We print below interviews with 3 TGWU members attending last week's union Tony Homer is a car worker at British Leyland Oxford. He is also secretary of the Oxford District of the Confederation of the Ship Building and Engineering Unions - CSEU. An elected observer from 5/293 branch at the T&GWU Conference.
The Healey package is the most pernicious set of anti-working class measures ever put together by a Labour Government. The Government seems determined to stick the capitalist crisis onto the backs of the working class. No wonder the City and the industrial employers are laughing with glee.
ures? What about the position of Foot and Benn?
At the parliamentary level the opposition will be almost nil. The Tribunites will scream blue murder, but they won't do anything about it. Wilson knows that he can use Tory votes to get his policies carried. He is confident that his left wing are over a barrel.
The parliamentary left cannot see beyond their parliamentary noses; or they would organise in the one area the mass class struggle where Wilson can be defeated. This would lead to entirely new developments. But they have no intention of doing this.
As for Benn, apart from wanting to make capitalism 'more efficient, he appears to be nothing more than a careerist. Until he shows otherwise I would not trust him an inch. If he wants to aid the working class he should resign and organise mass resistance - but he won't.
• What do you think of the T&G Conference, and how do you see Jack Jones's role?
Jones is Wilson's twin in the union bureaucracy. I suspect he knew more or less what was coming. Otherwise why did Healey wait until after Jones had sold his revamped Social Contract to the members?
Jones would do virtually anything to keep Wilson in office. I think he sees things in the traditional capitalist way that there is a trade-off between unemployment and inflation. The only alternative to this is anti-capitalist struggle. Of course Jones shuns such a struggle like the plague because it woud rock both his and Wilson's boat.
Jones's problems with his members will grow when there is a statutory incomes policy. Bit the left It will be an uneven situation. There will be violent upheavels in the class struggle and also periods of stalemate. The miners and the engineers are of key importance.
Wilson must know that he is running a big risk of a confrontation with the miners. He is bound to have a special committee which will be planning to break strikes. We in turn must ensure that the miners conference (All interviews were given in a personal capacity) do not become politically isolated. Socialists must start to plan how to build support to give help to any strike that is carrying the struggle Nor must we limit ourselves simpiy to trade union struggles. We must defend all the gains made by the working class and take the offensive in winning new gains. the abortion demonstration was so important, and why the Conference called by MCAPP in defence of the health service must be supported. All the cuts of the Labour Government must be opposed.
We will have to steel ourselves for a hard struggle. cuts. We are in for a period of hard slog - and one which will really sort out the wheat from the chaff.
Pat Evans is a member of the T&GWU 5/55 branch Oxford. He was a delegate to the Conference. Pat is also the convenor at the British Leyland Spare Parts Plant at Cowley.
After seeing Jack Jones and his role at the Conference, what do you think? should not underestimate his strength. The point has come home to me very clear that neither Jaćk Jones nor the large majority of the national executive will do anything at all that might rock the boat of the Labour Government. If we have to accept cuts in wages they will recommend that and fight for those cuts to take place. In their estimation the alternative is bringing down the Labour Government and returning the Tories.
My answer is that if a Labour Government is going to get defeated it is better to get defeated on socialup capitalism.
capitalism.
and revolutionaries do? That is why 1 am of the opinion that militants and the political groups should join the Labour Party. in the Labour Party the situation that is developing in Prentice's constituency could develop in other areas and we could shift out other right-wing MPs There are no short But even when we have shifted the right-wing MPs we still have a fantastic problem. We could shift 10 or 15 MPs and replace them with the left but the battle is not over then.
the realms of social democracy and the use of Parliament I do not see how the working class can advance itself at all in these conditions. must have further ways and means.
will wage any sort of fight I think in the local Labour Party wards it is going to cause a fantastic unionists in the wards who know that a f6 ceiling will mean a big cut in living standards.
a large upheaval in the constituencies. Whether this will lead to the growth of a left-wing organisation working within the Labour Party, or whether it will lead to disillusionmentLabour Party members leaving - remains to be seen. I think at the top the leaders will just sail along without too much of a change.
What demands should we Given that and the lack of leadership in the unions, what should militants Maybe if we worked Series.
think we should campaign I for a sliding scale of wages? Yes I do. The resolution that was defeated at the Conference which called for the sliding scale of wages was one of the most important resolutions on the agenda. The resolution said that the Social Contract was detrimental to the working class and called for negotiators to negotiate a built-in sliding scale to compensate for a rise in the cost of living.' I cannot understand why Conference rejected this.
People argue that the choice is between inflation or jobs It is clear that the car industry is facing substantial redundancies. How can we fight such a threat?
The Leyland combine has got problems at every level. The Ryder Re+ port does not go anywhere near answering any of these problems. I believe that the only way to get the co-operation of the workforce is by the complete nationalisation of Leyland. I do not believe that Leyland can survive as it is at present. I am not sure that it will see the end of the year out.
If we start looking at nationalisation and lowering the retirement age then we can start dealing with unemployment. That of course is all part and parcel of a social programme Only when we start approaching problems in the light of socialist solutions can we hope to solve the problems of British Leyland or the factory down the road Billy Gullon, was an observer at the Conference. He is branch secretary of the 8/223 branch in Newcastle which covers the transport section in the brew• What do you think of Heal ey's 10 per cent package deal deal?
These policies are aimed at restricting wages. For brewery workers this would represent more than a nine per cent cut.
I am not saying that Jack Jone knew the extent of the Healey proposals before he made his speech. But the delegates were very upset after that vote when they learned about Healey's proposals This year probably at the end of the year and the beginning of next year when the wage run starts - I think you are going to find more strikes, whether they be official or I do not think the miners will accept it. Arthur Scargill told MPs on television: You cut £2,000 mil lion off armaments' He has a good argument. I think the miners will fight this one. Prices are going skyhigh. People will have to fight to the bitter end so that their families do not starve.
----- pull-quotes -----
• What do you think of the Healey measures?
• Do you think that there will be opposition to these meas-
• What do you think will hap- pen now?
Healey's policies show that they are trying to prop up