Oxford March Defies Right Wing

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Over 150 trade unionists, students and housewives joined the demonstration against the cuts called by Oxford Trades Council last week - the best such march through the town for several years.

The strong response was a vindication of the Trades Council's decision to defy the organised disruption and sabotage of its work by right-wing and Stalinist delegates (as reported in Socialist Press 29) and to press ahead with action against the cuts.

The day before the march, over 40 delegates turned out to a wellattended Trades Council meeting and voted overwhelmingly to reject a TUC letter "advising" the Council to cease operations until the verdiet of a TUC inquiry into its affairs was Known. The same meeting further decided to proceed in one month with its Annual General Meeting, disrupted in February when 18 right-wing and CP delegates walked out led by Trades Council President Joe Richards, while 37 delegates remained in the meeting.

The frenzied antics of a bloc of Stalinists and right wing to prevent any leadership being given in the fight against social service cuts and redundancies have continued intervening period.

While on the one band Richards • a Stalinist - has made repeated press statements as Trades Council President calling on delegates "not to attend" constitutional Trades Council meetings, jocal bureaucrats and centrally the NUPE leadership have also attempted to erect a direct rival to the Trades Council in the form of a so-called "joint trade union committee of public service unions"

In every one of these manoeurres. the narrow base of support on which the right wing and Stalinist local bureaucracy rest within their branches is exposed. This accounts for their fright at the very idea of calling even a protest demonstration or rally. They know all too well they have no policies to present, while there are forces coming forward in the town prepared to challenge for leadership:

The success of the Trades Council demonstration under these conditions is a crucial blow against the right wing and the Communist Party. To defend themselves they are now forced to resort to even more bureaucratic lengths in the repression of trade union democracy, and in attempts to smash the Oxford Trades Council. they did succeed in suppressing discussion of a motion to set up an action committee to contact other trades councils and try to carry the struggle to a national level.

It now emerges that despite their inability to sway the Trades counci, the stalinists are organising for branches to be circulated with a letter stating that the branch can only send delegates if they accept Rule 14.

Militants in the Camden area must organise to give the TUC/ Stalinist bloc the massive defeat tney deserve.

Indeed, the Stalinists seemed to have little support except for their own members and the right wing. A scandalous exception to this was the WRP member of the Trades Council, who stood up to be counted with the CP in their attempt to help the TUC suppress independent initiatives in the working class!

FOOTNOTE Further indication of the WRP's growing contempt for even the most basic elements of workers democracy was Sunday's conference of their front, the "All Trades Union Alliance".

This conference had invited trade union branches to send delegates but when of the two delegates elected from the NUJ Book Branch arrived with credentials at the door, he was refused admission, though no reason for this was given.

This kind of behaviour from group calling itself Trotskyist is unparallelled in today's workers' morement.