[with blood-curdling war-whoops that would have terrified John…]

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with blood-curdling war-whoops that would have terrified John Wayne himself. It is true that Murray was up on the podium spouting:

"If while unions are going about their proper function they run up against laws which threaten their very survival as effective bodies, then nobody should be surprised if union members say, we can't live with the law' That is the danger which any government courts if it puts ordinary men and women into situations where they are left with no option but to resist an unjust law and to face fearlessly the consequences that flow from doing that"

The TUC Printing Industries Committee, involving unions such as the NGA and NUJ, tried to strengthen the document, realising that they would be among the first in the legal firing line. They were informed Great Russell Street functionary, that this was not allowed.

In reviewing the platform adopted by the Special Conference, we wrote at the time, in Socialist Organiser no.111:

•The plan failed to stop Tebbit reaching the statute book. It will almost certainly fail to stop the Tebbit laws when they are used"

We explained why. Point 5 of the TUC platform - the section that we have all been quoting in the past month, states: •Where the General Council receive a request to assist a union faced by or experiencing legal action by an employer, and are satisfied that assistance from the movement is justified, they are empowered:

(1) To coordinate action" by other affiliated unions in support of the union in difficulties, including if necessary calling for industrial action against the employer concerned or more widely..."

The explanatory rubric comments: "While there is a consequent need for flexibility of tactics, the General Council will stand ready where they are satisfied it is warranted to organise support"

The TUC then added: 'That cannot mean, nor would affiliated unions expect (!!!), that a union or a group of its members encountering legal difficulties should automatically receive support from the TUC irrespective of the circumstances"

'They [the General Council] would need to be satisfied that the union was justified in the action it was taking and would also expect the union to take full account of the views they might express about the form and continuation of the action which had given rise to the legal case"

In Socialist Organiser no.111 we said that the TUC statement was drafted: " ... to provide a series of carefully drafted loopholes to protect the General Council... this programme is intended to centralise strategy in the hands of the General Council. Relying on pacifism, dreaming of a future Labour government, TUC control is likely to imprison struggles against Tebbit within the political limitations of the General Council, paralysing their potential" Demonstration called by the NGA against Shah

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1984 Page Jo

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