Left-wing victory in Cowley election
Socialist Organiser1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
BOB FRYER was re-elected TGWU convenor of the BL Cowley Assembly Plant last Wednesday. Fryer received 710 votes in the secret ballot held in the plant.
The right wing candidate Frank Corti received 216 votes and Tom White of the Workers Revolutionary Party received 129 votes in a 45% poll of TGWU members. (The poll was slightly below average — its size reduced by the strict administration of the ballot which required attendance at a polling station at an appointed time and the production of a current contribution card).
Despite White's position as a leading member of Gerry Healy's Workers Revolutionary Party, the result was an important victory for the left. It represents the biggest majority for the left candidate in the convenors elections in the plant since the secret ballot was introduced in 1974 in order to remove the left leadership and install the right wing.
The WRP's daily newspaper 'Newsline' has struggled to cover Tom White's humiliating defeat, since in previous elections he has topped the poll for the deputy convenor positions and WRP members have been led to believe that he was about to win this election for convenor.
Ducked
Thursday's 'Newsline' ducked the issue, simply printing a few obscure words reporting Fryer's victory and noting that Tom White got "over 120 votes".
On Friday, Healy recovered himself and produced a lengthy "theoretical" rationalisation of White's defeat for the consumption of bewildered WRP members (who may have got hold of the voting figures).
Fryer's victory, he said, "represents the hesitations that are apparent in the working class as they face the most momentous struggles in their history."
(Still no voting figures are given — this time Fryer is said to have won by a "clear majority").
Blame
To blame the workforce and point to hesitation is wrong from every standpoint. The reality is that following repeated sell-outs, BL workers are looking for firm leadership. But this aspiration does not lead them to vote for Tom White.
Far from it. The fact is that White has worked long and hard to develop a base amongst right wing activists in the plant. He has become inseparable from a number of leading right wing stewards and ex-stewards who were ardent and loyal supporters of Reg Parsons and active supporters of the witch-hunting of the Cowley 9 in 1977-8.
Both camps
These people openly campaigned for him throughout the election. White, therefore, was trying to do what he had successfully achieved in the past in the deputy elections — draw votes from both camps.
He wanted to pull a substantial part of the right wing vote and at the same time pick up votes from militants who have been alienated from Fryer by the bad positions he has taken on a number of issues in the past year.
In the event, things went very differently. The right wing ORMO campaign (Organisation Representing Moderate Opinion) backed Corti. And the importance of the convenor position brought the spotlight on White which had not happened before.
The right wing ensured that his membership of the WRP, normally kept out of sight, received publicity. At the same time attention was drawn to White's appalling record in the plant which prevented him from receiving any support at all from left activists amongst the stewards.
(The only left support he received was from the SWP who mass leafleted the plant on the day before the ballot with a leaflet which could only be interpreted as heavy support for White.)
As a result, he lost the left vote and the hard right wing swung to Corti.
Socialist Organiser published four serious allegations against Tom White which are documented and irrefutable (and which the SWP should think about).
1) That Tom White stood for election for the participation committees in 1975 — an action which was defended by Workers Press, forerunner of the Newsline.
2) That Tom White and Newsline supported a joint management/participation inquiry into productivity on the Princess track which was opposed by the workforce and led to the victimisation of a young Asian worker.
3) That Tom White was on Reg Parsons' recommended list of deputy convenors for elections in December 1975.
4) That Tom White resigned from the 5/293 Branch Committee during the campaign to defend the Cowley 9 and wrote to TGWU officials denouncing the other 8 as being guilty of breach of the rules.
Newsline has failed to mention, let alone answer a single one of these allegations against somebody they have acknowledged since the elections is a WRP candidate.
Newsline simply said that the Socialist Organiser allegations were lies. But they didn't reveal to their readers who are strongly discouraged from reading the press of other movements, the content of these "lies".
The only aspect of the SO article referred to by Newsline was a claim that SO supported Fryer's decision to allow management to censor his letter to the members, some weeks earlier.
SO readers will know that in fact the main SO article on February 18 roundly condemned Fryer for that incident.
SO supporters will continue to give critical support to Bob Fryer, as long as he is prepared to offer a principled resistance to the offensive of BL management.
They certainly will not support anyone as unprincipled as Tom White.
[Photo: Victorious: Bob Fryer]
[Photo: Defeated: White (with Healy, right)]