TGWU elections: victory for the left!
Labour Briefing1990sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
The left has increased its majority on the General Executive Council of the TGWU from 21-18 to 22-17.
This will come as a major blow to the right-wing in the trade unions and the Labour Party.
Neil Kinnock, along with the New Realists in the unions, were convinced that the new postal balloting procedures imposed by Tory anti-union legislation would produce a landslide for the right.
They were relying on the postal ballot to bring the TGWU reliably into the New Realist camp.
They were hoping to shift the TGWU to the right of the AEU, even towards the EETPU, in its political positions.
So confident were the right in winning the election that they had their candidates ready to replace the existing President of the union at the first meeting of the new Executive.
Such a shift to the right by the country's biggest union would have been a huge coup for Kinnock and would have brought major changes in both the TUC and at Labour Party Conference.
The gains for the left in this crucial result came in three regional constituencies.
In Humberside, the winner was the previous TGWU Chair Walter Greendale — who was defeated by the right-wing two years ago in a dubious campaign.
The left-backed candidate in the North West, Peter Dunnico, won; as did Carole Rowe in the Southern Region.
In the huge Region One, London, the three broad left candidates — Steve Riley, Peter Hagger and Peter Landles — were elected, leaving Brian Nicholson, the right wing former national Chair of the TGWU in third place.
Product
The results were the product of a re-run ballot following the discovery of balloting irregularities identified by the Electoral Reform Society.
It was claimed by the right that corruptly cast ballot papers had benefited several left wing candidates and the right wing ran a campaign in the second ballot on the basis that a vote for the right was a vote for fair elections.
Their allegations fell to pieces, however, with the result of the second ballot — which, according to Ron Todd, was not substantially different to the first.
The balloting irregularities have been the subject of an investigation by Todd, who quite rightly withheld his findings until the second ballot had been completed.
He has now put the matter in the hands of Scotland Yard, and it is being investigated by the Serious Crimes Squad.
The left victory in this ballot shows that even postal ballots are not always reliable for the right-wing, particularly in the absence of a major media intervention.
One casualty was the size of the poll. This was given as 20% — although scrutinising the results region by region makes the figures look even lower. The figures published show the turnout as nearer 15%.
London
In the huge London Region, for example, it was only 12.5%. Two years ago under the workplace balloting system the poll was 40%.
Despite the importance of this victory it has to be said that the left majority on the TGWU Executive does not have a good record.
Unlike the left minority on the NUR Executive, for example, they have insisted on keeping within the law and stuck to this with the dock strike.
They have supported Kinnock on everything except the important issue of unilerateral nuclear disarmament.
The choice in the T&G has therefore been a choice between a weak broad left and a hard right who want to take the union down the road of Bill Jordan and Gavin Laird - or even, in some cases, Eric Hammond.
This is the importance of the result. The right has been denied this in these elections.
They must be denied them in the future as well, and that can best be ensured if the new Executive builds for itself a better record of struggle than the last one.