In terms of the relationship of forces, the defeat of the power workers was a totally unnecessury setback for the working class. The strike and victory of the council workers had already shown that it was perfectly possible to defeat the Tory goveroment. The council workers were also in a far weaker position than the power workers, whose stronger bargaining position was shown by the fact that after only three days of the work-to-rule, 31% of power had to be cut off. The only reason for the defeat of the power workers was the decision of the ETU leadership to call off the work-to-rule.
Revolutionaries hardly needed to be shown the nature of the ETU bureaucracy, but what is more interesting is the way in which the Tory government tackled the power workers dispute. A careful study provides us with pointers to the future. This is particularly the case with the announcement by the Tories of a new attitude towards productivity deals.
Productivity Deals & The Union Bureauстасу The productivity deal was a gift from beaven for the union leader. It enabled him to get a wage Increase for his members without a real strugle with the employer. The pay increases enabled him to maintain his position inside the union by appearing to "deliver the goods", and the fact that he did not lead big strikes allowed him to maintain his cosy position inside the TUC club and the "corridors of power"
This attractive state of affairs was however entirely dependent on employers "playing the game" and granting wage rises in return for the abandoning of work practices and conditions. When the employers refused to play ball, all hell broke loose. For example in the ETU it was all Les Cannon could do last year to prevent the power men breaking the agreement with the CEGB when they found that the gas and water workers, who had not been involved in as intensive productivity bargaining as the power workers bad, were going to get higher iscreases than the power men.
The Tory government has now decided that it can no longer afford to "play the game". When they declare that despite the increase in productivity in the power industry, the workers cannot have large wage increases, "because otber sectors of workers have not shown the same productivity gains". they show three things. Firstly they confirm yet again that the state of the British economy is now such that it allows the ruling class only a tiny amount of room for manoeuvre. Secondly of course it shows that the Torles are up to their old game of trying to turn one group of workers against another. They are trying to convince the power men that the reason they cannot get a rise is not because the government is unwilling, but because other groups of workers are being lazy or uncooperative, The third thing that it shows Is that the Tories are being forced to knock the bottom out of the whole productivity game. Previously the employers said, "If you sell enough working practices and conditions you can have a large wage increase. "What the Torles are now being foroed to say is, "Even if you sell all the work conditions we can think of, you still can't have a big wage increase."
The implications of this will deal a death blow to the strategy of the T.U. leaders. From now on if they want to maintain their standing in the union they will actually have to fight the employer. This is of course unthinkable to a man like Chapple and will no doubt also give Jack Jones & Co. more than a few sleepless nights.
The trade union leaders are only too well aware of the implications of the Tories new position. The present complaints of Chapple are those of a man who has faithfully served a master for 15 years and now that master has tured round and stabbed him in the back.
What this new polley means is also well understood by Labour politicians. When Labour front-benchers now say that in the future the Tories will look back on the days of union leaders like Jones and Scanlon with nostalgie, they are for once correct. No matter whatever else the Tories achieve by their new policies, they will certainly place the political life of the union leaders in jeopardy. Thus when Wilson says that the new strategy of the Tories will provide a "Trots" charter", be is only halt saying this in order to whip up a red scure: he is in fact genuinely worried that chings may turn out in exactly that way.
The Struggle Inside The Unions What all this adds up to is that the internal struggle in the unions will be greatly incressed. It means that the traditional demands for election of all union officials, for the right of recall of all officials at any time, for officials to receive the average pay of all members, ete., will become more and more relevant.
At the moment only the first signs are appearing of the coming struggles inside the unlons. The attempt to force through a higher wage increase for the miners by an unofficial strike met with considerable sucoess, but it wasn't strong enought to sbift a right-wing bursaucracy as well entrenched as that of the NUM. In the ETU the attempt to defeat the executive in the union elections was a welcome sign of the revival of the left inside the union, but it revealed aho that there is a long way to go before the right-wing leaders can be removed. Nevertheless, there was in these two unions significant resistance to the leadership -a sigo that the militants are becoming more conscious of the problems that face them and also that their voice is finding a wider, even If not at the moment decisive, audience. What is happening is that the most active members of the trade union movement are becoming more aware of the role of their union leaderships, but that they have nol as yet been able to convince the mass of the rank and file of the need to fight these leaders.
Dec. Sth & Jan. 12th The campaign for December Bth showed a very similar pattern of uneven development of ideas The tremendous success, in terms of numbers atfending, of the Liaison Committee meeting on November 14th, plus the fact that a strike was called for in many more factories on December 8th than last May 1st, reveal that an almost qualitative change is taking place in the consciousness of active and politically aware trade unconists. On the other hand the December 8th strike itself, while it was considerably larger than the May Ist one, did not retlect a gualitative change in the ideas of the maas of workers. Much elementary propa ganda and explanation obviously remains to be done.
But because the Tory offensive against the unions will not at all simply be confined to the anti-trade undon bill, and because the direction the Torles are now taking will greatly heighten the tension inside the unions, we must not confine our propaganda to simply attacking the Tory BIll. We have to show the nature of the Jeaderships of the unions-failure to do so can only lead to more defeats such as that of the power workers.
This situation makes it even more vital that the energy and enthusiasm of the militants which was generated in the campaign for December 8th must not be allowed to run to waste in purely individun] propaganda or in futile activities such as lobbies. It Is only by orgunising into rank and file committees of action, that such elementary but mammoth tasks as explaining to the great mass of workers the implications of the Tory Bill can be carried out with any bope of success.
What all this means is that we need to see January 12th not as a single protest, as the TUC would wish, but as part of a long-term campaign. Demands on the TUC, for exumple to call a general strike, are necessary in order to convince trade unionists that the TUC does not intend to fight tbe Bill. But such demands are simply empty propaganda unless the working class is also organising independently to fight the Bill. It is in struggle and not through reading newspapers that the mass of the working elass learns about who really intends to fight tbe Torles and who does not. The main task there. fore still remains the setting up of trade union rank and file committees which can make propuganda about the Bill and the role of the TUC, but which can also prepare to fight the Bill and its implementation when it becomes obvious that the TUC does not intend to do so