Nupe Must Fight Sackings

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in NUS the National Union of Students annual conterence has seen the developmentof the role of the Broad Left alliance of Stalinists, T'ories and reformists.

Through bureaucratic bludgeoning which would cheer the heart of Citrine, Jack Jones or Len Murray, they have retained their hold-but only against a barrage of criticism of their policy of "responsible negotiations" and their failure to mobilise any students against cuts, unemployment or rent rises.

There is no doubt that sooner or later these reactionary bureaucratic careerists will be toppled.

But the question facing students is how and on what basis to do this, as. they themselves move into action for higher grants and lower rents.

During the Executive report the Stalinists and their social democratic allies were continually attacked for their failure to respond or give a lead to students unions faced with attacks on their right to organise and their living standards.

The anger of militant students came to a head in the discussion of "catering and residence" when a series students complained that they had been on rent strike since the beginning of term against increases in hall fees of up to 20% but had received no support from the NUS Executive.

These students condemned the EC for their refusal to coordinate this action, or even to circulate information on Hall fee actions.

Penny Cooper, Stalinist treasurer of the NUS responded by admitting "the National Executive did not attempt to cocrdinate the London actions"

She blamed the membership for not giving her the information and said it was not the job of the National Executive to lead such actions!

In the grants and cuts debate, Cooper and Co. turned the argument around to say that they were trying to lead a campaign, but the members wouldn't respond!

The Broad Left policy on grants was eventually passed -with about one-third of the conference voting against.

This policy contained a PHOTO: Andrew series of demands for grant increases and the abolition of anomalies such as discretionary awards. But it made no demand for grants to be protected against inflation.

Furthermore the strategy for campaigning on grants will continue to be restricted to publicity stunts and individual discussions with MPs and ministers of state.

The main opposition to this came from the IMG-led Socialist Students Alliance.

However, as Mick Archer, SSA Executive member admitted, their amendment did not contain any different demands to those of the Broad Left!

The only difference was more militant phraseology, and an abstract call for mass campaigning by linking the fight to the trade union movement.

In the debate on education and youth unemployment the Broad Left announced their full support for all the instruments used by the government to provide a smokescreen for its policies.

Rejecting even the most tepid mobilisation against such policies proposed by the SSA and the SWP, they supported the Manpower Services Commission and all other available diversions.

Mandate

The extreme of bureaucratic control was felt in a truncated discussion _ OI Northern Ireland.

The EC had refused to carry out a mandate to support the International Tribunal on " Britain's Presence in Ireland.

Their reasons, put by Deputy President Alan Christie, was that it was a "front" for the "sectarian Troops Out Movement" The clear dereliction of democracy was compounded by the Broad Left Stalinists who through a series of bureaucratic manoeuvres and 1 regimented votes bludgeoned through their policy with only one brief speech being allowed against what they had done.

By centring the Irish discussion on the question of the Tribunal the IMG and others have now allowed the NUS to use the charge of "sectarianism" to move away altogether from any campaign in opposition to the military occupation of Ireland.

ANI 2103 A3 Last week the chairman, secretary and one other member of the West London Hospital NUPE branch were sacked.

The branch responded with all-out strike action (joined by AUEW members) with supporting action in the neighbouring Charing Cross Hospital.

This move by the hospital management represents the most serious attack in recent years on trade unionists in the health service, striking at the basic right of hospital workers to organise.

The sacked leadership of the branch-Stan Hunt and Alan Pinfold-have established a principled record in their time of office, defending their membership consistently against all management attacks, and leading the branch out on strike in response to the raid on Hounslow Hospital earlier in the year.

These are the underlying reasons behind the sackings, and it is vital that these militants are defended with immediate action throughout the London health service.

The sackings are the direct result of a long-running dispute over 'clocking-in' at the hospital which came to strike action in the summer when management Quite frankly, we're unique!

We're the only movement that fights patiently and relentlessly for the building of a Trotskyist party capable of mobilising the working class in the struggle for state power and the establishment of a socialist society.

In doing so, the WSL alone does not shrink from head-on battles with the existing leaders of the working class - whether these be left' talking Labourites union bureaucrats, or Stalinists of the Communist Party.

In these battles we set out to prove to workers both in theory and in practice the necessity for a now leadership and for a programme of transitional demands which, sterting from today's problems and today's consciousness within the working class, lead workers in struggle to grasp the need for socialist revolution.

For this reason, though we are smaller than some self-styled revolutionary groups, the WSL has featured in the forefront of pay strugalos in British Leyland, Plea Socialist Name..

Address.

WSL, larti London NW5 1HR Lon docked 10% of ancillary workers pay due to their refusal to return to the clock after a six-month experimental scheme.

After months of trailing through ACAS and the courts, the authorities had still not repaid the back-pay by November.

About a month ago the branch responded by shutting off the central heating at the hospital.

Management immediately embarked on a well prepared plan to evacuate the patients to a nearby hospital.

Last week, with the patients all returned and the dispute temporarily settled it was announced out of the blue that the worker who allegedly shut down the boiler was to be sacked, along with the branch secretary and chairman-not for anything to do with the dispute, but because of their general 'work record'.

It is obvious that these sackings are a blatant attempt at victimisation, and that the dispute itself is only a pretext used by management to get rid of the branch leadership who have consistently defended the working conditions of their members.

DiM in the fight against the sale of jobs by TUC leaders, in the struggle against the cuts, in unionisation struggles, and in the fight against bureaucratic dictatorship within the unions.

This method of approach.rejecting any descent to simple trade union militancy, and any form of concession to the counter-revolutionary reformist or Stalinist bureaucracy - is of course essential for the working class, not only in Britain but internationally.

In taking up international issues the WSL points out not only the obligation of British workers to support the irish liberation struggle and revolutionary struggles such as those in Other hospital groups in London have gone off the clock in recent months without the slightest hint of trouble and the plans for evacuation had been prepared well before the summer-which highlights the cynical disregard by management for the welfare of the patients when it comes to the serious business of victimisation.

This is borne out by the huge press and media campaign which has surrounded the strike, with front, page personal attacks on the sacked workers in the national press.

An example of the orchestrated nature of the press witchhunt was given on Thursday morning when a handful of women arrived at the picket line in a van, and paraded in front of the hospital with pushchairs for the benefit of the flotilla of bourgeois press reporters who arrived at the same time.

Posed

They posed for the cameras for about 15 minutes-touting 'patients before politics' banners and then they left, along with the reporters!

It is obvious that the hospital management and Area Health Authority have deliberately timed this attack on trade unionism to coincide with future action on pay in the health service unions.

This makes it vitally important that immediate widespread action is taken for their complete reinstatement.

Throughout the history of the dispute, the official NUPE leadership have repeatedly shown that they are both incapable and unwilling to defend these militants.

Evacuation

Although the dispute has already led to two strikes and the evacuation of patients, the NUPE leadership has made no attempt to circulate health service branchès and emphasise the central importance of the dispute.

They have repeatedly turned to ACAS, industrial tribunais and the bourgeois courts in a desperate attempt to find an individual solution to what is a class problem, affecting trade unionists throughout the health service.

Their scandalous record is highlighted by the fact that at present, they have refused to give full official backing to the strike.

All-London strike

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