Fighting Labour's Anti Union Laws (continued)

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EPPRESSIVE SOVERNMENT ACTION AGAINST TRADE UNIONS. SOGAT workers join the protest Act.

Castle's reluctance to revert to pre-1906 legislation was not because she was opposed in principle to letting the capitalist courts loose on the unions.

In her view the measure would simply not work because:

"The great majority of employers would probably not be prepared to sue unofficial strike leaders?!!

Similarly she held back from simply making secret ballots compulsory before all official strikes because she feared that this may not be effective.

Secret Ballots The use of the secret b lot, she argued, had to be very dective and tactical if it Wi i to genuinely benefit the employers.

If you were not careful, explained, it could end strengthening the resolve of workers!

"In major disputes, union members are very often more militant than their leaders, and are likely to be less closely in touch with the progress and prospects of negotiations.

"If the union leaders were always obliged to hold a ballot when using the strike threat in negotiations, they might well find their hands tied by a vote to strike...

"The power will be used where the Secretary of State believes that the proposed strike would be a threat to public interest, and there is doubt whether it commands the support of those concerned" she up the TOP In other words . a ballot would be ordered only when the Secretary of State is sure it would be certain to go the right way!

Another part of the White Paper proposed the establishment of a Commission on Industrial Relations (CIR). The function of this body would be to promote "reforms" of bargaining and procedural agreements, introduce forms of 'participation' , worker directors and new wage structures-particularly on a corporate basis.

Extension

The White Paper explains that it would be simila r to the National Board for Pr ices and In comes but would do : "different" job. It explains that its work would be a "novel extension of public (i.e. state) involvement in industrial relations in this country"

In addition to this, Castle proposed a new Registrar of Trade Unions and Employers Associations.

Unions would be required by law to register-and to do so they would be required to have a rule book which met government requirements in regard to discipline, elections, strike ballots and (very important) the appointment and function of shop stewards.

Castle claimed that the White Paper did not amount to an attack on the closed shop, but this was not the case. It had provisions to exempt those who objected on conscientious grounds not far removed from those in James Prior's "Employ; Croydon

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Although th today's positions and the internal SLL was heavily b it had achieved weight among ser working class: suf to put it in a pos effective demands munist Party.

The first m action against. the came in January SLL called for a d February 2: before the TUC v to discuss the Whit The CP then cal day national strike 27 itself. They wei split the act The problem w: ive weeks to 1 rational unofficial ifficult task indee Despite this t orted the strike c * CP and the SL action arou struck ei -te meetin := =he n Im apled → was there e roots of were present regime of the ureaucratised, • considerable ctions of the ficient weight sition to place on the ComMove towards : White Paper " 1969. The lemonstration 3-four days vere to meet e Paper. lled for a one: on February re determined ion in two. as it left only build for a strike-a very The SLL supall. With both L building for ind 100,000 and 3,000 rajor parts of tivated by the le Liverpool unity ma= we after the Februi ' = in a principled in action, the = ch 8) made the * = 22 •Teal Committee of mutes that the next right against the Wednesday 2 July, Th- STATEMENT BY THE POIT.

THE MOGET Castle and British espitatise Most dice pase CREWE, STORKE ONY he Love anti-union laws should be a one-day strike on May 1. We will work to make this a success, and we are open now as always to any suggestions which may come from the CP or others in relation to the possibility of a more suitable date being selected for the demonstration"

The SLL then began a very strong campaign for the strike. The CP, however, equivocated throughout, although belatedly they were forced to back the action and bring forces out.

They equivocated at the conference of the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions on April 12, where they refused to put May 1 on the declaration-simply calling for support for May Day marches (called on a Sunday) and for a lobby of the Labour Party conference in September!

The declaration then went on in even more dangerous language:

'The TUC General Council must be called upon to give leadership in action to the whole trade union movement. The General Council should a) recall the 1968 TUC and b) recommend the calling of a 24 hour national strike"

But the real issue was May 1 and action against the Bill. It was correct to call on the TUC to recognise May 1, but not to pick an alternative date in the indefinite future.

The question was maximum action on May 1 followed by a Vot. 12, No. 648 IF DAILY WUR LEAGL pres 19, 1960 Serge's April... Book RaM!

Price Bd. Comrade Tutayer' WEEl! Opportunists and Ford strike END Sy Darte Mend FEARS FOR MARK Brakes n General Strike.

The position of the union leaders could not have been more clear.

Even AUEW President Hugh Scanlon who was actually to back action two years later against Tory anti-union legislation, was consistently refusing to back any action against the Labour government of Wilson and Castle. Union after union was condemning May 1.

Two weeks later the TUC conceded one of the Stalinist demands and attempted to head off the May 1 mobilisation by calling for an emergency TUC conference on June 5.

Their motive was not to call their own day of action. They had something quite different in mind as was soon to emerge.

When the June 5 conference was announced the SLL added it to their main General Strike slogan for May 1.

They called a mass lobby Croydon conference.

Despite the LCDTU, the May 1 strike was very big for an unofficial action--mobilising almost a quarter of a million workers.

100,000 workers stopped work in London. Building sites, docks and national newspapers were hit. 15,000 marched to the TUC where acting General Secretary Vic Feather agreed to see a delegation. 10,000 car workers struck in Oxford..

40,000 workers struck Wilson Liverpool and 10,000 marched to the Pier Head. Docks, major construction sites, Dunlops, Fishers and the Shell oil refinery were out. Ford factories, port workers and rail workers struck and joined the march.

The mood of the demonstrations was militant, and the call was for a general strike to stop the bill-a slogan very effectively advanced by the SLL.

The Merseyside mass rally passed the following resolution:

"This mass meeting congratulates all those who came out on strike today ... It further calls for support for the demonstration to the TUC on June 5 in Croydon to demand that the TUC call a general strike to defeat the anti-union laws"

The SLL was responsible for this motion. They had campaigned hard on May 1 to turn the whole mobilisation towards June 5.

But already on May 1 the CP were shifting their ground. The limited unity won between the SLL and the CP during the May 1 campaign was to quickly turn to bitter confiontation.

Even on May I itself CP speakers who dominated many of the marches and platforms began to call merely for a campaign to get the penal clauses out of the Bill.

They came out in opposition to strike action on June 5 and called instead simply for a lobby of the Croydon Conference.

1,000 workers lobbied the Special Conference at the Fairfield Hall. The SLL mobilisation was almost as big as the CP's and since the SLL was better organised it dominated the lobbying.

As the day went on clashes between the SLL and CP reached the point of physical attack by the CP on the SLL speaker van from which they were being denounced.

Inside the hall, Feather was outlining his proposals. There was "good and bad" in the Bill he said and we had to get rid of the "bad" parts-the penal clauses.

In order to induce Wilson and Co. to accept this he proposed that the unions do the Job themselves! The union leaders would police the membership to make it unnecessary for the state to do so!

Feather explained to the conference that the General Council had worked out proposals which he thought would be more effective than the government proposals in controlling strikes and class action.

He said the General Council had proposals for:

avoiding and settling disputes and, where necessary for disciplining members who refused to accept the democratic procedures of the movement."

In other words, proposals for discipling union members who refused to accept the dictatorship of their officials and insisted on defending their wages and conditons!

He said the F&GP of the General Council would "deal with' national disputes, and that local committees would be set up to deal with smaller disputes.

Where workers defied these committees, individual unions, he said, would have to commit themselves to taking action against them under their own rules.

It was clear, he said, that people who acted in defiance of union authority had:

"set their own interests above those of their fellow members, and therefore must accept the judgement of their colleagues"

Scanlon spoke fully supporting the proposals of the TUC. Then came the left cover:

"If in spite of what we are attempting to do the government persists in introducing the penal clauses, I believe this now united trade union movement cannot content itself with passing resolutions"

Photo: Laurie Sparham IFL Scanlon The positions of Scanlon and Feather spell out the division of labour in reformism. While Feather-like Castle and Wilson -seeks ways and means of assisting the employer to control the working class, Scanion, representing the left' wing of reformism, seeks ways and means of diverting the mass rank and file opposition that had emerged on May 1.

Yet both the right and left' of the TUC agreed with Castle on one thing-that the working classR must be obliged to shoulder the cost of the capitalist crisis.

And they agreed that it was better for this attack to be carried through by trade union and labour bureaucrats rather than by the open intervention of the capitalist state.

Outside the hall a battle was being fought. Whilst Feather inside was saying that there was good and bad in Castle's proposals, the CP Stalinists were saying outside that there was good and bad in Feather's proposals-at least, they said, it would keep things off the statute book.

In the afternoon the SLL called on all those opposed to the sell-out to join them in a march through the town and a rally to discuss the developments of the day.

The Stalinists opposed such a move and Kevin Halpin, on behalf of the Liaison Commitstand id upon the the sto move.

In fact half the lobby responded, and a demonstration and rally of 500 was held.

SLL speakers said that whereas the Communist Party had come to Croydon simply to protest about the sell-out, the SLL had come to fight it.

As an SLL speaker myself at that rally Í made a comment which is ironic when looked at now against the background of my own struggles against victimisation in 1974 when Wilson came back to power, and more recently in the attempts to expel me from the TGWU.

"The TUC proposals", I said at the rally, "are the slippery slope leading to the removal of militants from office in the unions and their eventual expulsion".

With the advantage of hindsight that point is even clearer today. The Croydon conference confirmed beyond doubt the commitment of the British trade union bureaucracy to propping up capitalism in crisis.

In this task it cemented the working relationship between the trade union leaders and the Parliamentary leaders of social democracy-a relationship that has since cost the working class dearly in lost jobs, social services and living standards.

The other effect of the Bill was to prepare the ground thoroughly for the Tories when they came to power in June 1970.

The precedent of anti-union legislation was set and they could quickly begin to model their notorious Industrial Relations Act on the foundations begun by Labour left' Barbara Castle.

Next week:

Why Castle's plan was dropped - and how it ives on today.

Scan page 8

Private eye up against the argained the union-busters JOHN LISTER reviews 'October Heat', a novel by Gordon DeMarco (Germinal, $ 8.50 hardback).

Page In a socialist-written detective thriller in which there are plenty of (dead)

bodies, it is not a little unfortunate that the first body to be described is that of the mysterious but very much alive Lana Birdwell:

"The door opened and in glided hundred-and-fivepounds of the slickest giftwrapped frail my tired, wet eyes had seen since Hector was i pup. She was a tall job with plenty of fahrenheit"

With this brief passage hero/ narrator/detective Rilcy Kovachs betrays himself a run of the mill 1934 sexist.

Obsessed

Within a few more pages it has become plain that he fancies himself as the left wingers' Philip Marlowe, that he tends to be obsessed with expressing the most mundane statements in the most tortuous and contrived terminology, and that-to make matters worse-he is keen on that most indecipherable of American institutions, the "ball game"

Yet for all these considerable faults October Heat is, for those that persevere, an intriguing attempt at combining fact and Carl Djerassi, as one of the scientists who developed "the Pill" , has an axe to grind-and this seems to be his primary purpose in writing this book.

He feels that the Pill has been denounced and abused unfairly because of public ignorance.

For him the "politics of contraception" means the way in which the media, the politicians, feminists and fiction, politics and detective drama.

Contred in California its action takes place in the aftermath of the great 1934 San Francisco longshoremen's strike in which 100,000 dockers newly organised into the ILA battled eleven weeks against a vicious union-busting • employers' allance and their own bureaucratic leaders, to secure recognition, wage increases and a coastwide agreement.

General Strike The strike was the biggest in the USA since the Scattle Gencral Strike of 1919.

Coming at the same time as the militant Trotskyist-led unionisation battles of Teamster truck drivers in Minneapolis, and the breakthrough in unionisation in the car industry in the Toledo Auto Lite strikes, this blow at the employers underlined the. growing militancy and self confidence of the American working class.

As such it prompted still more desperate mcasures by the employers-with the fostering of extreme right wing and fascist currents utilised to physically attack and intimidate trade union organisers and communists.

And at the same time it to information and knowledge not easily obtained by the mass of the population. But he has a rare quality in scientists-the ability to impart this information in a fascinating and comprehensive manner.

All women who are faced with bewildering and contradictory information about birth control would be interested in this book. narr provided the basis for a populist wing of the Democratic Party to put itself forward as the representative of the American worker.

While President Franklin D.

Roosevelt tried to please both capital and labour by promising to resolve the problems of the depression through his 'New Deal" , others went even further in their efforts to win the electoral support of the working class and thus wall off any political break from capitalist central to the plot of Cantal 1 T- -October Heat is the 1934 gubernatorial election in California in which one such "progressive"

candidate, Upton Sinclairpledged to release class war prisoner Tom Mooney from jail -challenges the openly reactonary governor who has stood foursquare behind the employers' union-busting drive on the docks.

Desperate

As extreme right wing fears grow that Sinclair might win, they resort to a desperate plot to assassinate him. They are rumbled by a longshore militant -who is murdered.

Kovachs is framed for the murder. As he probes deeper into the case he lurches from ulariy with long-term use.

He is so busy defending the Pill (devoting a whole chapter to "The Fear of Cancer") that he doesn't get round to looking at the much more important question of why and how bourgeois politicians seek to control the availability of birth control and thus control women.

The use and abuse of birth control in underdeveloped countries is another major aspect of the "politics of contraception" which Djerassi touches on. the violence of the union-busters to the violence of the police. He becomes increasingly committed to the struggle of the union militants and thusimplicitly -to their support for Sinclair.

Yet the novel's restricted terms of reference render it a blunt instrument for revealing any reai political insight into the comings and goings all around.

the events are described only through: the eyes of Kovachs-whose class instincts, while generally correct, are by no means adequate to comprehend the nature of Sinclair's And for the same reason we have only a hopelessly idealised picture of longshoremen's leader Harry Bridges, who; under the influence of Stalinism, was by the late 1930s to become an extreme patriot. During World War 2 Bridges argued for the unions to become "instruments of speed up" and imposed no-strike clauses on his members.

Incomplete

We could not of course expect an ordinary-if rather wordy -private investigator of 1934 to anticipate Bridges' subsequent political degeneration. The book thus rings true to life, but offers only a very incomplete part of a much richer and more complex picture.

October Heat is clearly the result of much research and painstaking work to evoke the atmosphere of the period.

It is unfortunate, therefore, that the only character who attains any form of solidity is the evasive Riley Kovachs.

But then it is also unfor(Norton, £6.50). tunate that the first of what promises to be a new wave of novels from a group of socialist writers on the West Coast of the USA should be so heavily derivative from Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels.

Nevertheless, October Heat makes a good read. It is not often you hear a private investigator tell you that:

"It brought back memories of the days when I was a part of the drive to unionise the rubber shops in Ohio"

When one does, it is taking notice.

'October Heat' can be Lobtained from Germinal Press, 209 Prospect St, San Francisco 94110, USA.

reviews "The

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