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16 MIR Winter 1988: Trade Union Perspectives
saults.
If all the campaigning time, effort, finance and energy used to pursuade local authority workers to conclude this agreement had been harnessed instead to carry out the NUPE Conference policy of a national fightback against privatisation, by now an unstoppable movement in defence of local services could have developed among local authority workers, with the full active support from millions of other workers who rely on the services which local authority workers provide. Instead, for the moment, this struggle has been undermined. The union leaders have dissipated the pressure underneath them. The isolation of every individual group of workers confronted by the privatisation leeches has been legitimised. But this agreement will satisfy no-one. It will only whet the appetites of those Tory employers who want the national agreement totally abolished and local authority workers will find they are even more vulnerable to attacks, not only from Tory authorities but also from those Labour councillors who-like the union leaders-have abandoned any idea of a serious struggle against the onslaught of the Tories on local services.
TU numbers fall
The union leaders face the future with utter resignation. All the trade unions have lost members including the EETPU. More members mean more contributions. Any drop in membership threatens their bureaucratic position. Trade union membership has fallen from the dizzy heights of 1979 when more than 50% of the workforce were in unions. Now 44% of employed workers are in unions, just 37% of the potential workforce including the unemployed. Being slaves to only the most dark facts which they see right in front of their noses, the leaders are convinced that these declining membership figures prove conclusively that trade union power has been irreversibly broken.
But these facts are only one side of the situation. Given the events of the last 8 years, with no real leadership, with mass unemployment in the background, what is striking is the marvellous resilience of the unions. Initially, when they came to power, the Tories were frightened of taking on the unions. They had their blueprint, the Ridley plan. But, although they had the measure of the trade union leaders, they understood that behind the leaders was assembled the enormous latent power of the trade unions. They took on one group at a time. When it came to the miners strike, despite all their assi-
duous preparation and their low regard for the general staff of the trade unions, they still did not relish the idea of fighting on more than one front. When they stumbled into simultaneous strikes of dockers and miners in the summer of 1984, they were in absolute panic. The trade union leaders came to the rescue, refusing to stand firm and mobilise wider solidarity to turn the government's panic into a shambolic retreat.
At each stage, the Tories have moved gingerly forward, testing and probing, seeing what they could get away with. Thatcher's attitude during the Falklands war was 'weakness invites aggression'. That has been her attitude consistently in the fight against those she dubbed 'the enemy within' ', the organised trade union movement. The Tories contempt for the trade union leaders has grown at each stage, feeding their aggression against the hard won rights and conditions of the working class. Each attack by the Tories has seen the union leaders hesitant, fumbling, running for cover, and, of course, blaming the workers who 'wouldn't fight'
Despite the role of the union leaders, however, despite the drop in union membership numbers, despite the serious encroachments into rights and conditions, Marxists remain confident that soon the real power of the unions will be re-asserted. This optimism is based on a sober analysis of all the potentially explosive processes now coming together in British society. It is also based on a realistic assessment of the current position of the trade unions.
A comparison, for instance, with the 1920s is extremely instructive. Conditions today are, of course, very different but valuable conclusions can still be drawn. At that time, with the impetus behind them of the Russian revolution, as well as the experience of the horrors of the war, workers were determined to struggle for a better life. In the immediate aftermath of world war one there
was a doubling of union membership. But after the defeat of 'Black Friday' in
1921, the engineers lockout, the defeat
of the cotton workers, trade union
membership halved. There was an ac-
tual march out of the unions because of
the fear of victimisation. Shop floor
organisation was atomised. Yet within a
matter of years the general strike took
place. Today trade union numbers are
stronger than at any time in British
history aside from that exceptional pe-
riod from the mid 1970s to the early
1980s. Any drop in trade union mem-
bership is due almost exclusively to the
destruction of manufacturing industry,
the coal industry, the docks: all those
areas where the unions traditionally
have nised.
There has been a whelter of academic research in the past year, most designed to show that the unions are 'marginal' but which grudgingly, instead, has had to show that the underlying, potential power of the trade unions remains. There has been no atomisation of shop floor organisation, rather the reverse. A drop has occured in the number of shop stewards in manufacturing industry, again where the unions were most organised. But the number of shop stewards in industry as a whole from 1980 to 1984 went up from 317,000 to 385,000. The working class has strengthened its organisational bonds, drawing in more shop stewards from those social layers which had entered the trade unions for the first time in the 1970s and 1980s. Objectively, the working class is becoming stronger, not weaker.
The first movement of workers acting consciously together as a class is always in the direction of trade union activity. In the future, as in the period after the first world war, or the growth of the CIO in America, or with the explosion of union membership in the 1970s, millions of workers will once again flood into the trade unions.
and
Part-time workers
Mainly because of the growth of service industries, there are now about five million part-timers in British industry. This is a huge proportion of the workforce, the majority of whom are not organised. But they will join the unions. In the 1970s part-time workers, mainly the supposedly unorganisable women workers in the public services, spilt into NUPE, COHSE, the G&MWU and the TGWU. In the not too distant future millions of other unorganised workers will follow.
In an effort to bolster their flagging membership, the union leaders are attempting to recruit the army of unorganised workers. They will have scant success, however, if they relied solely upon the attitude of John Edmonds, GMB General Secretary and, supposedly, the new intellectual guru of the unions. In an interview during the TUC, he posed the question: 'what does solidarity mean to a shopworker?' That approach reveals an utter contempt for ordinary working people. Ironically, it was being answered around the time of the TUČ in a newly released film, Business as Usual which depicted a real life struggle of -yes- a shopworker against sexual harrassment in which it was the solidarity and support of other workers which were the critical factors in securing victory. These layers, shop-
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workers, factory workers, fastfood workers will join the unions when life becomes absolutely intolerable, when they are driven beyond breaking point. And in the so-called no-go areas for the trade unions in the south, once the coming economic collapse begins to make itselt telt, when today's seeming hope and stability is turned inside out, they also will turn towards trade union struggle.
The union leaders are relying on gimmicks to build up membership, such as cheap cars and cheap insurance. In one union cheap divorce is available, in another, a marriage guidance counsellor! FTAT have given free toothbrushes to new members and offered cheap funerals. There has always been two strains within the history of the British trade unions, the conservative, deferential side and the unconquerable, fighting, revolutionary side. The trade union leaders have dug back into the friendly society tradition, the worst side of British trade unionism. The real impetus for growth will not come about because of any clever gimmicks. It will come when the heavy battalions move back into action, flexing their muscles, re-discovering their power, demonstrating, in the process, to every unorg"nised worker that it is precisely through trade union action and solidarity that there is a way to resist management pressure and exploitation.
The 'New Realists' dismiss the idea of a resurgence of industrial activity; they cannot imagine the unions once again demonstrating their latent power. They see temporary strike figures, reflecting a temporary mood of the working class, and imagine that this reflects a new, permanent rejection of strikes and industrial action by the working class. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the months and years ahead will show. Certainly, last year saw a 50 year low in strike activity. A combination of factors brought this about including the knowledge that disputes could be long, difficult and fought to a bitter conclusion, and also the understanding, at least among a layer of the more active trade union members, of the weakness of their leadership at a time when bold, decisive leadership was vital. The number of strikes this year is still very low, although there was already more strike activity in the first six months of 1987 than in the whole of 1986. Strikes have been shorter and sharper; a wide range of activity has taken place that has not yet got to the level of strikes.
With no central lead, inevitably there have been different layers of workers travelling in different directions with many complexities and difficulties developing. But generally, the mood has
been one of taking stock, weighing up the way forward. This is a very important phase. There might have been relative quiet on the surface. Underneath the surface of events, however, is anger, frustration, resentment and a deep politicisation, waiting to erupt to the surface.
When, how and among what group of workers the decisive break will come can not be predicted. All that can be indicated is the combustible material now beginning to build up in all the different sectors of industry. We argued that perhaps when the economic situation improved even slightly, then in private industry offensive, not defensive, struggles would begin to take place. This process has been slow to develop, partly because of the understanding of workers, knowing what struggle means, but also because wages in manufacturing industry have outstripped prices over the last few years. To keep industry moving the employers have been giving wages over and above the rate of inflation. Workers do not go out on strike for the sake of it, they go on strike when they feel they have little or no alternative, and, unless they are driven by sheer desperation, they will ask: 'can we win?'
Recession looms
In the last few years a savage managerial counter-revolution has been unleashed in the mines, in engineering and in industry generally. On the whole workers have met this onslaught with gritted teeth, biding their time, waiting for a favourable opportunity to strike back. Managers have tried to reestablish their position on the shopfloor. There has been an intensification of work. Such pressure is bound to bring a reaction, especially from the new, younger workers who, in the interests of maximum efficiency, have been made to endure the most backbreaking and arduous jobs. To be 24 on a car assembly line these days is considered old! The Nisson factory in Sunderland opened with intensive work practises. It has had a significant turn over of labour. It has also experienced at least one strike even despite, in effect, a no-strike agreement, and 25% of the workers being unorganised.
The strikes that are taking place at Vauxalls and Fords-as we go to press-are both of enormous symptomatic importance. While there is not yet a general offensive, here we have graphic confirmation of a changing mood. Workers in manufacturing industry feel firmer ground under their feet. They are beginning to move to reclaim some of the ground lost in the last few years. One or two significant victories could
17
open the flood gates.
Just at this time, though, as contidence is lifting, on the horizon the economic stormclouds are assembling. How will this affect industrial workers? There was a stunned response to the slump of 1979-81. Then, economic devastation and mass redundancies caught the working class unaware. Everyone had been led to believe that such evils had gone forever. The organised resistance which occurred muted
This time the reaction is likely to be explosive. It is the rapid movement from slump to boom and back again, the total instability of life, the crushing of any morsel of hope for the future, which drives workers to draw the most revolutionary conclusions. This will be the case in the years ahead. There will be leaps on the industrial plane and leaps in political understanding. Millions who voted in the past for the Tories or SDP will come to embrace the ideas of Marxism. When mass redundancies are threatened they are likely to be met by widespread defensive movements, strikes, sit-ins, and demands for nationalisation. Not one stone of society will be left unturned.
In the public sector already there is combustible material everywhere. Conditions which workers have enjoyed for decades on the buses, in local authorities, the post office, the NHS etc, are being snatched away. The current defensive struggles in the public sector will have enormous repercussions on the outlook of millions of workers. Among busworkers there have been strikes in every area of the country, with the first all London bus strikes since 1958. In the local authorities, while some counciliors may have thrown in the towel, the pressure will build up underneath the union leaders, especially from among the new, younger, harder shop stewards thrown forward in the last few years, who will be searching for ways to take the fight forward. In the Post Office there have been strikes in almost every area of the country against management plans to bring in casual and part time labour. Since April there have been over 90 strikes nationally by Post Office workers, 61 in London alone. Now they are attempting to push their leaders onto the offensive in a battle for a shorter working week.
Alongside all of these possibilities, the miners are now coming back onto the scene of history. What is happening in the pits is an absolute vindication of the methods and perspectives of the Militant. After the strike Militant explained that there had been a defeat. We disagreed with those who tried to gloss over what had happened. Workers must
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18 MIR Winter 1988: Trade Union Perspectives
prepare for the future by a realistic assessment of things as they are, including anything that is distasteful. There was a defeat, and defeats have consequences. There has been a halving of the workers in mining in the last three years. But the consequences were not all one way. Militant said that there would be a war of attrition in the pits. That is exactly what has taken place, with a spate of 'rag-outs', sudden short sharp action, in and out over this issue or that. Sometimes the management stepped back, sometimes the workers, but with the trend increasingly going in the direction of the miners. In 1986 there were 35 times more strikes per worker in the mining industry than in the economy as a whole. On average miners lost 8 times more hours in
disputes than other industrial workers.
Miners prepare
Once again the miners were beginning openly to talk about revenge. The mood was building up over six day production, with the South Wales leaders cut off from their own rank and file. Alongside was the issue of the disciplinary code. Then, with the sacking of led scott and the dısciplinary measures against other Yorkshire miners, the temperature reached boiling point. A potential all out strike in Yorkshire would have taken place, which then could have developed more widely, but for the leadership of the Yorkshire coalfield. In the immediate aftermath of these developments a crushing 77.8% majority was achieved for industrial action on the issue of the disciplinary code, the first majority in the pits in a ballot for industrial action for some years. Since then the mood slipped back, not least due to certain ex-lefts in the leadership of the NUM publicly waging a campaign against any intensification of the action, giving encouragement to the coal industry management and showing the miners that they had a divided and largely hesitant leadership. This undoubtedly undermined the will of the miners to enter any new trial of strength, at least for the moment.
The 1984/5 strike cost the government over f7 billion. They thought it was worthwhile. They allowed themselves to believe that they had crushed the miners and taught an unforgettable lesson to the wider working class. Now-even with the backsliding among sections of the NUM leaders-the Tories are wary of pushing the miners too far and being forced to face them again in all-out action. The young miners who were steeled in the fire of a year long fight have scores with the government
'It is the rapid movement from slump to boom and back again, the total instability of life, the crushing of any morsel of hope for the future, which drives workers to draw the most revolutionary conclusions'.
which they are determined to settle. With the mood that is developing in the mining industry, even in the next 12 or 18 months, a new miners' strike is entirely possible.
With the perspective before us of storm and stress in the unions and on the industrial plane, enormous opportunities will open up for the development of Marxism in the trade union movement. With the election of John Macreadie to the General Council, for the first time ever the ideas of genuine Marxism are represented on the general staff of the trade unions. John Macreadie has already made his mark arguing for the TUC to give fighting campaigning leadership, to mobilise the mighty army which potentially they have at their disposal, to ensure the defeat of Alton's Bill attacking the abortion rights of working class women, and to defeat the government's anti-union legislation.
The trade union leaders right and left have resorted to desperate bureaucratic disciplinary measures to try, vainly, to limit the growth in influence of Marxism. The bureaucracy feel themselves isolated, suspended in the air, the material basis for their existence eroded. They have contempt for the rank and file and yet at the same time they feel the hot breath of the rank and file upon them. They know that Militant supporters can effectively articulate and organise the rank and file. That is why Militant supporters have faced victimisation: because they strike a chord among ordinary workers! But this is also why victimisations can be defeated, and have been. Where right wing
As this materlal was being prepared for our printers Arthur Scargill's decision to stand for re-electlon as president of the National Union of Mineworkers was announced. Milltant supporters have had differences with Arthur Scargill on certain questions of programme and, at times, on tactics. Nevertheless, in this election, supporters of Milltant In the coalfields will work tirelessly to help secure his reelection. All the forces of the establishment immedlately began to try and find a candidate with some credibility who could be put forward in an attempt to defeat him. The Tories, the capitalist medla and right wing Labour leaders are all afraid of the
bureaucrats appear secure one moment, they will shake with insecurity the next.
The NCU gives a glimpse of what is to come. John Golding had beaten Phil Holt to become the elected NCU general secretary. The executive had gone to the right. But this general secretary and this executive were forced to 'lead' a fight on pay. When the Post Ofice Engineers went into action, they had not had the experience of testing their leaders fully in action. Now that they have been bloodied in battle many NCU members, particularly among the leading active layers, understand far more sharply the crucial role of leadership. As a result, Golding narrowly avoided being called on to resign at the annual conference.
Broad Lefts
As the rank and file of all unions go into action, in ever increasing numbers they will come to see the importance of fighting socialist leadership. The ranks of the unions will attempt in one way and then another to organise to force their leaders to fight and, if this proves
to try to change their leaos. Al, kinds of unofficial organisa
tions, ad hoc bodies, Broad Lefts, city wide action committees, will spring up. Marxists will play a full and active part in these developments, attempting wherever possible to help give a lead when new initiatives are called for.
The opportunity exists to build on the rich lessons of the 1920s, particularly the experiences of the Communist Party in building the National Minority Movement. The national Broad Left Organis-
impact of a renewed mandate from the miners for Arthur Scargill. A Niagara of lies, slander and abuse will be unleashed by the media against Arthur Scarglli, even surpassing the flith they hurled at him during the 1984/85 strike. No effort will be spared In an attempt to stampede miners against him. Desplte all their efforts, we are confldent that Arthur Scargill will be returned as President of the NUM with a resounding majority. This will be a crushing answer to the Idea that militancy and soclalist Ideas are unpopular. It will give a huge impetus to the developing militancy of the miners and lift the confidence of workers generally throughout the whole of industry.
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Striking miners lobby a meeting of the South Yorkshire Area panel NUM, called to discuss the dispute earlier this year at Bentley colllery.
ing Committee (BLOC) conference in February 1988 is timely. It can help chart the course for the battle ahead to re-arm the unions with fighting leadership. Militant supporters are proud of the role they have played in recent years helping to build in many unions nucleus of future powerful Broad Lefts. As yet this work is still in its early stages. 'The CPSA Broad Left was built over many years with Militant supporters playing a leading role throughout. What took perhaps 10 years and more in the CPSA can be completed far quicker in all other unions given the events ahead. If the Broad Lefts are campaigning bodies then they will thrive. They must fight consistently alongside workers in struggle doing all they can to help and assist, developing a firm programme which at each stage of the struggle meets the needs and aspirations of ordinary werkers. They must tell the truth to the working class: that on the basis of capitalism there is no way out. Broad Lefts must champion the ideas of socialism. The Broad Lefts also must remain the foremost advocates of trade union democracy, demanding: no secret negotiations, no deals behind the backs of workers, regular elections of all officials under democratic rank and file scrutiny and control, no official to receive more than the average wage of a skilled worker, plus legitimate expenses.
But even the best trade union or Broad Left activity is insufficient if it is not linked at all times to the building of a powerful Marxist tendency in the unions. Marxists must appeal to the 385,000 shop stewards, especially to the new younger, fresher, layers, to the activists in the Broad Lefts and to young workers generally to join with the Militant and fight for socialism.
Socialist
leadership
We are in the period of capitalism's terminal decline. Crisis in the economy is leading to crisis in all the organisations of the working class. Significant gains can still be won. but only through mass resolute action. We are in the period of counter-reforms where what they are forced to concede today, the employers will prepare even more brutally to snatch back tomorrow. Events will shake society to its foundations, not once but many times. The tendency of the union leaders to police their ranks will be cut across. We will even see right wing trade union leaders feeling compelled to put themselves at the front of mighty movements in order to try and keep some semblance of control and authority. Some ex-lefts will for a time under pressure move back to the left, even to the extreme left. In the charged period ahead ideas and demands that seem remote from the pres-
ent mood of the working class, rapidly will come back onto the agenda. During the course of the miners strike, on one or two occasions the general strike was inherent in the situation. Now it is not on the agenda. But one incident, one accidental miscalculation by the government, one provocation too many, and all that will change.
Marxists in the unions must prepare carefully for the opportunities and great responsibilites which will come before them. Tireless work and patient explanation of Marxist ideas will be necessary. In the words of Lenin, "Marxists... are not stray visitors in the working class movement. They know that sooner or later all the unions will take their stand on the basis of Marxism. They are convinced that the future belongs to their ideas and, therefore, do not force events, do not goad the unions on, and do not... split them. Steadily and confidently they carry on their Marxist propaganda... drawing on the lessons of life, and no deals between unprincipled groups will divert them from that path." Today, working in this way in the British trade unions, Marxists will play the leading part in helping the working class reclaim fully their trade union organisations, to use them as mighty levers for the ending of capitalist exploitation and for the building instead of a healthy socialist democracy.
Photo: John Harris (IFL)
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