Scialisi Uc'80: Ril Have Smiled on Their for Wage Control.. on Their Knees to Thatcher!

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government. They яте neTAr- DuLI d ItABeren™n that the resulting composite motion passed by the TUC, vaguely talking of "a sustained and vigorous campaign of non-cooperation" with the Act, was so hollow that even the right wing AUEW and EEPTU leaders felt able to vote for it.

Tory Cash The fact is that AUEW President Terry Duffy has already made it clear that his union officials will cooperate with the Act, and even intend to take Tory cash to run their postal ballots!

Meanwhile, as the bosses' government steps up its offensive against the basic organisations of the labour movement, the union leaders are looking not for ways of defeating Thatcher and driving her from office, but for ways of forcing her into a "U-turn"

• To do this they have turned not to a mobilisation of the millions of workers already suffering the effects of Tory polisections of employers, who may but to disillusioned be angry that their cash handouts to the Tories have brought not instant profits but mounting TUC General Secretary Len Murray called upon, of all bodies, the Confederation of British Industry to:

"come out of its political corner and face the consequences for its own members of the government policies, and join us in getting the government to think again."

CBI members had "learned the hard way" that Tory policies meant cuts in profits and cuts in investment, whined IEuilay And to show that their concern for the plight of British capitalists is far greater than their interest in the plight of the unemployed and those workers facing speed-up as a result of the capitalist crisis, the TUC also pledged itself even more stridently than before to a nationalist policy of import controls to protect British manufactures against "foreign" competition. •"In case any workers believed for one moment that the TUC while throwing in the towel on union rights and jobs would be willing to fight on the wages front, the. Brighton Congress proved them three times wrong:

* The standing ovation given by the platform and the bulk of delegates to Callaghan's explicit call for a new social contract and five years of wage controls under a new Labour government was backed up by a resolution to that effect, carried by 5.3 million votes to 3.6 million.

Len Murray's speech reiterated that, while opposed to "crude" (undisguised) wage restraint, the TUC delegation to visit Thatcher in the next few weeks would discuss pay policy along with "anything with anybody at anytime"-in other words, would offer a social contract to the Tories as well as a Labour government. .. And while the TGWU cast its 2 million votes against the "social contract" proposals, TGWU leader Moss Evans declared that he would attend the TUC talks with Callaghan.

In other words, as their members battle to defend their living standards against runav inflation, the TUC leaders! are even now lining up Callaghan to prepare a new fi blooded five-year. package. wage controls under the gu of "a planned economy"

Propaganda

Such reactionary moves c only assist the Tory propagan drive designed to persua workers that "excessive pay demands" are the cause mass unemployment, and undi line the fact that workers w get no lead from the unic bureaucracy in the pay battl this winter.

But while they refused fight the Tories-with not single lead for action in a who week of hot air and arm-wavi -the union leaders eager threw their weight behind Call ghan's bid to restore the don nance of Labour's right win Callaghan's lengthy speec spelling out his unabashed adh rence to the self-same rea tionary policies that lost Labor the 1979 election, drew wil applause from the platform an a large majority of delegates while others sat in angry silenci Pulling no punches, Call ghan dwelt at length on tt need not only to uphold but 1 extend and tichten un tr vay hip ith ullof rise Callaghan Concordat drawn up • between the Labour government and the TUC to restrict picketing and strikes during the pay battles of 1978-79.

"What . we must know is within what code of discipline will you (the unions) work, and tive are you to make it effec.

In particular Callaghan suggested that unions should give powers to "special bodies" to control the actions of the rank and file and thus enforce the reactionary deals struck between top-level Labour and TUC leaders.

Of course there is no way that such deals could be maintained if the membership of the unions or the Labour Party were able to express their feelings in a democratic way.

This is why the Callaghan gang has consistently set its face against the democratic reforms to the Party constitution proposed by the left wing, and why he has been supported in this by a growing body of worried trade union leaders.

More Afraid The union bureaucrats are far more afraid of the strength and militancy of their members than they are of the Tory mined not to lose their control of the rank and file on which their power and privilege depends.

The standing ovation for Callaghan makes it clear that the prospects of a majority of union block votes being cast in favour of the Party reforms on the election of the leadership and control of the Manifesto are minimal.

United

In their capitulation to Thatcher and their search for a new social contract, the TUC leaders Labour's right wing stand united against the interests and independent struggles of their members on the shop floor of industry, in the public sector and on the growing dole queues.

The fight to stop the Tory offensive requires above all the struggle for a new, principled revolutionary leadership in the working class.

The Brighton Congress, which itself has done nothing to advance the class struggle, has at least served to underline this harsh fact.

We urge workers seeking a way forward against the Tories to join with Socialist Press supporters and the Workers Socialist League in the struggle to build

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Wednesday September 10th, 1980