Inside the labour movement an increasing polarisation is opening up between left and right. Faced with the divide of support or opposition to the policies of this Government everyone is forced to show where they stand. The 'lefts' of yesterday, Jones and Scanlon, come out openly for wage controls and the cuts. In a whole series of other struggles - on the railways, in steel, in the general strike against cuts in Dundee - new forces are coming forward to fight the Government. The Tribune group splits down the middle around those who are and those who are not prepared to support the cuts. The whole labour movement is being put to the test.
The right-wing in the labour movement is seizing on the opportunity provided by the confusions in the left wing. Massive restrictions on trade union democracy will follow the extension of secret postal balloting. The result will be a passive membership unable to participate in political debate. Already many trades councils have accepted the new 'Rule 14' with the TUC's gun at their heads. This rule binds trades councils to supporting only those activities which are in agreement with TUC policies.
UNITY IN ACTION The TUC itself has recommended acceptance of that section of the proposed amendments to the Criminal Trespass law which would make unofficial occupations liable to legal action. The right is beefing up its apparatus to deal with the rank and file.
The National Assembly on Unemployment is in a position to stop the rot. Very many of those who oppose the Government's policies are attending this conference. What must be its tasks?
First there is the need to establish unity in action of all those prepared to fight the Government's policies. This unity must centre on actions which attack the employers and the Government's policies. The 26 November demonstration on the right to work was a big step forward. The strikes on British Rail and all the other fights against the cuts are another. But all too often people are left to fight alone.
Votes and resolutions are fine, but people should be judged by actions not words. All those at the Assembly, particularly the left leaders in the trade unions and Labour Party, should be pledged to organise full support for all workers going into struggle. If those MPs who refused to vote for the cuts openly campaigned in favour of strikes against unemployment and the cuts, that would really be an effective move forwards to actions - and the Assembly must demand that they do this. The Assembly itself should support the NALGO and NCC demonstration against cuts in the NHS on 25 April and name a day for national industrial action against unemployment and the cuts.
Secondly, a real programme capable of meeting the cr crisis must be hammered out. Parts of this are already being accepted in the labour movement. Big minorities in every union, majorities in some, are opposed to wage controls. Massive opposition exists to the cuts. But it is necessary to go further. These are the beginning and not the end. The only policies which can really begin to proPULL-OUT ** * M Broad-based march for jobs in Hackney last Friday evening, organised by the local Trades Council vide a solution are those of nationalisation under workers control of industry, automatic cost of living increases to compensate for inflation, implementation of the Labour Party conference decision on the health service, a campaign for the demands of the Working Women's Charter.
Thirdly, the forces prepared to fight against the Government must be organised into a real class struggle opposition in the labour movement. The left is only organised in a small number of unions - and even then, as with the Broad Left in the AUEW, not openly and democratically. What is needed is caucuses in every major union, trades council and Labour Party around the policies necessary to fight the Government's measures.
It is clear who are the people who can begin to be organised into such an opposition. Out of those struggling again against the cuts, those who support the demand for the recall of the Labour Party Conference and those at the Assembly itself a fighting organised left wing could be formed. A call from the leaders at the Assembly could rally and organise thousands. The campaigns, caucuses and action committees which exist on many issues could begin to be forged into a class struggle opposition to overturn the sup porters of the Government's policies.
For these steps to be taken, however, a drastic change in the character of the National Assembly is necessary. Anyone who attended conferences of the old Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions knows the completely undemocratic practices pursued by their Communist Party organisers. They may claim now to stand for democracy in Eastern Europe, but no one can believe that when they don't even stand for democracy in the conferences they organise. No circulation of resolutions in advance, no procedure for alternative resolutions. These are all the old tricks of the Communist Party. The first fight is for democracy in the conference. This is a key to begin. ning every other fight from the National Assembly on Un employment.
•We want fighti policies AND a to take up the fight against cuts in the social services.
Things are very bad in my area.
We have got nine per cent unemployment, cutbacks in all social services, the closure of a hospital, and the axe hovering over two OLLICES The Assembly has got to take What are his views on Saturday's big event?
This Assembly will be the most representative gathering of the rank and file of the labour movement for years. With over a million unemployed and not a finger being lifted by the TUC leadership, the Assembly is crucial.
But in my view, it isn't enough to gather about 2,000 people together and declare we are opposed to unemployment. The crucial question is how the rank' and file will be DAVE BURN, a delegate from the 1,500-strong Islington branch of NALGO, feels it is particularly important for the Assembly up the cuts in the social services. The £3,000 million so far announced up to 1979 constitute a major attack on the living standards of the working class - a cut in the social wage, you might say.
The Health Service in particular is in a terrible state. cut to the bone, and these proposals can only mean more hospital closures, unemployed nurses, doctors and ancillary workers, and the mushrooming of private practice. One law for the rich, one for the poor.
My union is supporting the campaign against the cuts in the NHS, and the national demonstration called by the National Co-ordinating Committee Against NHS Cuts for 25 April. I hope the Assembly will vote support to the demo because this issue cannot just be the concern of those people working in the health service or the public sector. It is everybody's fight. It is already women.
We demand to work as high for them. LINDA SIMON, a member of the National Society of Metal Mec hanics, told us about the problems facing unemployed youth and As Secretary of the Birmingham Trades Council Youth Advisory Committee, I find that working class kids are being hit particularly hard right now. Forty per cent of the unemployed are under 25 and there is already a permanent pool of unemployed school leavers beginning to grow - kids who have never had a job and maybe never will. In January almost 200,000 young workers had been unemployed for more than 13 weeks, compared with 102,000 in July - an increase of 95 per cent in only six months.
Black kids are even worse off: the level of unemployment is twice I was a delegate to the Women's TUC this year, and some interesting facts emerged there about the particular situation of women. Figures for the rise in unemployment between January and September 1975 were 48 per cent for men, but 121 per cent for women.
These figures are bad enough, but they don't even include women who were part-timers and didn't pay the full stamp - the majority of those made redundant over the past period.
Red Weekly A survey published in Women's Own last week revealed that seven out of ten women looking for work are left out of official statistics. So the real figure for the rise in women' unemployment could be as high as 200-300 percent!
Redundancies against women are far too readily accepted. The Sex Discrimination Act and Equal Pay
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BUILD A OPPOSITION WEEKLY PULL-OUT *** SPECIAL PULL-OUT *** J Photo: LAURENCE SPARAM (IFL
RON THOMPSON is a member of the General Management Com- mittee of Sheffield Park Constituency Labour Party, and also an AUEW shop steward and a delegate to Sheffield Trades Council. TO