Birmingham success

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To will take Chapple's place? BEC CPSA DHSS South Notts Branch (in personal capacity).

"The day of action was a resounding success in Birmingham with up to 2,000 strikers marching through the centre of town. The march was very vocal, and ence. Now they aré full-timers holding five-year terms of office.

Area Committees have also been eliminated, and the "rank and file' appeals committee abolished.

The fear of accountability is such that the union's delegate conference has been transformed into a purely consultative exercise. An amendment moved at 1977 rules revision conference called for policy decisions to be made binding on all members. Declared Chapple, "To accept these amendments would remove the ability of Executive councillors to carry out the function for which they were elected by the members (sic). I do not believe that it is the wishes of the membership to turn the executive into some kind of post-box for conference decisions."

Resolutions passed at policy conferences are openly flouted or ignored. FOI example, last year's conference re-affirmed by a 2-1 majority its support for the NHS and an end to all private medicine. Only months later did the EC reveal that 13% of members were actually covered by private health deals negotiated by the union. calling Again, left-wing motions officials have won widespread popular support -then delegates have been victimised for fighting them through, and the branches that delegated them (like London Central and Midlands) have been 'rationalised' out of existence.

Militants like Billy Williams and Marc Mellor (both Socialist Workers Party supporters) remain fined and banned from office.

Clearly the present leadership has no intention of mobilising for political or industrial struggle; while Chapple sponsored the openly capitalist SDP, EETPU bureaucrats strangled working class leaflets were well received the general public.

At the mass meeting, Jeff Rooker, Labour MP TOI Birmingham Perry Barr, who brought fraternal greetings from Birmingham ¡ Labour MPs, got a standing ovation. But CPSA general secretary Alistair Graham was greeted actions against Thatcher.

Chapple broke ranks with the 1979. Confed engineers pay strike, threatening to ballot members back to work. Health workers, Isle of Grain strikers, TUC Days of Action - all such solidarity struggles have faced sabotage.

The EETPIT's block vote in the leputy leadership fight was used to endorse Denis (IMF) Healey, without any prior consultation with union members.

Tony Benn was not invited to speak at conference, but Healey was. The architect of that particular coup was Chapple's own protege, Eric Hammond. As Chairman of the EETPU's Political Committee, it was Hammond who launched the witch-hunt against Labour's democratic reformers.

Special 'Political Officers' flooded up to 30 CLPs (especially in Scotland) with right wing union delegates in direct contravention of the union's branch autonomy.

Membership has fallen by 25,000 over one year, while EESA (white collar) recruitment has in the same period risen by 8,500. The decline in branch activity and the absence of democratic local organisation, is a direct result of the above stated policies.

The Broad Left candidate fighting the present election, John Aitkin, stands on a ticket that can reverse this downward trend and breathe life into the movement. His election address includes the following demands:

*Election of all full-time officers.

*Delegate conference decisions binding on all members.

*No bans or proscriptions.

*For national industrial conference decisions on wages and conditions to be ratified by the members concerned.

*A 35 hour week and an to the two-year contracting industry agreement. with boos before he even started to speak. Strikers remembered his attempt iwo weeks earlier to force through a National Executive Committee recommendation for a return to work.

Graham said that CPSA was now committed to escalating the action and would be discussing ways and means with DHSS branches immediately after • the Special Pay Conference on December 9.

However he then went on to talk of a spirit of co-operation in time for Christmas and the need for goodwill on both sides!

debate THREE of the key unions in the Civil Service are meeting in the first and second week of December.

The first is the SCPS (middle grades) in Birmingham, but the most significant will be the one day conference on December 9 of the civil service section of the lower grades' union, the UPSA.

The Broad Left-led CPSA Civil Service Executive Committee (CSEC) motions dominate the order paper, and it is a foregone conclusion that the conference will vote for the claim formulated by the EC: £12 increase and a minimum wage of £85.

The real conflict will come over the official Megaw report on future civil service pay bargaining. The CSEC asks for a continuing free hand for talks with the Tories with 'no commitment'. Presumbaly they hope the Tories will expose themselves in some way and this will lay the basis for a radical development among rank and file members.

The problem with this manoeu vre scenario is that the Turies' plan is already clear. They are talking abour a 3½% cash limit, and the linking of a Megaw-type pay bargaining arrangement to a 'no strike' clause.

The clearest lead against Megaw comes in a motion from the British Library (London) Branch that calls for no more bargaining based on 'comparability' and a focus on a Trade Union calculated price index.

The other major debate will be on how industrial action is organised, and whether CPSA should enter into a joint claim with other civil service unions if they demand a percentage element in it (i.e. bigger increast, for the higher paid). There is strong feeling among CPSA members that CPSA should insist on a flat rate claim for all unions.

If there is no fight on pay in 1983, then after four years of defeat civil service trade unionism could enter a serious decline.