The law and the workers' movement TUC bureaucrats oppos action on Tebbit law

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0 COLL RWARD IN THE Os March 9, 1980: steelworkers demand action, TUC leaders spout hot air. Now it's not even hot ai No luck. But then hurry- picket line unless the strike NORMAN Tebbit's Bill published last week is the latest fusillade in the Tories' onslaught against the unions.

Apart from changes in timing and amounts of compensation, it represents no real change from his earlier proposals. One development, however, is the establishment of a £2 million scabs' benevolent fund.

Blacklegs who lost their jobs through refusing to join a union over the last eight years will be retrospectively rewarded for their class treachery.

As TUC chairperson Alan Sapper said, "This declaration of war on the working class will virtually destroy the trade union movement if not resisted."

The Bill seeks to:

*Decisively weaken union organisation by breaking up the closed shop;

*Cripple the ability of workerş • to fight Tory policies by outlawing secondary action and blacking.

*Outlaw "political" strikes and make it easier for employers to victimise strikers;

*Give union leaders the choice of bankruptcy or being conscripted as policemen against their members;

*Decisively undermine union democracy.

I1I-fated If this Bill succeeds, Britain's trade unions could be turned into tame tabby cats. It provides a greater threat to our unions than In Place of Strife or the Industrial Relations Act. It must be fought and destroyed before it destroys us.

Discussion has already taken place on the TUC General Council as to what policies the labour movement should adopt in fighting Tebbit.

A special Congress is set for April 5.

But the temporisers and collaborators in our ranks are already out in force:

"Several union leaders backed by TUC. backroom boys believe they should tread cautiously. After the ill-fated "day of action"

against the government's first labour relations bill in 1980, they are worried that the grass roots response wil again be disappointing"

reports the Sunday Times.

The Financial Times claims that at a heated meeting of the General Council, Len Murray expressed strong annoyance at a proposal that the six General Council nominees should be withdrawn from the National Economic Development Council.

Other leaders such as Terry Duffy are arguing for a joint campaign with the employers. A more. helpful approach has been taken by other General Council members such as Bill Keys and David Basnett, who are arguing for all unions in a particular industry to take action if a union is sued by a firm in that sector.

Socialist Organiser believes that it is vital that discussion of Tebbit's proposals should not be confined to top union bureauvics AD crats.

The issue must be raised at every level. We believe that a united response is essential and therefore urge the TUC to adopt a programme of opposition which is binding on all affiliates.

However in the event of the law being used, we urge all trade unionists to fight in their committees and branches for immediate strike action without waiting for the leadership to act.

We urge all readers to discuss thę issues in their union bodies and move motions on the following lines as quickly as possible to mandate their executives at the April conference.

Firstly we believe that it is no good waiting for the Bill to become law.

The response if it is used, depends on the campaign we mount now.

It is plain for all to see that protest action and propaganda alone are quite inadequate to halt the Tory attack. It is necessary to use the mass strength of the organised labour movement to resist. the Tebbit Bill.

TEET create the mass awareness needed to mobilise all-out action.

Secondly, if the Bill reaches the statute book, we want the General Council committed in advance to call an all-out General Strike as soon as the law is used.

The threat of this if it is TUC policy will act as a deterrent to the employers and a stimulus and educator for the workers.

The discussion and preparation of a General Strike should proceed right now.

Whether or not the TUC adopts this policy, trade unionists should in any case fight for a policy of national strike action by individual unions at their annual conferences.

Thirdly, all unions must be instructed on pain of expulsion from the TUC, not to collaborate with any of the mechanisms Tebbit is suggesting.

There must be no state money for secret ballots, no collaboration with closed shop ballots, no rule changes to safeguard union funds, no instructions to desist from strikes and picketing needed to win disputes, but likely to attract legal attacks.

Fourthly. trade unions must be instructed to withdraw their representatives from bodies such as industrial tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal which will administer the new laws.

As the final say is in the hands of the House of Lords and Court of Appeal (tribunals are bound by their decisions) union representatives give an air of legitimacy to decisions whilst possessing no ultimate power.

These bodies act to derail real struggles by luring workers into the courts and replacing direct action with arbitration by managers, lawyers and union officials.

These people are no more capable of deciding what is a "fair" dismissal than of deciding what is a fair wage ut cold water on any fightback....

increase.

Finally the TUC should break from the whole range of bodies designed to incorporate the unions in the running of the state that have blossomed like fungi in the last twenty years.

Union representatives should be withdrawn from ACAS and the MSC where they do the government's dirty work for them.

Government money should be rejected, whether for unemployment centres or trade union education. The strings attached limit and deform union purposes.

On the National Economic Development Council, for example, the TUC Big Six sit down every month with the CBI and the Tory Cabinet under the chairpersonship of Thatcher herself.

This body was used to defuse the upsurge against the Industrial Relations Act and to construct Heath's incomes policy.

It was used to inveigle union leaders into endorA YEAR or two ago in TUC CAMPAIGN FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ADVANCE sing Wilson and Callaghan's disastrous policies. Its notional aim is to discuss and develop economic policy.

In reality, month after month, Thatcher lectures Len Murray No luck. But then hurryMurray on basic capitalist economics.

Then Murray whines and blethers inconsequentially and grovels back four weeks later for another tongue lashing.

Once more trade unionists on these bodies legitimise the Tories' policies without influencing them one iota.

Entrenched

This basic programme is not perfect. It will be developed and built on if taken into the movement. There it will meet the opposition of "the backroom" boys" and entrenched bureaucrats but can only be strengthened by conflict with them.

• It should moreover be raised in the Labour Party as well as the unions.

The NEC support for ASLEF shows the way here. A united effort can see Tebbit off. But the fight has to start right now.

picket line unless the

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