Socialist Movement trade union conference: Come and develop a strategy for today!
Labour Briefing1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
The Socialist Movement Conference for socialists in the trade unions is an important opportunity to consolidate the left in the unions and begin to organise more effectively against the forces of New Realism.
It will fill the vacuum left by BLOC and the LCDTU in organising effective trade union initiatives.
It will also be in many ways unique. It is broader based than comparable previous initiatives and breaks out of their relatively narrow focus.
Issues previously marginalised at such conferences are right up front: women in the unions, black workers and the unions, and lesbian and gay men and the unions are right up front.
Ecology as a trade union issue is given a major focus and campaigns such as the defence of the NHS and the struggle against the Poll Tax will have prominent positions.
Three central themes will run through the weekend:
• opposition to New Realism in all its forms at every level of the trade union movement;
• solidarity with all those taking action against the employers or the government;
• trade union democracy to ensure the rights and active involvement of rank and file trade union members — women and men, black and white — are ensured at every level of the unions.
Keynote platform speakers include:
• Betty Heathfield, Tony Benn, Arthur Scargill (invited);
• Sean Redman (General Secretary of the Irish Municipal Workers Union);
• Debbie Epstein (from the STA speaking as an out lesbian woman);
• Kim Moody (from Labour Notes USA);
• a speaker from NALGO black workers group and speakers from the docks, rail and engineering (if the struggle is on for the 35 hour week).
The key part of the conference will be discussion on an understanding of the many problems facing the unions and how we create the kind of current which can start seriously to tackle them.
It should be a conference which produces practical results not simply propaganda for what is ideal — although it should do that as well.
A unique feature of the conference will be its democratic and decision-making character. No previous trade union initiative has attempted this.
Active trade unionists are being asked not simply to come and listen to speeches and then go home feeling better, but to participate in formulating and implementing a strategy for socialist in the unions in today's conditions.
To this end the conference will discuss a lengthy statement on the situation in the unions. This will be open to amendments from the workshops at the conference.
A resolution will be put calling for the work of the Socialist Movement to be greatly strengthened in the unions, for a Socialist Movement trade union steering committee and for local trade union working groups where there is a Socialist Movement regional structure.