[15- ANDREW WIARD personified by the unelected, unaccountable…]
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-03-03Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
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15- ANDREW WIARD personified by the unelected, unaccountable rightwing career bureaucrat Eddie Newall, had been responsible often in recent years for heading off attempts from below to get action, leading to sharp ciashes as a result.
On this occasion, when no amount of manoeuvring by the bureaucrats was able to stop the strike, it was clear that Newall and the national negotiators had no intention of waging an all-out fight. As a response to this the rank and file began to get themselves organised.
Pickets The basis for this organisation emerged naturally around the requirements of the strike, such as the practical prob undo organi sing overseeing the provision of emergency cover. This last point proved to be a flashpoint in many areas, with management not content to settle for mass scabbing, breakdown that occured.
Strike committees quickly began to wake up to this and started increasingIt was, in part, fear of this kind of development that forced the bosses to cut their losses and make the concessions they did to get a return to work, though even then the bureaucrats did not feel confident enough of getting it carried to allow the membership the right to a vote.
So, on the industrial front, the year has begun badly for the Tories. Thatcher's strident talk of banning strikes in such essential industries, however serious the longer-term implications, look at this point little more than a mixture of sour grapes and wishful thinking.
For the rank and file in the waterworkers' unions, much has been learnt. The strike has brought home to activists the chronic lack of democracy in their organisations and the lack of any independent structures.
If the 'Boys from the Wet Stuff' put the same energy and commitment into tackling this as they did into the strike, there is a real basis for these obstacles to be overcome.
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Socialist Organiser no. 122 March 1983 Page
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