AST MS conterence Broad Left to Jenkins

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TWO years ago the ASTMS annual conference voted to support Tony Benn's candidature for the Labour Party deputy leadership, thereby giving his campaign a cutting edge in the unions fand incidentally leaving a great deal of egg on Clive. Jenkins This year all the stops are being pulled out by the leadership to try and ensure there are no similar embarrassments for the TUC and Labour Party leaderslips.

But the prospects are that the burcaucracy will have only limited success in its manoeuvres.

True. discussion of the witchhunt in the Labour Party has been cleared off the agenda - though there will be a bid to reinstate the issue of the floor of conference.

The chief lieutenants to the burcaucracy in this squalid endeavour were (surprise, surprise) members of the Communist Party who were happy to deploy their range of unscrupulous talents when called upon to demonstrate their loyalty.

• There has also been an ittempt, Which has been shaping up for a couple of years, to reverse the union's opposition to incomes policy. though the bureaucracy is still handling this issue with some care.

However, there is at least one subject close to Jenkin's heart where he has not succeeded in suppressing discussions. and that is the ASTMS scat on the TUC Cieneral Council.

Under the new rules. ASTMS Jack Belfry forthcoming ence.

reports on the ASTMS conferis automatically entitied to one seat on the General Council, and the question has arisen of how the union's nominee is chosen. The left thinks it should be by election - and a rule change motion to this effect will be taken at the conference.

This is despite the efforts of the union's president Len Wells, a longtime Jenkins loyalist, to rule it out of order with a series of specious arguments. The ASTMS NEC, the rabbit to Jenkins' stoat, will oppose this motion and as it requires a two-thirds majority to be carried, there will be a sharp struggle at the conference before the outcome is known.

Meanwhile Jenkins, in common with other so-celled lefts on the General Council, is trying to overthrow the automaticity principle.

The Medical Practitioners Union, a section of ASTMS with separate affiliation to the TUC for historical reasons, is being used as a Trojan horse to roll back the reform in General Council structure. Sections of the TGWU and the NUM are being used in the same way.

Nothing would better demon: strate the fraudulent nature of the commitment to democratic JOHN HARRIS Clive Jenkins accountability of the ""lefts" in the TUC than their bid to retain appointment to the General Council in their own gift.

There are a few other issues which the bureaucracy has not been able to close out entirely. Chief among these are women's rights in the Labour Party and nationalisation of the banks and finance institutions.

Both of these the NEC opposes and it is uncertain whether the left can make any progress.

In less contentious debate on public sector cuts. economic policy: low pay. unemployment, new technology, racism and disarmament, it is likely that the formal left positions of the union will be reaffirmed though little action will result.

Sycophancy

Michael Foot will address the conference, though this is more likely to lead to an outburst of sycophancy than to political enlightenment.

The left in ASTMS has been fairly, quiescent in recent years, the revolutionary left has not got its act together, the CP has collapsed politically and the Labour Party left has not yet prasisTers or • ALBERT Spanswick, the general secretary of COHSE, best known for his sell-out of the 1982 health workers' dispute, collapsed and died last week.

«He was visiting a branch in Yorkshire... out and about among the membership. He loved being with the members, we are now told, although he seemed less than happy to mingle with them outside the TUC during lobbies organised by Health Workers for the Full Claim.

ed oldstile leers of wipe remembered by some for his "benevolent' running of the But by others he will be remembered for his refusal to give recognition to an independent trade union branch for COHSE employees; for his sacking of press officer Chris Perry in 1981; for his refusal to stand and fight against victimisations promised tradition of dictatorial rule and hostility to rank and file action will live on — a testimony to the bankruptcy of reformism and the lack of accountability of trade union leaders, and a reminder that the question of leadership is crucial to the fight for working class control.