Arming for battle against new realism
Socialist Outlook1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
The Socialist Movement has just published the draft policy statement which is to be discussed at the conference for socialists in the unions being organised in Sheffield on November 11 and 12. ALAN THORNETT reports.
"On the one hand, the five years of retreat which followed the miners' strike has now given way to the more confident mood as expressed in this summer's industrial upsurge, with its series of remarkable strike votes expressed in the strength of the strikes that followed. … But on the other hand, recent struggles show that many of the features which have been so destructive in the past are still present. The London Underground strike in classic fashion ended with a deal agreed over the heads of the rank and file by their leaders. The British Rail strike could have won much more by getting completely rid of the strings that were attached, and in our view the defeat of the dockers was due, in major part, to the failure of TGWU leaders to adopt a policy of defiance of the Tory anti-union laws".
"We have to reject compromises and rebuild trade union strength on the basis of militant struggle to improve the wages and working conditions of trade union members, and build solidarity with those in struggle and with those victimised in the process".
These extracts from the Introduction to the draft policy statement for the Sheffield conference sum up the bold purpose that makes it so important for trade unionists: it is above all an attempt to organise and regroup a class struggle current that will take up the battle for a wholesale shift of policy inside the trade union movement.
At present it is clear that, despite the important industrial upsurge in the summer and the likelihood that such action will be repeated in coming months, new realism remains the dominant political force in the Labour and trade union movement.
It was new realism which allowed the dockers to be defeated, and it was new realism which pushed the Policy Review document through the Labour Party conference last month, with disastrous implications for the trade union movment.
Under the policy review, Labour, if elected in two years time — a prospect which looks increasingly likely despite the Kinnock leadership — will keep (and seek to enforce) the bulk of Tory anti-union legislation adoped since 1982. What they intend to keep amounts to far greater attack on the trade union movement than was contained in In Place of Strife – Labour's anti-union laws defeated by mass unofficial action against Harold Wilson's government twenty years ago.
It is this situation which makes the conference for socialists in the trade unions, called by the Socialist Movement for November 11 and 12, so important. Recent struggles have showed fresh layers of workers joining the fight against the employers and the Tory government; but there is no organised current to channel this development along political lines, and offer an alternative line of leadership.
All previous initiatives for politically-based rank and file organisation in the unions have ceased to be effective. The oldest, the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions (LCDTU) formed in the 1970s under the then united Communist Party, never achieved any real independence from the 'left' trade union bureaucracy, and has now dwindled in size, with its politics tied to the breakaway Communist Party of Britain (CPB). The Broad Left Organising Committee (BLOC), always dominated by Militant and never gaining anything like the LCDTU's implantation in the unions, has ceased to function at a national level. The various 'Rank and File' initiatives which the Socialist Workers Party used to sponsor in the 1970s have also long been abandoned as the SWP, embracing the theory of a 'downturn' in class struggle has pulled back from any real challenge to the bureaucracy in the unions. There is clearly a vacuum, and the Socialist Movement, which is itself a political response to the development of new realism, is by far the best placed to take the kind of non-sectarian initiative to fill it.
Although the Socialist Movement has been weak in the unions it has the potential to develop. Tony Benn still has a big base of support amongst the trade union rank and file — as can be seen by the size of the fringe meetings he attracts at trade union conferences. The weakness has been that this support has not been organised to fight for policies and in support of trade union struggles in between union conferences — but the Socialist Movement initiative could mark a change in that.
The draft policy statement published in adavance of the November conference presents four central themes:
■ developing a political struggle against new realism;
■ confronting and defying the anti-union laws;
■ solidarity with those in struggle;
■ the fight for democracy in the trade union movement.
These are clearly the key themes around which a fight-back against the right-wing should be organised. They draw a line of divide between those who are for collaboration with the employers and compliance with the law, and those who argue for a class struggle line in the unions in opposition to new realism and class compromise.
Any sectarian attempt to narrow down the basis of the conference, and what comes out of it, to a list of 'pure' propaganda demands acceptable to revolutionary socialists should be rejected. The task at the present time, with new realism in control of the bulk of the trade union movement, is to strengthen and support those fighting new realism in the unions and to build an organised new realist current.
The draft policy document puts it this way:
"The main purpose of this conference is to strengthen opposition to new realism at every level and to begin to rebuild the unions through successful struggle against the employers and the government. The key to this is the democratisation of the trade union movement itself, particularly through the maximum involvement and participation of trade union members."
It is also strong on the anti-union laws, saying:
"Socialists have to re-establish 'defiance not compliance' as the policy of the movement. The defeat of the dockers demonstrates once again that this is the biggest single problem faced by the trade union movement. One of the tasks of the Socialist Movement is to campaign to create the conditions which will make 'defiance not compliance' a reality, because the trade unions will continue to be defeated while these laws are obeyed".
"It cannot be credibly argued that a trade union movement of nine million members affiliated to the TUC has no alternative but to comply with the Tory laws. Every time these laws are complied with, new ones are brought in — new legislation is being introduced in the coming years to challenge unofficial strikes and abolish the closed shop".
And it is clear on repeal the repeal of the laws by a future Labour government:
"We cannot accept the continued criminalisation of trade union activity. We must campaign for the complete repeal of all anti-trade union legislation adopted by the Tories since 1980 and for full restoration of immunities".
An important feature of the conference document is that it backs up its substantial section on trade union democracy by itself adopting democratic procedures — something which has not always been the case with previous such initiatives (where the final outcome has often been decided by the dominant political faction well in advance, and bulldozed through by bureaucratic procedures and action from the chair). The Sheffield conference has been organised by a committee elected at the June conference of the Socialist Movement, and, significantly, the draft statement submitted (prepared by a sub committee, and circulated in advance) can be amended at the conference.
The scope of the statement, 7,500 words with 22 sections, also breaks new ground for such a conference. It contains a substantial section on the employers' offensive aganst the trade unions and the workforce, detailing many of techniques which have been developed over recent years, including 'workers' participation', and new working practices and agreements. It has sections on solidarity, rank and file organisation, the changing nature of the workforce, new technology unemployment and training, low pay, privatisation, the NHS, and the attack on education and the education unions.
Probably the most important breathrough the conference makes over previous such initiatives is its treatment of a range of social issues as central themes for the trade union movement. These include issues facing women, black workers, and lesbian and gay workers in the unions. These are key themes for the conference, linked to workshops organised by Women For Socialism, the Socialist Movement Lesbian and Gay policy Group, Trade Unionists Against Section 28, Labour Party Black Sections, and the NALGO Black Workers Group.
The integration of the issues runs into the opening plenary where as well as Tony Benn, Betty Heathfield and other well-known speakers, the platform will include a speaker from the NALGO Black Workers Group and an out lesbian women speaking for the Socialist Teachers Alliance. It is the first such conference to have an out lesbian women on its opening platform.
The policy document also has a lengthy section on environmental issues, which it insists must be a part of the trade union agenda:
"Socialists have to reassert that protection of the environment is a trade union issue. The adoption of a wide-ranging document on ecology and opposition to nuclear power by the 1989 TUC Congress opens the possibility of building action on the ecology question in the rank and file of the trade union movement. Such action will build upon existing trade union action and policies".
Health and safety issues are also taken on:
"Health and safety, both in the workplace and in the public domain, has now become a major political issue. It can no longer be denied that Tory policy and philosophy, and the resulting drive for profitabilty at whatever cost, lies behind the series of tragedies witnessed over the past year in Britain".
And on international issues:
"The Socialist Movement believes that it would be necessary for a socialist government to control the operation of financial institutions and large private companies. This policy is even more significant in the case of multi-national corporations — many of which are involved in the super-exploitation of labour on a world wide scale. A socialist government should have power to confiscate assets or tax the operations of all muti-national companies and their operations".
It is clear from the amendments already appended to the policy document that the issue of the European Community and the single European market in 1992 is going to be a major debating point at the conference. The main draft of the document, correctly sees 1992 as precipitating an attack on the working class across Europe as the big employers rationalse to adapt to the new conditions and take full advantage of them. An amendment from a minority on the drafting sub-committee however propose as amendment which says:
"The coming of the single European market in 1992 presents the trade union movement with a whole range of new threats and opportunities. On the one hand, the concentration and socialisation of capital symbolised by the market represents a move forward in the organisation of production, creating new structures and links across national boundaries which can only be to the ultimate benefit of workers sharing common class interests…".
All these things are key debates which have to be taken on by socialists in the trade unions as a part of the preparation of a political current which can confront new realism. The final version of the policy statement when adopted may be published as a pamphlet, and the Socialist Movement's own structures will need to be strengthened to relate more strongly to the trade unions.
In the longer term the success of the conference must be judged by its ability to take further initiatives that will consolidate a class struggle left and strengthen the implantation of the Socialist Movement in the unions, and build its influence with broad lefts and sections of workers entering struggles. Our aim should be to ensure that every bureaucratic manoeuvre and sell-out is exposed and combatted, and that sections entering battle know that they do not have to fight alone. The Sheffield conference will not achieve that in one step: but it could be the crucial starting point along that road.