Wapping betrayal
Socialist Viewpoint1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
Last Thursday February 5th saw the spectacular sell out of the 4,500 News International printers still on strike after more than a year of struggle.
The General Executive Council of SOGAT 82 surrendered in the face of fresh moves by Rupert Murdoch, through the courts, to have the union's funds seized as a result of the continuing demonstrations and picketing at Wapping.
Printers lobbying the SOGAT Executive meeting were angry and bitter when they heard the result. The Executive had voted 23 to 9 to call off the struggle.
The decision could only be seen as the SOGAT leaderships reply to a call a few days earlier, from a meeting of all News International SOGAT and NGA chapel leaderships for a 24 hour stoppage throughout Fleet Street in a belated effort to spread the fight.
Brenda Dean, the main architect of the sellout, went on to television to say that the decision had been taken, that it was final and that it would not be subjected to a vote of the members involved: there would be no secret ballot, no show of hands, not even a vote at chapel meetings. Yet the right of the members to make a final decision before the strike ended had been repeatedly promised by Dean.
From all accounts the London EC members, who had all voted to continue the strike, had battled all day against the recommendation which came from the national officials of the union. They were backed by three others from Scotland, Manchester and the South East Midlands.
Within hours of the decision Murdoch announced that he would not pursue further legal action against SOGAT, but would seek court action against the NGA if they did not follow suit by noon on Friday. By Friday afternoon the NGA executive had followed SOGAT's lead and also betrayed the struggle.
The ability of Dean and Dubbins to betray News International workers in this way, while Executive member Mike Hicks and other print workers are still in prison, has been helped by the unresolved problems of the leadership of the strike at branch level and in particular the role of the Communist Party.
Brenda Dean was at pains to stress that the Executive Council decision was in line with the unanimous vote at the SOGAT conference last year not to take any action which would put the funds of the union at risk by breaking the law.
This policy was supported by the leaders of branches involved in the Wapping dispute — some of them Communist Party members — in return for a general resolution of support for the strike. Yet it could hardly have been more clear that the strike was a political strike and could not be won without breaking the law!
At the same time, the SOGAT conference voted unanimously to place the conduct of the strike in the hands of the National Executive.
These decisions have now been used by Brenda Dean not only to end the strike without a vote but also to threaten anyone who may defy the decision, and continue the action, with disciplinary action from the union.
At first Dean and Dubbins boasted about the democracy of the strike — that they have had ballots of the members behind them. They gradually lost their enthusiasm for ballots, however, when each one resulted in a rejection of Murdoch's attempts to pursuade the strikers to sell their jobs for a cash payment, and instead endorsed the continuation of the strike.
They, like many others, are only interested in democracy if the votes go the right way.
As we go to press it is not clear whether the branches and chapels involved in either SOGAT or the NGA will continue the struggle or follow the instruction of their Executives. We hope they will continue the struggle and appeal to the labour movement for support.
We will certainly stand with them. Early indications, however, are that the branch leaderships are likely to argue that the struggle is too difficult in the face of the Executive decisions.
An additional problem in this is that those leaderships don't have a viable strategy themselves. They have been unable to solve the crippling problem of developing a strategy for the strike capable of winning. They have raised important demands such as the expulsion of the scab EETPU from the TUC. At the same time, however, they have based themselves on the same boycott campaign promoted by Brenda Dean, and refused to address the key problem of the isolation of the strike. Every excuse has been made to avoid the problem of getting Fleet Street out in support, while every Fleet Street owner has used the situation to force through deals along the same lines as Murdoch.
A part of the sellout formula, which had all the signs of having been planned for some time, was an agreement by Murdoch that his redundancy 'offer' will be reopened for a month and in return there has been an agreement by the unions not to take any action against members who scabbed.
The 4,500 print workers who stood in solidarity and fought on the picket lines throughout the first year of this remarkable struggle demonstrated a tenacity and organisational ability which is unsurpassed in the trade union movement. It is matched only by the rank and file miners in the great strike of 1984/85.
The movement should salute their struggle if these events prove to be the end of the strike against Murdoch. But the movement must do much more than that. The 4,500 victimised printers would be joining the 450 miners who remain sacked by the NCB, and the workers at Silentnight who remain sacked, as well as 300 workers sacked at Hangers, limb fitters.
It is not possible to organise the fight back which is needed against this government if these victimised workers are forgotten.