UC waits for next election

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'ALL IN all a difficult year for the trade union movement. We are however looking ahead to the next General Election". These sentences from the General Council's Annual Report summed up the philosophy informing the Scottish TUC's debate on Tebbit's union-bashing Bill.

14 motions were submitted, more than on any other issue. But the only one with DESPITE appearances the Tories have good reason to be pleased with the result of arbitration on civil service pay. The arbitration award was 6.25% for those on the maximum of their scale in each grade; 4.5% to the bottom scale in each grade, and 5.5% to in-between scales; plus extra leave.

It seemed to be a big blow to the original Tory offer - 4.5% on the maximum, one to two per cent on in-between scales, and zero for the youngest and those on minimum scales.

But the award is still a big cut in real wages. The Tories have seen that the leadership of the civil service unions is weak and ineffective, demoralised after their failures in 1981, and more than willing to enter into long-term arbitration-type schemes for future pay.

offered no leader any teeth at all was the one from the NUM Scottish Area which called not only for 'militant resistance... including the use of strike action' , but also for an 'end to collaboration on tripartite bodies such as the National Economic Development Council' All fourteen motions were merged into a single composite, and the NUM call for an end to collaborait the Tories should reject the award, then there would certainly be unofficial action. But there has been no rank and file action against the award itself.

By fighting alongside the health service workers, civil servants could have helped strike a big blow against Tory pay-cutting: but the Chance looks like being missed.

The major responsibility lies with the right-wing NEC, who have made no effort to rouse the membership.

But the Broad Left too has been slow. A London conference of all civil service workers, called by the CPSA London area committees, organised a mass lobby of the arbitration hearing on April 19 - but the Broad Lett, after giving token support, failed to mobilise.

tion with the Tories quietly dropped.

The composite pledged to 'vigorously oppose any any other appropriate support to assist trade unions which become victims under the Tory anti-union legislation' , and called on the General Council to organise rallies, demonstrations and coordinated THE motions carried or lost at this year's CPSA conference, beginning on May 13, wil matter less than the make-up of the new National Executive.

Over the last year the right wing NEC has defied conference policy on issues like new technology and affiliation to CND, as well as selling out the 1981 pay struggle. Without a Broad Left majority this year, any conference decisions opposed by the right wing are likely to be suppressed, and CPSA democracy will be further smothered.

The National Executive and officers are elected by ballot at workplace meetings, thanks to a democratic reform pushed through by the Left some years back.

In the election for deputy general secretary. Broad Left candidate John Macreadie lost by only 1,177 votes, despite a vicous witch-hunting campaign against him by the Right and despite some Broad Left members voting against him because he is a Militant supporter. Macreadie is now pressing charges of corruption of the election process in ten branches led by right forms of industrial action on a local and national level'.

An emergency motion was also put. It 'welcomed and wholeheartedly supported the decisions of the Special Conference of Executives held by the British TUC on April 5' , and 'the commitment of the movement to give the General Council of the TUC powers to coordinate indwingers.

So the prospects for the Broad Left in the NEC elections - whose results will be declared during the conference - are good.

Some vital issues are before conference in any case.

*The left will be pushing to extend the principle of election to the middle ranks of CPSA officials, and to bring their pay more in line with the union members.

*On pay, the left will be opposing moves for longterm arbitration schemes.

*On new technology, the left will be pushing to overturn the recently signed national agreement in respect of the clause accepting job loss and the two-year limit on the 'no compulsory redundancy' clause. Otherwise, 30,000 jobs stand to be lost between. now and 1984.

On this issue, the left must stress the links with the fight against the cuts and for a shorter working week.

*The big political battle with the right wing will be over affiliation to the Labour Party. The lead motion for affiliation is from my branch. British Library ustrial action against employers using this Act' Both motions were passed unanimously.

"This may have appeared subdued debate', said STUC President John Pollock in his summing up, 'without much rhetoric. But this is a reflection of the seriousness with which we confront this issue'.

But there was fair *On Tebbit, there is a grave danger of a very weak motion going through, tamely accepting the TUC's 8 points. Socialist Organiser supporters will be pushing for an emergency motion to commit CPSA to demanding that the TUC break links with the Tories and call a one-day general strike.

The conference will also begin to bring to a head the debate about how the left should organise in the CPSA.

Abandoned

The Socialist Workers' Party seem to have abandoned any idea of Redder Tape being more than SWP plus sympathisers. But they have developed no alternative route to build a rank and file movement.

Their self-exclusion from the open and democratic Broad Left organisation leaves an open field to Militant as the biggest force there.

But conference will also see a stronger intervention from the Socialist Caucus in the Broad Left, which fights to turn the Broad Left away from the cautious electoralism favoured by Militant. amount of rhetoric in the course of the speeches. What was lacking was any real response to the rhetoric from the floor of the conference. Rhetoric ceases to be rhetoric when people can see through it.

The serious atmosphere most likely reflected the nagging awareness in delegates' minds that all the cliches and phrases could mean everything or nothing.

A successful campaign to defeat Tebbit - including the implementation of the promises of action in the motions passed at the STUC conference -lies in the hands of rank and file militants. campaign HULL Unemployed Workers Union has called for a fight against Tebbit's Bill. It has decided to propose.

1. Break all links with the Tories now, including withdrawal from the NEDC and other tripartite committees.

2. Agreeing to give total and public support to the one day national strike being called for by rank and file members within the TUC, and demanding that the TUC at a national level openly supports the rank and file.

3. Call on Hull TUC to organise a day of protest against Tebbit's Bill, with walk outs at factories, schools, docks, and all workplaces.

Hull UWU has also printed 2,000 copies of the Mobilising Committee leaflet, 'How the Tebbit Bill affects you', for distribution in the Hull labour movement, and to add as a page to their paper Dole Mirror.

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new legislation' urged 'financial, industrial and