[The recent conference of the TGWU went further…]
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-07-21Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 1 →
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The recent conference of the TGWU went further than merely calling on the British state -under Thatcher! - to abandon nuclear weapons.
Conference pledged maximum union support for any TGWU branch which boycotts development work on nuclear bases or "any other weapons of mass destruction"
Ron Todd expressed the mood of conference when he said that the present international situation and the dispute between America and Russia about 'who is ahead in the nuclear arms race' was "like two men over a reservoir of petrol arguing over who has got the most matches."
Talk
He reminded conference that governments now considered nuclear war inevitable and plan in terms of this inevitability.
*There is no defence against nuclear weapons" he added, "especially with Britain an American aircraft carrier run by the Bonnie and Clyde of the nuclear age - Reagan and Thatcher.
A resolution instructing branches to black work on nuclear bases and committing the union to organise such blacking nationally - that would have been much better. It's true that union officials like Todd talk better than they fight. And the conference rejected a motion calling on Britain to get out of NATO, which relies on nuclear weapons.
Nevertheless despite these weaknesses, inadequacies and confusions, the largest union in Britain is now committed to support local branch initiatives to oppose, disrupt and undermine work on nuclear bases. This is a tremendous development.
Convincing
At the least it gives the anti-nuclear movement the green light to go to the rank and file of the union with a much better chance of convincing them to take such action. It gives US Continued page 15