CPSA witch hunt against strikers

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More than six police duty outside Brixton unemployment office STATEMENT YEAH, SO LONG MADE A BIG AS THOSE POLISH THE MEMBERS WRECKERS ARENT Under the threat of' another militant mass picket the Department of Employment moved with amazing rapidity to reinstate Phil Corddell and Richard Cleverley hours before the picket started-an obvious and clumsy attempt to defuse a situation which was growing more entrenched and bitter by the hour.

The reinstatements were. however, hedged around with "conditions" The striking CPSA members are still out after being informed by management that a further five of them in addition to the two reinstated are to be disciplined by being. transferred to other offices from the Brixton Unemployment Renefit Office HALL VILLA Corddell and Cleverley themselves are to be reemployed only if they accept a final warning.

While management have been pushed back from a position of sackings they have carte blanche to frame both men at a time and place of their own choosing.

CPSA General Secretary Ken Thomas, weighed in with a vicious witch-hunt against the SWP (both Corddell and Cleverley are members). Thomas launched an attack on Labour MPs Stuart Holland and Reg Race for publicising and attending the mass pickets. He issued an all-members circular vilifying the unofficial strikers and abusing the SWP. 0000 #00000 DO H'MMM 0000000 GREETINGS COMRADE, ON THE RIGHT HERE, YOULL SEE THAT'S JUST COMRADE KLEMENS... HE ARRANGES UNION HEADQUARTERS. OUR CONFERENCE AGENDAS -BUT FINALLY.. IT IS THE UNANIMOUS VIEW OF THIS TUC. DELEGATION THAT THE POLISH WORKERS SHOULD CONTINUE THEIR STRIKES INDEFINITELY!! WHAT? ITEFUL He goes so far as to imply that tha "haunding nut" of all "hounding out" communist militants from the union must be on the agenda for the not-too-distant future.

. Safe in the knowledge that he has the right wing NEC behind him, Thomas is embarking on a campaign to whip into line all branches and area committees that have supported the Brixton members (now in their eighth week of unofficial strike action).

Whilst Thomas sees to things within the CPSA, the TUC itself has taken up the attacks on Holland and Race. Fearful of any link up between the Labour lefts and workers in struggle Len Murray has entered the fray with an attack he would never dream of making on Tory MPs.

Holland and Race have argued that Prior's law must be opposed on the streets. All that the TUC is proposing ate its Congress is to "monitor" the Employment Bill, to act as a faithful recorder of the number of workers arrested in each area.

Thomas' letter to the membership is unprecedented in the degree of its arrogance and bile.

Amid dismissive references to "the dafter end of the political spectrum" he says that groups like the SWP have so far been tolerated, "initially with amusement... but in recent years, because of our tolerance, they have increasingly and totally unrepresentatively misused the machinery of this union, as a result of which our name has sometimes been a joke in the trade union movement"

ONLY SHOP JUST LOOK AT THAT SHOPWHO SAID WERE SHORT OF FOOD?

(WELCOME HOME, O'FISHALL. YOUR IMPACT WITH The letter is ludicrously entitled "A Victory for our Union" and Thomas uses all the italics and underlining possible in a desperate bid to prove that industrial action did not win reinstatement.

After a hard day's grovel with his cap clenched firmly in his hand it must be galling. for Thomas to realise that it was determined rank and file action that produced the concession.

Thomas says the CPSA must be united to continue the fight against the 100,000 job cuts in the civil service-but he has not lifted a finger to oppose either the cuts already made or those just around the corner.

CPSA members must draw out the lessons of this dispute both in terms of government and union leadership.

The 'conditions' must be fought all along the line. In addition Thomas and the right wing puppets of the NEC must be kicked out.

In Thomas' case an immediate campaign for his resignation must be initiated in all branches which have supported Brixton. At the end of his letter Thomas says that he will "slip back into the faceless role of General Secretary" . This is one hit and run merchant who must not be allowed to creep back into the sanctity of his cosy office.

SO HERE'S YOUR HOTEL. I'M SURE IT'S UP TO YOUR TUC STANDARDS, EH?

YOU'RE ON THE 37TH FLOOR WORKING, THEY CAN'T BE FLOODING THEIR CHEAP FOREIGN IMPORTS!