Trade Union Committee: the Poll Tax and the unions
Labour Briefing1990sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
The gap between the radical mass popular movement against the Poll Tax and the New Realist dominated trade unions is huge.
This was clear on the massive anti-Poll Tax protest on March 31st: 200,000 people and hardly a trade union banner in sight!
A week later the TUC held its anti-Poll Tax rally in Central Hall, Westminster. The message from this invitation-only event was "the Poll Tax is evil, but you must comply with the law and pay it."
But the Poll Tax is clearly a massive issue for the unions, whether the right wing recognise it or not. The Tax is directly eroding living standards and transferring money from the poor to the rich.
Trade union members who refuse to pay will face wage arrestment by their employers. Local government workers, postal workers, civil servants, and others are expected to collect and administer the Tax.
There will be mass redundancies and attacks on the wages and working conditions of Local Authority workers, and all workers will suffer losses through cuts in services and loss of local democracy through the Poll Tax.
Many individual trade union members are refusing to pay and need and deserve the support of the organised labour movement. The TUC should be leading the struggle — not condemning those who say they will not pay.
It was with this in mind that the Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee put out a call, on the March 31st demonstration, for a conference on the trade unions and the Poll Tax.
The leaflet called for a conference to be organised jointly between the Socialist Movement and the National Anti-Poll Tax federation and appealed for trade union organisations to sponsor the conference. Within a couple of weeks over 50 had done so.
Unfortunately, this move to maximise unity did not find favour with the Federation. At a meeting with the Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee they rejected a joint conference and said they had already taken up the initiative themselves.
They had already circulated a leaflet calling a conference in Liverpool on June 23rd. The Socialist Movement was offered no part in organising it. A committee had already been set up.
At its meeting on June 12th the SMTUC gave support to the Conference on June 23rd and will organise for it in the unions. It did not feel, however, that that Conference alone will adequately address the issue.
The Conference leaflet entitled "Fighting the Poll Tax in the Workplaces" does not address the issue of job losses and such an early date does not give time to organise delegations through the trade union branches, which takes several months.
It was also felt that the Liverpool Conference may well not provide the kind of working conference which is needed in this situation.
Labour Briefing supporters should therefore back both conferences and urge supporters to attend both.
The discussion started in June can be extended in September. There is still time to develop a challenge to New Realism which is so seriously hampering the struggle against the Poll Tax.