LaDoul ... gag rule used
Socialist Press1977 1977-11-23Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 5 →
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PHOTO: Chris Davies, Report must be called on to declare support and to campaign actively for the setting up of councils of action in each area with the perspective of strengthening the firemen's strike, and bringing out other sections of workers on their own claims alongside the FBU.
The "lefts' evasions on those questions will confirm the need for an alternative leadership in the organised labour movement.
PHOTO: Chals Devies, Report Kinnock PHOTO: John Sturock, Report Eighteen months ago the notorious 'gag' rule 15 was bureaucratically imposed on Trades Council constitutions.
It forbade Trades Councils to cooperate with any organisation whose policies are contrary to the reactionary policies adopted by TUC And it gave dictatorial powers to Trades Council Chairmen to suppress discussion and even bar delegates regarded as "disrupters".
Now simiar moves are being made in London by Labour Party bureaucrats anxious to hold back the growing tide of workers' struggles.
The Executive Committee of the Greater London Regional Labour Party has this month endorsed a letter from an affiliated union which asks that before giving moral or financial support in industrial disputes they should seek advice from the "union" concerned, by which the Labour bureaucrats mean union officials.
Already this policy has been used in North Islington Labour Party to rule out of discussion a resolution from two wards calling for MP O'Halloran to support the tunnellers' dispute and himself attend the picket line.
The policy probably originated from APEX bureaucrats outraged at labour movement mobilisation over Grunwicks.
Most Labour Parties would probably disregard the circular.
The tunnellers' dispute, against the use of lump labour by a Murphy firm of subcontractors, was particularly embarrassing to "Murphy's-man" O'Halloran.
Trades Councils for the most part ignore Rule 15. But Stalinist-dominated Islington Trades Council has used it on a number of occasions to rule fighting resolutions out of order.
The rule is a dangerous precedent for bureaucrats to have up their sleeves, and must be explicitly rejected by London CLPs.
Berry is accused of giving Campbell and Aubrey information about the operations of the Government Communications Headquarters.