[But while the Tories plan a. frontal assault…]

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But while the Tories plan a. frontal assault on the unions; the Labour and TUC leaders have done their best to plunge the knife into the back of the working class, with their reactionary Concordat.

As Shirley Williams brazenly boasted in Labour's election broadcast last week, the Concordat contains proposals that echo every one of the Tories' main plans to sabotage union strength.

It contains plans to relax the closed shop; plans to crack down on strikes that take place before all procedures are fully exhausted; plans for ballots prior to strike action; and far-reaching plans to curb picketing.

Why use the law against workers when you can use the Concordat?' was Williams' line of argument. But the Labour leaders have also encouraged the tightening of the laws on picket. ing in a series of savage court rulings.

A guage of the mealy-mouthed politics put forward by these bureaucrats even at this crucial hour is to be seen in the defeat by bureaucrats at the Scottish TUC of an AUEW resolution calling for legal protection for pickets, and for those who occupy factories.

Reformists, anxious to prove that Callaghan can tame the unions better than Thatcher, actually argued that a resolution defending union rights would harm Labour's election chances!

But of course there is no prospect of action by the TUG to defend the unions, no matter what government is elected on 3