Ever since 1969, the capitalist class in Britain has tried to bridle the organised power of the trade unions by various forms of legal compul. sion. The Industrial Relations Act followed the Labour Party's 'In Place of Strife,' and this was followed in turn by the Freeze, Phase 2 and Phase 3. Attempts to remove the power to bargain followed attempts to limit the power to struggle.
This turn by the capitalist class demands a response from the trade union movement different from the pattern of struggle established in the 1950s and 1960s. To defeat a determined attack by the state, the maximum centralisation of the struggle of the working class is necessary. The experience of the struggle to free the Pentonville Five and the defeats suffered during Phase 2 show the righ and the wrong way to take on the capitalist The attack by the state poses the question of the collective future of the unions very sharply and demands that means are found to centralise the struggle. Those who could most easily do this are the elected officials of the trade unions. But this year's Trades Union Congress showed once again that these men are not prepared to take up the task of centralising the struggle -except in the flowery, but empty, language of their speeches.
More than ever before, the TUC is united against the Government's policy in words. There was little disagreement about what the central demand should be: a return to 'free collective bargaining' and an end to the Industrial Relations Act. The trade union leaders are united in the view that, for the sake of the British economy (and for the sake of themselves), a return to the situation prior to 1969 would be the best thing. In that golden era union general secretaries and presidents could by and large look after their own back gardens. The periodic wage claim could be settled, after weighing up the strength of the membership on the one hand, and what the capitalist employers would stand, on the other.
The present demands are built around the idea of a return to this period. A return to free bargaining, an end to the Industrial Relations Act, corrective action against prices, action on pensions, mortgages and rents are seen as the necessary emergency measures to wrench the ship back on course.
But the bosses know the strength of the workers movement too well, and, given the economic crisis, are only prepared to return to the old methods on their terms - after a decisive defeat or une workers movement.
The TUC consistently rejected the few scattinue the talks with the Tory Government, the TUC has shown what it considers the best method to achieve the return to the 'golden age' not by industrial action but by negotiation, by doing a deal with the representatives of the capitalist class.
The dilemma of the TUC is that the working class has suffered defeats, but to take the steps necessary to lead it to new victories would mean that the "golden age of the trade union bureaucracy would never ever return: the result of a general'strike this winter would be to permanently change the relationship of forces against the bureaucracy, the Government and the ruling class by giving the mass of the working class a taste of their own power. Therefore, as the unions start to prepare their 'special case' arguments for the Pay Board under Phase 3, the trade union bureaucracy cannot but prepare further serious defeats and setbacks. Allan Sapper, leader of the Cine Technicians union, asked Congress to consider what would happen if the Government were to offer to abandon the Industrial Relations Act and to raise pensions in return for the TUC accepting threshold agreements. •What a situation we would be in. And this is the way these talks are leading'. In other words, the Government could offer a series of concessions which, if rejected, would tum one group of workers against another and groups such as the pensioners against une umons as a wole The possibility of forging unity between all those suffering from Tory Government policy would be seriously set back The Scanlon-Jones 'left' failed to pose the basic choice facing the trade union movement this winter. Scanlon and Jones want to avoid a mass confrontation as much as other union leaders, as their stabbing in the back of the electricians at Chrysler a week before Congress dramatically showed. The Government was clearly waiting until after the Congress to announce the terms of Phase 3 - in that way AUEW Convenor, Ted Corbett, addresses STC strikers want to obscure the history of the dispute. the question of what to do was not urgently posed. So the left failed to make even the ritual demand for a recall of Congress once the talks broke down. The lesson of Phase 2 where the recall Congress and the one day protest strike came after the unions had individually been beaten in battle, is obvious to all. Yet none of the "left' drew it.
The working class has not managed to solve this problem of how to centralise their struggle. Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions has sought to act as the voice of the rank and file, with a leadership which itself unites only to express its opinion but never to act. The role played by the LCDTU as a body during the Pentonville 5 explosion was minimal Militants now face the hardest task of all - to prepare their work mates organisationally and politically to defend whatever group of workers is under attack from the Government this winter. The TUC has provided no answers to the problem. Alf Jennings that those white AUEW shop stewards who scabbed on an official strike should be deprived of their credentials. If this had been done, it would have left other white workers in no doubt about the attitude of the Union to racism. But the AUEW District Committee refused to take this action.
Eventually the International Socialists put forward the view that a return to work would maintain unity, and place the black workers in a better position to build bridges to the white workers. This confused the issues, since it made a false comparison between this strike and a wage dispute. The strikers attitude should more correctly have been that if a return to work was forced on them, they would go back with a perspective not of maintaining a 'unity' which didn't exist, but in order to fight racism while at the machines rather than the gate. It is not the end of the struggle only of the strike This strike has shown that black workers are no longer prepared passively to accept the worst jobs. In fighting back they will come up against British workers who are imbued with racism, and who will openly line up with the management. This situation calls for a sustained struggle against racism within the working class, and for self-organisation by black WORKETS In STC steps have been taken towards this, with the setting up a black caucus. Its first tasks will be to resist capitulation by the AUEW leadership in the negotiations with the ETU.
and to build a campaign against racism. The caucus intends to hold discussion meetings at the factory, with outside speakers; to publish a pamphlet drawing the lessons of the strike; and to publish further material on the issue of racism. It will be a forum in which the special problems of blacks can be taken up, and demands formulated. A primary demand must be - no secret negotiations between the AUEW and ETU, so that the attitudes of the ETU can be fully exposed both at STC, and in the workers movement as a whole.
Dave Bailey Red Weekly 14 September Page