The present attack on the AUEW flows directly out of the struggle at the time of the freeing of the "Pentonville Five". The failure of the trade union leadership to turn that great upsurge into a struggle to smash the Industrial Relations Act and the Tory Government, allowed the ruling class to resume more or less at once its attack on the trade union movement. The House of Lords decision itself, that trade unions as a whole and not individual militants were legally responsible for strike action, was designed to strengthen the attack.
It had never been the Government's intention to proceed mainly by imprisoning or fining individuals. Such a policy would be certain to produce the greatest possible explosion of the working class. The idea was to hit - particularly with fines - the national organisation of the unions. This is in line with the Government's aim of forcing the trade union leadership to police their own members. Hence the £55,000 fine on the TGWU or the £60,000 extracted from the Engineers.
NON-RECOGNITION The line of the TUC against the Industrial Relations Act was to try to ignore it, by non-recognition, in the hope of the speedy return of a Labour government which would repeal The last few weeks have seen more money coming in. We have crossed the halfway mark and the Fund Drive total now stands at:
£5,136 Meanwhile more militants from the labour movement have signed the appeal which was published in the last issue of the paper, and which appealed to all revolutionaries and socialists in Britain to help make the newspaper into a weekly and contribute to the £10,000 Fund Drive". They are:
Coilean Simpson-building labourer (T&GWU shop steward)
Norman Wright-docker (T&GWU shcp steward)
Bill Yates-tinsmith (shop steward)
Andy O'Brien (NUPE shop steward)
R.F. Parker (NUPE shop steward)
Martin Timmins-welder (Chairman, Basingstoke branch, Boilermakers Union)
If you would like to contribute, please fill in the form below.
Fill in this form and send to: FUND DRIVE, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1. (Cheques should be made out to The Red Mole).
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meets any financial need. anywhere Engineers lobby AUEW leadership for action the laws against the trade unions. This 'strategy' of the TUC was doomed to failure. It is of course correct to refuse to appear before the NIRC, but this can only be done within a policy of attempting to destroy the Act. If no real struggle is waged then all the strategy of non-recognition means is a pie in the sky attempt to ignore the real world. In practice, while you may try to ignore the Act, the Act does not ignore you. The TWU fine soon demonstrated this point. They brought the whole strategy of the TUC crashing down. The AUEW leadership, to its credit, has at least so far attempted to carry out a policy of refusing to deal with the Court. Almost all the other major unions gave even that up at the first attack. By not paying the fines the AUEW leadership effectively called the NIRC to battle. What it is to be criticised for is not having any effective strategy for victory. CRITICISMS At the time of the original struggle against introduction of the Act, the AUEW was one of the few union leaderships to show even the signs of a real fight. The one-day strikes called on March Ist and March 18th of 1971 were the two main nationally organised actions against the Act. But that was only one side of the AUEW's policy. The other side was shown in the two most important disputes it has been involved in over the last two years - the struggle at Ford's and then the national engineering claim of 1972. At Ford's the union executive in fact carried out one of the main provisions of the Industrial Relations Act, by enforcing a secret ballot to decide on a settlement. In the case of the Engineers' pay claim, the union leadership, instead of leading a national struggle, left individual areas to fight it out alone. This led to severe defeats in areas like Manchester.
In this situation, where the AUEW leadership has appeared to show some fight on certain issues, but backpedalled on others, it is very important to sort out what are correct criti81 Park Avenue North, London N. 8 Dear Comrade Editor, November 30th next year (1973), will mark the 50th anniversary of the death of John MacLean, the courageous and beloved revolutionary, who was at the centre of the struggles on "Red Clydeside", during and after the First World War. He died in 1923, his health broken by his experiences in prison and his intense political work. But unless some steps are taken this anniversary will go almost unmarked. MacLean's contribution to the working class movement, and the political ideas for which he stood have been almost forgotten, he is at best remembered as an ikon, who epitomised the spirit of the Clyde, but whose role and ideas are neither discussed nor understood.
And yet MacLean has increasing relevance. A discussion of his contribution raises a number of vital questions. What can be learned from MacLean's fight for an anti-imperialist stance by the labour movement during the World War? What was the influence of MacLean as a theoretician and Marxist teacher compared to that of the shop stewards in the shipyards and factories, and how did he influence them? What can we learn from MacLean about the relationship between revolutionary intellectuals and the working class? Why did MacLean refuse to join the Communist Party of Great Britain? What was NO PAY NO RETARA cisms of it and what are not. Nobody with a grain of sense can believe that the AUEW by itself can defeat the Act. The real criticism to be made of the AUEW leadership however is two-fold. First of all, their entire policy of hinging everything round non-recognition has fostered illusions that it was possible to simply ignore the NIRE while waiting for some future government to repeal it. Secondly, now that the AUEW is under attack, the leadership is not taking the steps necessary to extend the struggle to the point where the Act can be defeated. It is on these grounds that the union leadership must be criticised.
THE MILITANTS Since the Goad fine, militants in many aréas have been taking strike action. This action is vital for starting the fight. But it is not possible for local action by itself to defeat the Industrial Relations Act and the Government. The response of the AUEW executive in only calling for locally organised initiatives is therefore totally inadequate.
Nationalaction is necessary, not just against the fine but against the Act itself, and in the present situation only the AUEW executive is in a position to organise such action. This is absolutely necessary as the start of a campaign to involve other unions in the struggle. This in turn is the next step for fighting the present attack. Such a policy has two prongs. The first is for the AUEW to approach all other unions at national level for action. The second is to build on the solidarity which has already developed at local level.
The need for local co-ordination and solidarity flows naturally out of the situation in the plants themselves. In most key plants other unions organise alongside the AUEW. In many cases, these other unions, at a local level, have supported the AUEW-initiated strikes. It would be easy to put out a call for such local solidarity to be organised more permanently and on an area basis, by conferences of local trade unionists which would plan out the next step in the struggle against the Act.
JOHN MACLEAN MEMORIAL YEAR the detailed background to this important as pect of the history of the working class movement in Britain? Why did MacLean, almost alone, place the national struggle in Ireland between 1919 and 1921, at the centre of his propaganda and agitation? What lessons can we draw for the attitude of contemporary revolutionaries to the present round of struggle in Ireland? Why did MacLean call for a Worker's Republic of Scotland? Can a nationalist stance in Scotland and Wales be consistent with a socialist programme?
I would like, through your paper, to appeal for support from all those in England and Wales who are interested in some activity to mark the 50th anniversary of MacLean's death. Let next year be "John MacLean Memorial Year", there should be a series of activities to commemorate his work, to promote the publication of his writings, and to promote the broadest possible discussion about the man and his ideas. Already I have been pledged support by a number of individuals who are well known for their work in the labour and socialist movement. Also the John MacLean Society in Scotland has decided to organise activities in MacLean's native country. Anyone interested should write to me at the above address; in Scotland they should write to Nan Milton, Atholl Cottage, Westfield nr. Bathgate, West Lothian. Yours fraternally, Bob Purdie.
The Next Step By MIKE FITZGERALD and COLIN SMITH December 13th saw 180,000 hospital ancillary workers engaged in strikes and demonstrations to protest against their frozen pay claim. This the first time that such widespread action has hit the health service. But union leaders are now sitting back congratulating themselves on their success in regaining the initiative from sections of militant rank and file workers who are still in the process of forming a national organisation (National Alliance of Stewards for Health Workers - NASH).
These latter will have to make a sober analysis of these events if they are to carry the struggle against the freeze further. It is true that the action on December 13th was the result of the union bureaucracy's fear of further independer action by their members, and that a significant minority of workers took up NASH's call for a 24-hour strike rather than the official token half-day affair. Nevertheless most ancillary workers are still unprepared to go beyond the limits laid down by their official leaders. The militants have been unable to sustain the struggle enough to make their projected week of action from Dec 29 - Jan 4th really effective.
NEED FOR ORGANISATION Calls to action by unofficial bodies will meet with no response unless backed up by a solid organisation at the base. NASH's problem is not that it doesn't have a clear perspective on paper of what needs to be done, but its failure actually to get its message over to the mass of ancillary workers through systematic interventi in the demonstrations, mass meetings, union branches, etc.
However it NASH's failures are partly the resul of its members inexperience and lack of resources the main reason must be attributed to the objective difficulties in organising ancillary workers whose traditional passivity has many origins. The vicious circle of low pay attractin female and immigrant labour, the ideological hold of the 'service and help ethic which ren ders them so vulnerable to moral blackmail, an the present structure of the unions in which th shop steward system is still woefully weak in many hospitals due to the highly centralised bargaining structure of the Whitley Council all these factors make NASH's tasks extremely difficult, the more so because of their urgency However the weakness of hospital workers mak it all the more important for militants from the rest of the labour movement to come to their support. The success of stage one of the freeze depends on defeating those weakly organised sections of workers whose claims were at the head of the pipeline when the freeze was impo ed, thus boosting the ruling class's confidence when it has to take on the militant sections of the class after February.
SUPPORT COMMITTEES NUPE is balloting its members this week on what further action to take. Although the ballot, with nine different alternative courses proposed, is designed to create confusion and divisions and thus channel militancy into the least effective directions, it is certain that ancillary workers will be engaging in militant action in the very near future. Wherever they do it is vital that support committees be organised to overcome their inexperience, lack of economic strength, and vulnerability to manipulated 'public opinion' and thus prevent demoralisation and defeat. These committees -based on trade union branches, local stewards' committees, political groups, students, etc., can at least raise money, join picket lines, distribute rank and file papers and hopefully take up NASH's call for solidarity action from other sections of workers. In particular as man rank and file health workers as possible must b urged to attend the national conference of NA. to ge held on January 2lst where a strategy fo carrying forward and widening the struggle in the Health Service will be hammered out. Fraternal delegates will be welcome from outside the NHS unions.
As well as the freeze, health workers and the rest of the working class must be prepared to fight against the attacks on the NHS contained the Government's proposals for its reorganisati These are part of a general strategy of running the NHS at minimum cost with minimal servic while expanding the private sector for the bene fit of those who can afford private insurance. To discuss how to combat the effects of reorga isation and the rest of the ruling class's strateg) for Health, a conference has been organised for Sat Jan 20th at 10a.m. at Middlesex Hospital Malical School. Everyone concerned with thei health and its future under this government is urged to c
compelled to temporarily suspend the bombing some food for thought; particularly as it came
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