Pay battle transforming Scots teachers' union

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warmongering NATO alliance.

And while demanding that the Beiter immedlately into East -West negotiations, with a view to reaching new agreements that would ensure that Cruise missiles and Soviet SS20s are both withdrawn"

the resolution did explicitly state that:

«The Labour Party opposes the manufacture and deployment of Cruise missiles and the neutron bomb and refuses to permit their deployment in Britain by the United States or any other country"

Elbow room Thus the resolution was carefully designed to leave elbow room both for the "unilateralists" of the lefts and for the Callaghan/Owen right wing who have argued that it is necessary to build and buy new nuclear weapons in order to "negotiate" their abolition!

But this deft manoeuvre has not satistied Rodgers and 'Labour's ultra-right MPs. They PRESS Jeff Rooker may be right or wrong about his claim in Parliament that Frank Turner of Rolls Royce was bribed by Morando.

Running capitalism without bribery would be like trying to run an engine without oil, although it would be ridiculous to assume that every deal has been bought.

Rooker is in no danger of having his claim brought to court. For 300 years Parliamentary privilege has protected members from action over words spoken in the chamber.

This privilege predates the rise of industrial capitalism and was originally designed to protect the emerging GAY PRIDE WEEK Gay Pride March Saturday 28 June Assemble 11 a.m.

ressenden Place, SW1 Whatever the eventual outcome of this year's salary negotiations, the current wages campaign of Scottish teachers will leave its mark upon the character of the EIS.

The emergence of strike committees in many areas linking together the representatives of different schools, the militant actions taken by unofficial groups such as the Teachers Action Committees in Glasgow and Lanarkshire and the breaking down in practice of the isolation of teachers from othér groups of workers all augur well for the future. bourgeoisie from the King and the old aristocracy.

It is therefore one of those rights sternly defended by the bourgeoisie throughout the last 300 years.

The press has no formal rights at all in respect of reporting parliament-but again in practice is privileged in a fair, accurate and contemporaneous account of speeches made in the Commons.

When Rooker spoke, the press repeated the allegations immediately. When Rolls Royce, the management of Webster and Bennet and Mr Turner all denied the allegation the press began to have doubts.

When it became clear that GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE Special meeting.

Solidarity with the national struggle and gays in Ireland Waterloo Action Centre Sunday 29 June at 11 a.m.

The wave of discontent and frustration of the membership with the delays and finally inadequacy of the Clegg Report forced a reluctant. leadership into mobilising a campaign around the demand for 18.6%.

Yet, from the beginning of the officiai action, there was Cleany a section oi the leaderAckland and Black, who were such determined to call off the action as soon as possible and accept the management offer of 14%.

Others on the Executive have gone along with the impetus to strike action but have latched upon every excuse, such as the problems of raising levies from some sections of the the allegations came from Rolls Royce stewards then the editors were thrown into blind panic.

Immediately, radio, TV and the press began debating with great ernestness whether parliamentary privilege should be abolished.

This may sound familiar. In April 1978 left wing Labour MPs used parliamentary privilege to publish the name of Colonel H.A. Johnstone (Colonel B), broadcast live by radio.

Early news TV spots and first editions of the papers published the name. The Director of Public Prosecutions immediately threatened to picsorule the press. claiming W namena ori ece lc not extend to any reports except Hansard What both cases have in common is that a privilege at first designed to protect the bourgeoisie has been used against it.

Whether or not Turner has been maligned without redress, the press has once again shown that its verbal commitment to increased power to publish and freedom of the press is a sham.

While an overt muzzle on the press would be dangerously tactless, there is no doubt that the press barons would prefer it to be reined in on a tight lead that would prevent it biting its owners and their allies and hirelings in the class war. membership, to restrict, deescalate and finally call off the campaign as soon as possible.

Compromising and prevaricating, they have prayed for an early result from the English arbitration process, to impose the same settlement upon their own membership.

The determination of the majority on the Executive to frustrate the militant mood of the membership springs from their fear not only of tackling the local authorities and the Tory government but also of permitting the emergence of a more democratic and militant union.

The struggle for democracy in the union must be carried forward through a campaign to change the constitution by abolishing the Council and creating a directly elected Executive, more responsive to the wishes of the membership.

Democratisation

At a local level this means the democratisation of the union structure in each area, especially in Glasgow, where the unwieldy Glasgow Local Association of 8,000 members is manipulated to prevent the growth of liaison between the representatives in different schools.

The process of democratisation, at local and national level, is inseparable from the growth of new leadership, through both official and unofficial channels.

This growth in militancy and trade union consciousness was not reflected in the decisions of last week's AGM at Stirling.

There, crucial resolutions on wages and conditions, such as that for a single salary scale with a common maximum and that for making a reduction in class ATONA INSTITUTE * S'COTLAN sizes a priority were defeated.

Time and again the majority of delegates supported the promanagement arguments of Keir Bloomer, the union's chief negotiator. who argued that nothing could be done because ot government imposed financial restrictions.

. Special interests One important reason for the unrepresentative nature of the AGM is the presence at Conference of delegates from special interest groups, the education sections, who are permitted separate representation at Council and Conference.

Yet, when a motion for the abolition of these rotten boroughs" was debated, many members of the SWP-dominated "Rank and File" voted against it, thus ensuring perpetuation of the present system.

Their arguments that the motion was instigated by the right wing and that "as long as the rotten boroughs exist we should use them to get more militant delegates to the Conference" should cut no ice.

It was an unprincipled vote which did nothing to advance the process of democratisation and politicisation of the union.

Undoubtedly the "Rank and File" group has over the years contributed to the development. of a more militant union with closer links with the trade union movement generally.

Debates

They have initiated significant debates on corporal punishment and sexism and racism in education.

They constitute an important vehicle for the transformation of the EIS which no militant can neglect. Yet the opportunism revealed in that vote at Conference exposes the limitations imposed upon the movement by the politics of the Socialist Workers Party, the dominant tendency in the "Rank and File"

This opportunism and confusion on crucial political questions is again revealed in their most recent publication, What is Rank and File?"

There the fight against the education cuts is restricted to the demand, albeit correct, of a public sector alliance. There is no mention of the pernicious role of social democracy in the shape of the Labour Regional Councillors who refuse to halt the education cuts or pay the teachers their salary claim.

Tory coat-tails

Hiding behind the coat-tails of the Tory government, these elected representatives of the working class try to cover up tea, to detend the social services against Tory attack.

Only through mobilising the membership alongside the trade union and labour movement against these traitors will a new leadership be built in the EIS based on the principles of revolutionary socialism.

The avoidance of this central issue-the political struggle against the Labour and trade union leadership-and the total immersion instead in a generalised militancy is the hallmark of the politics of the SWP, whose individual members, however well intentioned, are entrapped within the opportunist confines of that organisation.

EIS demonstrators in Glasgow

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Social Democracy (in Britain the Labour Party) b'ases itself on the idea of winning reforms for the working class by working within the capitalist system.

in Inis way, it is arguca, Wednesday

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the fact that they are reneging upon their promises, when elec-