Similarly there was no discussion of
Black organization in the unions. The
TUC General Council remains entirely white. Bill Morris, the new Black deputy general secretary of the
Transport and General Workers' Union, is the first deputy general secretary of the union for 24 years not to be nominated by the union's executive for either the TUC's General Council or the Labour Party NEC. Yet the combined impact of Labour Party
Black Sections, and movements of
Black workers to fight racist employ-
Black workers to fight racist employers and organize within the unions, will inevitably put this question of
Black self-organization on the trade- union movement's agenda.
The issue of racism, however, did serve as an introduction to the first major current standing outside the
Kinnockite consensus at the Congress.
de
This was an oblique reference to the of rebellions in Handsworth, Brixton and
SO
Tottenham Black communities made by Eric Hammond of the electricians' re union, the EETPU, when he spoke
CC against a resolution opposing the or introduction of plastic bullets into th
British cities. Hammond argued for
"events"
such as Handsworth and
Broadwater Farm to be put down
"with all necessary force" and tried
"1 to provoke the congress by claiming ar he could only address it because of police protection.
re
This debate, as well as that on m
Wapping - where the BETPU was condemned as the organization which had made Rupert Murdoch's union- busting operation possible - showed ti the "new realist" right around Eric
Hammond and John Lyons to be in a e clear minority. The "new realist"
right, however, continues to be a dis-
P tinct and clear political current within t the TUC. Their economic strategy centres on improving the living stanil
I dards of the best paid workers through alliances with the employers and the capitalist class against the poorest sections of the working class. They are resolutely opposed to unilateral nuclear disarmament and strongly pro-EEC (European Economic
Community).
The EETPU's approach to unioniza-
( tion centres on deals with the employf ers, with the union selling the workers' rights to strike in exchange for single- union recognition. It maintains relations with the breakaway Union of
Democratic Mineworkers (UDM). (2)
Politically this current orients to the Social Democratic Party (SP)/ t
Liberal Party Alliance. Lyons is the first member of the TUC General
Council who is a member of the SDP.
Hammond's EETPU enjoys close relations with the SDP leadership.
On issue after issue it was clear that whilst the Kinnockites held a real majority in the TUC, and have more politically coherent, become nevertheless Hammond, Lyons (and on most issues the engineers union, the AEU leadership) form a clear and coherent minority.
Whilst the TUC General Council's knuckles were rapped over its failure to deal with the EETPU's scabbing at
Wapping, it was also clear that the
General Council have no intention of taking on a fight against the trade- union practices and political line of the EETPU - because they themselves
International Viewpoint 29 September 1986
accept parts of it and certainly do not have an effective alternative. On the contrary their line of subordinating everything to a Labour government, and paying for reforms at the expense of different sections of the working class, provides important openings for Hammond and the right to pose as the defenders of skilled workers, in favour of maintaining wage differentials and so on.
Both the Kinnockites and the "new realist" right represent varieties of class collaboration. Both reject an assault on capital — the only way of uniting the working class. But they are today practicing different forms of class collaboration. Hammond's policy of defence of skilled workers, direct "no strike" deals with employers, and coalition with the Alliance can directly clash with the policies of returning a majority Labour government and trying to win over the low paid which are being pursued by the Kinnockites.
This political difference is important for the third current seen at this year's congress — and by far the smallest. This was the class struggle current represented by the Arthur Scargill/ Peter Heathfield leadership of the NUM and minority forces who look to them in other unions, and their allies in the left-wing Campaign Group of Labour MPs. Playing into the Tories' hands
Writing in the TUC edition of Campaign Group News, Peter Heathfield warned about the TUC: "The danger is that trade-union leaders will respond by saying we'll hold tight until the election. Such a strategy, however, plays into the Tories' hands. If you wait and wait - on the assumption that Labour will win the election - that could result in Margaret Thatcher bouncing back."
The NUM leadership did play an important role in the TUC on a number of issues. The July NUM conference had made headlines all over the world by welcoming Cyril Ramaphosa, general secretary of the South African NUM, to Britain at the height of Botha's crackdown on the trade unions. The NUM also made the running in the debate on nuclear power -where their resolution sponsored jointly with the Fire Brigades Union and the National Union of Seamen was only very narrowly defeated in favour of the General Council's call for a review of nuclear power.
But on the central issue of the Tories' trade union laws and the policy of the TUC, the NUM amendment opposing state interference in the
Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock (DR) unions was withdrawn by the 28strong NUM delegation. Scargill and Heathfield were heavily defeated in the delegation - in a vote which united the right and supporters of the Communist Party (CP). As a result the NUM delegation voted in favour of Composite One endorsing state interference, in favour of a separate resolution calling on the TUC itself to draw up guidelines on trade-union democracy, and did not vote on the TUC/ Labour Party Liaison document. 3. This was a severe defeat for the leadership of the union which has suffered most as a result of court interference in the trade unions. It produced eulogies to Mick MeGahey in the capitalist press, and signalled an intensification of the campaign against Scargill within the NUM -a campaign which unites the CP and the right wing in the union.
Notwithstanding important victories over Wapping, on South Africa, and a very narrow defeat on opposi tion to nuclear power, the TUC registered the dominance of the "sit tight till the general election" line of Kinnock. It also registered the maintainance of the "new realist" grouping in the General Council. Overall the General Council moved slightly to the right.
The problem the class struggle forces face is to cut into the bloc Kinnock has constructed within the labour movement. Precisely because these forces are a small minority they have to have correct united front tactics to win over Kinnock's supporters on the objectively key questions.
This was seen clearly over Wapping - where the impact of the struggle there,together with support by other unions, isolated the "new realist" right. The same was done on nuclear power and South Africa -and last year on Justice for Mineworkers. The same must be done on the demands of women and Black people within the labour movement. While it is more difficult to do, the same must be pursued in starting to introduce the issue of Ireland into the TUC - where it has been a forbidden topic for many years. It can also be done on issues of international solidarity such as Central America.
On these and other issues the aim must be to force united action by the class struggle forces with those supporting the Kinnock line in the unions - and particularly their base. It means participation in organizations like the broad lefts, linking militants in the NUM with the left wing in the public sector unions like the teachers' union, the NUT, and promoting movements of women and Black people -which are often more advanced in the public sector. It means linking militants in the major public sector and white collar unions with those in the industrial unions. It means having specific tactics towards the Morning Star wing of the Communist Party - which will inevitably be in a number of these developments but whose politics must not be allowed to dominate. (3)
This year's TUC was a setback in the class struggle. It subordinated the interests of those who are fighting Thatcher to a (false) calculation of what is in Labour's electoral interests. It accepted a framework of anti-union laws, and put forward no policies which would solve the problems of mass unemployment and other key issues facing the labour movement.
All those prepared to engage in struggle must of course be united. But in practice this requires politically clarifying and organizing the class struggle forces and giving them a correct united front orientation.
It is only by a combination of politically clarifying and organizing themselves, seeking united action, and in particular taking united front initiatives into Kinnock's base, that the class struggle forces can break out of their extreme minority position and pursue the interests of the class struggle.
2. The Union of Democratic Miners is the scab union based in the Nottinghamshire coalfields that was set up during the course of the 1985-1986 miners' strike. See the interview with Peter Heathfield in IV No. 100, June 2, 1986.
The Communist Party of Great Britain is split into two wings. These are commonly referred | to in relation to the journals they control: the Eurocommuniate produce the theoretical monthly, "Marzim Today', and the fundamentaliate the daily newspaper, the Morning Star. See Open warfare in the CPGB" by Mick Archer in 'IV' No. 69, February 11, 1985.
a International Viewpoint 29 September 1986