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Book Reviews
Radical Aristoc A history of the London bus rkers
WO
By Ken Fuller Published by Lawrence and Wishart, 1985
£4.95
Reviewed by Peter Lush
AT A time when the trade union movement is under attack from both the employers and the government, it is worth studying the battles of the past, to draw out the lessons to help rearm the labour movement for the struggles of today.
Ken Fuller's history of the London busworkers provides insights into the development of a section of the working class who have a tradition of militancy and independent 'rank and file' organisation amongst their members. But, in attempting to cover 100 years in 250 pages, he often only provides a bare account of events, and lacks a detailed analysis of tactics and strategy that would increase the value of the book.
Fuller describes the early development of the union, and events leading rip to the formation of the TGWU. When they first organised, the London busworkers were amongst the best paid manual workers. But from the beginning their union had a socialist outlook which was reflected in later struggles. From the viewpoint of Marxists active in the trade unions today, the most interesting sections of the book are those on the 'rank and file' movements—similar to the 'Broad Lefts' of today-which were built by London busmen.
They first clashed with the right wing leadership of the TGWU in the 1920s over the question of election of full-time officials. It was from the early socialist tradition of the London and Provincial Union (their first union), combined with their undemocratic treatment within the TGWU, that led to the development of the rank and file
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RADICAL
ARISTOCRATS to
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movements of the 1920s and 1930s. Undoubtedly they were also enormously influenced by the national development of the 'Minority Movement' , a lett wing group led by the CP, that at one time in the mid-1920s could claim the support of a quarter of the trade union movement.
Fuller outlines the setbacks faced by the busworkers in the 1920s; both in wages and conditions, and the role of Bevin, the right wing general secretary of the IGWU, in failing to lead militant struggles, particularly in the period after the general strike. However, he does not provide any real detail or analysis of the influence of the 'Minority Movement' , although he does point out that there were numerous unofficial strikes, at the time they were strongest amongst the busmen in the late 1920s.
1930's rank and
movement
He argues that: 'The Minority Movement were unable to effectively mobilise and co-ordinate the widespread opposition to the Mondist (ie. collaborationist) policies of Bevin" because of the adoption by the CP in 1928 of the ultra-left 'class against class' strategy, which involved continual attacks on the Labour Party and trade unions. The industrial strategy which flowed from this political "analysis" which classed the traditional organisations of the working class as "social fascist" meant working outside the official trade union structures, and attempting to set up 'garage committees' at a local
level to branch.
Nationally, as Fuller points out, the Minority Movement collapsed and by 1930 only had 700 members. By 1932, the CP changed their position, abandoned the tactics for the trade unions dictated by 'class against class', and again tried to build work-place groups with an orientation to winning , Influence in the union branches.
It was a campaign against wage cuts initiated by one branch in 1932 that led to the formation of the 'Rank and File Movement' (RFM), that was to play a key role in the 1930s. The CP used this branch to pass a resolution "calling on all garages to 'prepare rank and file machinery for strike action' against the cuts and for the reinstatement of the dismissed men" , and printed 10,000 copies of the resolution, which were distributed throughout the fleet. A similar tactic by • another branch led to the birth of the RFM, with support of over half the branches in the London area.
A pamphlet issued by the new group sold 30,000 copies in one week. A second one, opposing speed increases, sold 20,000. By January 1933, an unofficial strike against the new schedules was supported by 13,000 workers, over half the fleet. This rapid development shows the potential for Broad Lefts today to take up the immediate issues of wages and conditions facing workers, as well as providing a socialist voice in the trade union movement.
Fuller outlines how the unofficial movement developed because of the failure to lead any struggles by Bevin and the right wing leadership. He argues that they built primarily on the "bread and butter' issues of wages and conditions, to establish a clear alternative to the right wing, as well as raising wider political issues.
The RFM's journal, Busman's Punch was printing 13,000 copies a month in June 1935, and had clearly established a mass base. However, it can be drawn by implication from
Fuller's work that when the leaders of the RFM were elected to the leadership of the Central Bus Committee (the leading body of the London bus section of the TGWU), they lost touch
with the membership and became more concerned with settling disputes, rather than mobilising the members. Indeed, as Fuller points out, "it is sur-
prising that there were so few disputes during the lifetime of the RFM"
Although the leaders of the RFM
claimed to be concerned to build the
campaign for a seven-hour day, and
did not want local disputes to dissipate
this, Fuller comments that "the record
authority of
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suggests that the decision to discourage action in preparation for the fight over hours had the effect of demobilising the membership"
Politically, the RFM seems to have supported the policies of the CP in this period; which Fuller accepts uncritically. This period of the RFM points to some of the dangers Broad Left groups face when they win leading positions in a union, and the need to keep those elected to leading positions fully under the control and direction of the BL.
The RFM do not seem to have aimed to develop a national 'left opposition' within the TGWU, although they had contact with other busworkers outside London. To have seriously challenged the domination of the right wing, a national movement would have been necessary. However militant and well organised the London busmen were, they were only a relatively small part of the TGWU as a whole.
The defeat of the London-wide 1937 official strike, in which Fuller suggests that Bevin co-operated with London Transport management, led to an attack by the TGWU leadership on the REM; with leading members being debarred from office, or expelled from the union. The RFM seems to have declined rapidly after the defeat of the strike, and the witch-hunt against its leadership. Fuller does not analyse why the movement collapsed, although he does comment that the RFM had "kept alive the industrial militancy and political radicalism of the Section during a period when those qualities were distinctly unwelcome in the official trade union movement, and especially in the TGWU."
Puller examines the attacks on the Communist Party in the post-war period as the Labour government attempted to impose a wage freeze. At this time, many of the best industrial militants were still members of the CP. The TUC led the attacks on the CP but the TGWU was the only major union to ban Communist Party members from holding office, at the 1949 conference. The ban lasted until 1969. It undoubtedly weakened the base of the CP amongst the London busmen; where they lost the leading positions they had held both at Section and branch level.
In 1949, The Platform, an unofficial journal for the London busworkers was launched, and lasted until 1966. However, Fuller outlines that, because of the "climate created by Deakinism", "although The Platform enjoyed a mass readership, the creation of a mass rank and file organisation around the journal was never achieved-or, indeed, even seriously attempted"
He correctly believes that "this meant that there was no systematic attempt to mobilise the membership as a whole. Also, Platform appears to have made no serious attempt to raise the level of political understanding of its readership, for its pages were concerned almost exclusively with wages and conditions...as was the case elsewhere in the labour movement, the propagation of socialist politics seems to have been given little priority during this period"
Particularly after 1956, with the invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union and the revelations by Krushchev about Stalin, the CP's base declined, with mary of their leading members leaving the party, and again taking a leading role in the union branches. There were numerous unofficial strikes in the early 1950s, culminating in the official strike in 1958. This strike was defeated because of the compliance of the TUC with the Conservative government; although the TGWU was led at this stage by left winger Frank Cousins, who had been elected in 1956. But it showed that
there was potential for a 'rank and file movement' around The Platform to have been created, despite the difficulties of organising against the right wing leadership of the TGWU.
Despite its drawbacks, the book is worth reading, particularly for members of the TGWU, and workers involved with the transport industry. It also shows clearly the need for one union for all transport workers, and the historical weaknesses caused by the failure of the original meger that formed the TGWU to include ASLEF and the NUR.
Finally it should not be forgotten that the author is a full-time official of the TGWU for the London Bus Section, and tends to accept uncritically the TGWU's policies in the recent period, particularly after the end of Deakin's period of leadership. Nevertheless, as long as it is read critically, it is an interesting account of a section of the labour movement with a radical tradition, who have suffered major falls in their standard of living in relation to other workers since the Second World War.
JUNE '36
CLASS STRUST BARTE
POPULAR FRONT HER
strikes that gripped Russian society and culminated in the 1905 Russian Revolution.
From Pluto we have received About Turn-The Alternative Use of Defence Workers Skills, £2.95, a short, factually based essay by Bill Evans illustrated by Peter Kennard; from Verso, Prisoners of the American Dream, Politics and Economy in the history of the US working class, £7.95, by Mike Davis; and from The Centre for Carribbean Studies, The Unequal Strug gle by Ashton Gibson with Jocelyt Barrow. £6.95. the findings of a :70 year research investigation into the underachievement of black children in British schools.
Booknotes
NEW TITLES received for review this quarter by the Miltant International Review include a translation of June '36: Class struggle and the Popular Front in France, by Jacques Danos and Marcel Gibelin, initially published in French as Juin '36 in 1952, and now made available for the first time to English speaking readers by Bookmarks at £5.95. Also from Bookmarks, at £1.95, comes a republication of Rosa Luxemburg's classic, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions, a study, written in August 1906, of the mass
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