RECALI THE TUC the lur

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Don't leare tre NGA T te bed o recriminations' some Murray, and confidence in • No recriminations' TUC leaders are saying.

'No hope' , many disgusted trade unionists must be thinking.

But we can't leave the NGA issue there. It is not run-of-themill issue. The very existence of the trade union movement as an effective force is at stake.

The NGA faces financial hamstringing - and decimation. No effective defence of the closed shop can be conducted without breaking the Tories' anti-union laws. Any trade union boycott of non-union operations is ruled out if those laws prevail.

And without the closed shot and such boycott, the NGA is a sitting target for the press bosses.

If TUC surrender to the anti-union laws is allowed to become an accomplished fact, then public sector unions will likewise be helpless against privatisation. To resist is illegal!

Council unions will be debarred from fighting the Tories' carve-up of the local authorities. Such a fight would be 'political' action, 'secondary' action. Not allowed!

The National Union of Journalists members bravely continuing the fight against the anti-union T. Bailey Forman print/ publishing firm will be left in the lurch.

And why?

Guilty

On Black Wednesday, December 14, 29 union leaders voted to acquiesce in Thatcherism and throw out every vestige of trade union principle.

Many of the guilty did so in violation of decisions of their own union conferences and executives. None of them did so on the basis of consultation.

On both the EPOC and the General Council, Ada Maddocks of NALGO voted against supporting the NGA, in violation of an executive decision of her union.

The amazing justification was that she is elected from the women's section, not a NALGO appointee, and therefore not answerable to her union.

Similarly, John Daly, NALGO's new general secretary, voted against the clear decision of his own executive.

John Morton of the Musicians Union, who voted for the NGA on the Monday changed his tune and voted against it on the Wednesday. What was the difference? He now saw the vote as one of confidence in Len Murray, and confidence in Murray was more important than the whole NGA!

Step up Les Wood, general secretary of UCATT. He must be well in the running for Reptile of the Year.

UCATT's policy is to oppose the Tebbit law with, if necessary, a general strike. On 14 December, Les Wood voted against opposing the Tebbit law by as much as even sending a letter of support to a union fighting it.

And Bryan Stanley of the POEU?

At the very moment that Stanley was voting to throw the NGA overboard, his executive was voting to congratulate it on its firm stand.

Loopholes

The Wembley TUC Special Conference decision on fighting the anti-union laws was full of loopholes, it is true. Perhaps it was tu be predicted that Len Murray and his partners in crime would interpret it as they have done.

But their interpretation that in principle the TUC might, some day, resist the law, but in practice it will always toe the Tory line - isn't what millions of trade unionists voted for.

The issue cannot be left to rest until the annual TUC Congress in September. By then many other unions could be under the hammer.

We need a special recall TUC Congress, to call Len Murray and the General Council to account.

Even on the basis of unions voting the same way as their representatives did on December 14, such a Special Congress would probably produce majority to support the NGA.

And it the Congress was prepared for by a fight in each union to bring its leaders to account, then surely it would vote for a fight.

The NGA has called a demonstration on January 28, and says it is calling together the leftwing TUC General Council minority to plan further action.

They could make a good start by having 'Recall the TUC' as a major slogan of the demonstration, and getting the General Council minority members to campaign for this.

Clive Jenkins supports the NGA and condemns Len Murray? Good! Let's see him and Joe Wade going round union branches and trades councils nation-wide, stirring and agitating, pushing the message that this is a life-and-death issue for the whole movement.

We should not wait for a recall TUC. Activists in all the proNGA unions must press their leaders to pledge industrial action in solidarity if the NGA relaunches its campaign.

Such pledges could give the NGA the contidence to reimpose the mass pickets and call strike action of its own membership They could turn the tables n union-buster Selim Shah and his Westminster backers even now.

To concede defeat would not be like giving up on a wage claim. It is not an issue where Inside:

we can retreat now to come back later. Either we defend our unions now - or tomorrow we will have no effective unions to defend us tomorrow.

All the Tury law allows is Lessons of Black Wednesday house-trained, factory-by-fac- Sinn Fein's politics ... tory, bargaining outfits.

It makes trade union solid- The Shipbuilders' fight arity unlawful. But solidarity is our only strength.

JOHN SMITH (IFL)

The Warrington picket line: a crucial test case Yes

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On December 21 the Tories published the Rates Bill. If made law, this will empower central government to set, ceilings on the spending of selected councils — or, if it sees fit, to set a general ceiling for all councils' spending. It is only one of several prongs in the Tories' attacks on local services and local democracy. Mary Corbishley reports on the plans for action made by the town hall union NALGO. Martin Thomas reviews a pamphlet detailing the Tories' plans, and Vidya Anand puts a point of view on the campaign in London. Organiser no. 160 January Page