Right wing fail in CPSA plot PHOTO: Andrew Wiard. Report
Socialist Press1977 1977-11-23Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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The rules revision conference. of the CPSA, meeting , in Southport defeated last Monday a campaign of a highly organised extreme right wing group aiming to introduce postal ballots for the election of the Executive Committee.
This move, which had the cordial support of Bernard Levin, the Tory Party and every right winger who thought he could gain office through Fleet Street witch-hunts, was roundly defeated on a card vote by 116,094 to 94,793.
MIRROR This represented an even worse defeat for the right wing than it may appear, since a two-thirds majority the other way would have been necessary to bring about the change.
Vetted
The right wing group in the CPSA, which with 200,000 members is the largest of the civil service unions, is based solidly on the carefully vetted Civil Servants who work in the Ministry of Defence and other "security" sections.
The right wing group produces well printed material and is said to be financed by the notorious Truemid organisation.
Since the right wing seized contral in May last, it has fought to make the union less democratic and has tried to sack at least one union officer because he is a supporter of the Militant paper.
The left wing opposition which is a confused amalgam of Communist Party members with Militant support and to a less extent the SWP, spent most of the conference attacking the right wing for niceties of constitutional procedure, without dealing with the real issues of wages and the fight against the 10% limit.
Something of the real feelings of delegates could be seen from the standing ovation which greeted an exfireman member who spoke on the FBU case.
First to suffer The phoney campaign"Week of Action"-for next week demanding the restoration of the 'pay research unit' will do little to tackle the real issue of Civil Servants' wages when they are always the first to suffer under government pay A campaign is essential on such questions around demands for direct negotiations and strike action where necessary as well as for a sliding scale of wages and of public spending if conditions are to be improved and victories over the right wing are to be consolidated.