[Plans to close the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson women's…]

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Plans to close the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson women's hospital in London have been longer against the eventual resiting of the EGA at the Whittington, but that it was the details of the short term that were being disputed. recruitment areas is within the Post Office.

Clearly any action to be taken against South Africa needed major campaign within the union to fight the Front's poison wherever it appeared.

Instead Jackson handed to all racialists and fascists a club with which to beat the union.

It is in this circular, sent out after the blacking had been cancelled, outlining action taken against black trade unionists in South Africa. Even this statement contains nationalist and racialist material.

"Remember too that large British firms are investing heavily in South Africa because of the cheap labour available. Every job created by a British firm in South Africa could be one created in Britain to ease our unemployment problem.

He claims also that the union has been successful, even after calling off the blacking since:

"We have been informed by the PTTI that our union has had worldwide publicity for its stand"

Jackson also states:

"The Executive Council have been accused of dabbling in international politics. This is not true[!] ... We were and are, involved in assisting workers everywhere to obtain democratic trade union rights. This is not politics.

He makes it clear that union officials have lost "not one minutes time" from their "prime trade union jobs" through the blacking call.

That is not even one minute was spent in campaigning for support within his own union.

What their time was spent doing is clear. In the second circular Jackson states:

"Immediately after the Grunwick dispute in November last year it became clear to the union that our right to take sympathetic action was under challenge"

A little later it states this even more is ly. "This extremist group which took action against the UPW in the Courts is very anti trade union. It was always possible that they would try to take action against us on the South Africa issue.

Had we pulled away from our international trade union obligstions on the basis that this organisation might attack us then we would have constantly been prevented from taking any action on behalf of our members"

In the longer document Jackson says:

"It was at no time the intention of the Executive Council to take action which was illegal."

Taken together these statements stand as an indictment against Jackson and the Executive. Socialist Press readers should be forming their own Opinion - Is Jackson an idiot who fell into an elementary legal trap, or has he seized his chance to become the first union bureaucrat to enlist the aid of the law to ban strikes in his union?