A chance to vote against Chapple's mer

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electricians' union EETPU) are entitled to vote in the important Executive Council elections currently under way.

Electrical and Plumbing are the sections involved with five out of 15 council seats falling vacant together so this vote actually covers one-third of the membership.

With just one executivé vote every five years an even greater urgency exists for the rank and file to kick Chapple and his 'gang of 13' out of office, Chapple nominees are as follows:

Merseyside: T. Breakell, (President EETPU): East Anglia and London: E. Clayton; South London and South East: E. Hammond (executive member who organised scabbing against the Isle of Grain picket); South New.

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Price 32p incl. p&p from WSL, BM Box 5277, London WCIN 3XX LIAISON COMMITTEE DISCUSSIOI BULLETIN No. 2 Articles on Nicaragua, Parity Commission and TILC Declaration Price 40p plus 15p p&p from WSL, BM Box 5277, London WCIN 3XX| Scottish Plumbers: H. Barlow.

All the above named must be opposed. EETPU members must grasp this opportunity and decisively reject Frank Chapple and his right wing clique on the executive:

Today workers seeking to safeguard their independent political and economic interests face an unprecedented dual assault. Not just from Thatcher's government of the rich, ruthlessly fueling inflation and unemployment but from union autocrats like Chapple who have junked any pretence to representing organised labour by the sheer magnitude of their betrayals.

That's why he:

*Branded striking hospital workers as "terrorists" during their low pay strikes of 1978.

*Effectively broke the DON'T GO HO Trial sub (Uk Six issues..

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1979 by a threatened ballot of EETPU members at the very paint the employer was caving *Initiated elitist private health-care for some higher grades-adding further to the demise of the NHS.

*Encouraged scabbing at the Isle of Grain so smashing the GMWU strike that promised to defeat the employer.

*During the marathon steel strike vetoed the right of 10,000 electricians to £1.8 million in strike pay.

Chapple has also declared his commitment to five years of Thatcherism even to the extent of circularising union members not to support the TUC's May 14 'Day of Action' while under Callaghan's Labour government he signed the Concordat as a 'dry run for Prior's notorious For a clear struggle againsi RATES:

£8.00 £14.00 £9.00 £10.00 Paths/one year WSL, BM Box 5277, London WCIN In, sharp contrast to Chapple's oft quoted; affinity with free trade unions' the EETU stands revealed as the most highly bureaucratised and undemocratic union affiliated to the TUC. The executive dominates at every level.

Officials

All 120 full-time officers from National to Branch are appointed to function: as directed by the Executive.

They are not accountable to the 450,000 strong rank and National conference resolutions are •contemptuously flouted as insignificant.

Militant branches such as Cardiff and Birmingham have experienced 'bureaucratic closure with elected members banned from holding office.

•Candidates for this year's executive election have not escaped obstruction. An executive circular claims to reinterpret the rules.

It states that:

"No branch can invite a candidate; no candidate can visit plants, sites or Industrial committees to electioneer; no member or member's supporters can send circulars, leaflets or letters on his behalf. No candidate can give interviews to the press."

To ignore this dictate runs the risk of the candidate being With workers by the thousand taking to the streets to oppose Tory policies there is plainly no lack of militancy in the organised working class.

Yet the existing trade union bureaucrats and Labour leaders -whether right or 'left'--have no perspective to offer those workers prepared to fight in defence of jobs, living standards, social services and demo.

cratic rights.

These can only be defended through policies which start from the independent interests of the working class, which, as an international class, has nothing to gain and everything to lose from attempts to restore the profitability of their "own"

employing class.

In a period where the contradictions of the anarchic capitalist system force the wholesale closure and destruction of" the productive forces of society, only. a socialist planned lists of regional branch meetings and times only after successful nomination, and less than three weeks before voting began.

This ruling effectively denies worker candidates the right to speak at more than 15 of the 60-350 divisional branches.

• The 500-word manifesto is also scrutinised, with some candidates already pointing to censorship by the executive.

Meanwhile Chapple's nominees get publicity in the union journal, Contact, all paid for by rank and file members-and in the mass media.

Fragmented

Unfortunately, left opposition remains fragmented with as many as three rank-and-file candidates in some regions. In fact only on the principle of open campaigning has agreement been reached (excluding the CP who confined themselves to the rules).

The SWP constitute the strongest challenge within the EETPU although they see the candidate as the property of the ánk and file movementpresumably the political programme is not as important as 'unity at all costs'!

Nevertheless it is essential that-all rank and file members vote against - Chapple's nominees.

Kick out the right wing!

economy on a world scale offers a way forward.

To achieve such a perspeçtive a leadership is needed which, in today's struggles fights to advance workers beyond trade union militancy, protest politics and illusions that capitalism can be abolished through parliament.

The Workers Socialist League is a Trotskyist movement fighting day in and day out to build such a principled leadership in the working class in Britain.

Internationally, are affiliated to the newly-formed Trotskyist International Liaison Committee, which fights for the reconstruction of the Fourth International and the building of revolutionary parties in every country to lead the struggle against imperialism and against the parasitic Stalinist bureaucracies in the deformed and degenerated workers' states.

We invite all readers of Socialist Press to 'seek more details of the WSL and its work, and to join us in the struggle for socialism.

Please send me more details of the Workers Socialist League.

Name:

Address Send to WSL: BM Box 5277, London WC1N 3XX

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