"right to Work"- Letter and Reply

Scan page 7

• In the 28th Jan. issue you attack the Right to Work Campaign, which you allege is a purely IS campaign, on the grounds that it has no programme other than the vague slogal "fight for the right to work" and because it is based on 'the diversionary politics of "rank and file" or "right to work" committees which direct unemployed workers and youth away from the trade unions'. Instead of the Right to Work Campaign you advocate Trades Council unemployment subcommittees.

Inside the same issue, you report that as a result of WSL Hull Trades Council has adopted what • you call a "fighting programme" on unemployment. Two of the four demands which you single out as particularly important, are calls for a general ban on overtime, and that trade unions must have a veto on hiring, firing and the control of manning levels.

The truth is, however, that these ¡demands were proposed by members of the International Socialists through their trade union branches; and furthermore, that these points are taken directly from the programme of ... the Right to Work Campaign!

Your allegation that the RTWC is "diversionary" can now be seen for what it is, a sectarian excuse for not fully participating in an important initiative on the unemployment question, an initiative which, as you must know, is directed towards the labour movement, and in no way opposed to any initiatives by the Trades Councils or any other official body.

The need for rank and file organisation has been clearly demonstrated, however, by subsequent developments on the Hull Trades Council.

Your article failed to point out that a programme by itself is just a piece of paper; it needs active organisation to give it any meaning, and the bureaucracy of the trade union movement will do its utmost to prevent this.

This is what has happened in Hul, where the Trades Council leadership and TGWU officials have blocked even the circulation of the newly-adopted policy to affiliated branches!

Meanwhile, the Hull Right to Work Committee has mobilised unemployed workers for local action. And far from diverting the unemployed from the trade unions, the unemployed workers in the Committee will soon be banging on the doors of the Trades Council and asking them when they will stop talking abour unemployment and do something about it.

WSL members would be better off working in their local Right to Work Committees and getting trade union support for them, than engaging in artificial criticism of the International Socialists.

Yours fraternally, Martin Shaw.

Council delegate)

In reply to Comrade Shaw's letter we should like to consider some aspects of the activities of the International Socialists in and around the Hull Trades Council.

, Firstly, we do not have to make "artificial criticism of the International Socialists", , because it is what they have actually done in this area that exposes their lack of principles.

The Right to Work Campaign is for the IS a stunt and an adventurous diversion from carrying out a political struggle for a leadership that will challenge the hold of the bureaucracy and mobilise the trade unions in defence of workers jobs and wages.

To avoid such a fight they advocate instead "ad hoc bodies with no real base in the actual rank and file membership of the trade unions.

When our comrades on Hull Trades Council began a campaign! for the setting up of an unemployment sub-committee last summer the IS delegates to Trades Council attempted to prevent this and urged Trades Council instead to affiliate to the local Right to Work Committee, which at the time had no policy or programme.

This sort of unprincipled stand has been largely responsible for allowing the right wing dominated Executive to drag its feet over the unemployment issue.

Whilst our comrades have fought consistently in their union branches for socialist policies to combat unemployment the local IS [thiniy disguised as the Right to Work Committee] have been content to engage in stunt activities such as their recent occupation of the local Jobs Centre' • As if Hull workers had to be reminded that 15,000 of them can't find jobs and that every week. hundreds more face redundancy!

Instead of waiting patiently until unemployed workers "bang on the doors of Trades Council" what is needed is a principled campaign now against the union bureaucracy for a socialist programme based on transitional demands which will defend workers living standards and end unemployment.

Before the IS can be taken seriousiy by the labour movement in Hull they could be well advised to discontinue a method of work which allows them to write letters to the Hull Daily Mail condemning the Trades Council' President's use of the same capitalist newspaper to attack "left" wing extremists planning to take over Trades WSL members, on the other hand, fought for Trade Union branch motions condemning the President's press statement and one in particular from 10/76A T&GWU branch calling for Trades Council to condemn the press statement, was carried with a large majority at the last Trades Council full meeting on February 26th.

At the same meeting major amendments to Trades Council's twelve points on unemployment were called for from the regional committees of several unions, but these amendments were This was a victory for those who had fought for the original programme, but this programme can only have any meaning if it is taken back into the trade unions and fought for.

This means a determined fight against the bureaucracy and not an attempt to deny its existence and influence - otherwise the programme will become "just a piece of paper". The WSL's emphasis is continually on the fight to carry out policies - not simply talking abstract demands.

It will be interesting to see whether the IS delegates will carry out such a struggle for the Trades Council programme they claim to be largely responsible for • or whether they will continue to cling to their illusions in the vague catch-all policies of the Hull Right to Work Committee.

Judging by past performance, we would doubt whether they are able to break away from non-political protest, to seriously mobilise the working class.

Jeff Fowler, On behalf of Hull Branch WSL.