[the fight for a closed shop, and told…]

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the fight for a closed shop, and told to take up this fight now., in the teeth of the Tories' anti-union plans.

And Thomas came perilously close to being forced out of office as General Secretary when he threatened to resign if conference passed a motion to withdraw his nomination to the TUC Gèneral Council.

He was reprieved the motion being allowed to fall under standing orders.

And an emergency motion calling for CPSA withdrawal from the Pay Research Unit and the 1974 Pay Agreement was defeated by only 4 votes in a 444-440 split.

Another emergency motion, calling for a withdrawal from Despite this, Ken Thomas, CPSA General Secretary, in his opening speech to conference insisted that there was no need to embark on controntation with the new government and that the union should "wait and see what happens" • In keeping with this, emergency motions on cuts and cash limits were not heard, leaving the union without any policy on the cuts.

And other motions which called for CPSA to oppose Tory anti-union legislation or the right to strike and picket and the right of strikers families to receive supplementary benefit were also kept off the agenda.

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selection committees.

Alex Ritchie, CPSA National Organiser, made an emotional speech and threatened that the full-time officers' APEX branch would immediately go on strike the motion was passed!

Not surprisingly it was Several good motions were passed on new technology, the closed shop, the 35 hour week, maternity leave, K workplace creches, and gay rights.

However it is clear that such conference decisions cannot be implemented, or Losinska and the fuit-timers be ousted without the building of a new revolutionary leadership within the CPSA.

Enormous pressure is now being placed on the Garners strikers approaching their 17th month in the fight for union recognition.

This Thursday strikers will meet Syd Staden and other TGWU Region 1 officials, where another bid will be made to weaken the strikers' morale and resolve to continue.

At a similar meeting last week the bureaucrats gave a flat refusal to lift a finger in support of the Garners strikers.

They declared they had no intention of giving official backing to the conference (see below) called by the strikers to bring their struggle before the TGWU membership.

There is a great danger that if the labour movement does not rally to the defence of union and picketing rights at Garners, the bureaucrats will succeed in dealing a blow not only against catering workers but against the whole working class. -In July the Biennial Delegate Conference of the TGWU meets, and steps are already being taken by officials to ensure that the Garners' struggle is rot discussed there.

There is no doubt that the bureaucrats would like to see the death of this strike (and the marathon recognition struggle at Sandersons) before their reactionary role is exposed at this conference.

No concessions should be made now on picketing-it should be stepped up and the bureaucrats challenged with the demand that they end their betrayal and mobilise the union's colossal strength to defeat Garners boss Margolis.

Conference

Disc USS the Implication of the Garners Strike Open to delegates and visitors from all unions Saturday June 9 Details from Strike WC2 such a platform? The answer is probably blindingly obvious to every class conscious worker.

It has not proved obvious to the opportunists of the USFI and their British section, the International Marxist Group.

Tariq Ali is standing in West London on a slogan which Socialist Challenge says can be 'summarised' as "Against the capitalist EEC-for a Socialist United States of Europe" as part of a USFI intervention in all the nine countries where elections are taking place.

How many votes?

In France the local section of the USFI (the LCR) has united with Lutte Ouvriere to field 81 candidates.

But the question in these elections is not at all which candidates from which parties are elected-but how many go to the polls and how many stay home. This is as true in Luxemburg, Germany and France as in Britain where the poll is certain to be low.

Even to vote for an 'antiEEC' candidate is to play into the hands of the bourgeoisie.

To stand candidates is to do so a hundred times over, precisely because it lends credibility to an election, which should be denounced from the rooftops.

The Workers Socialist League stands for true internationalism, for international unity in struggle against capitalism, for the international liberation of the proletariat, the destruction of the EEC, for the overthrow of capitalism in every Western European country and for a Socialist United States of Europe.

In the spirit of internationalism, stay home on June 7.

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Committee, 12/13, Henrietta St., London