Here's the industrial upsurge! The trade union movement, written off by the Tories as a thing of the past, has sprung back into life. There is a national dock strike. No trains or London tubes one day each week. London bus workers have been in action. Half a million local government workers are involved in stop- pages. BBC workers are mount- ing. 24-hour strikes. London building sites are on strike. There have been strikes on the North Sea oil rigs, and at some passport and DHSS offices. In the autumn, strikes are due to start in the en- gineering industry in pursuit of a 35 hour week. The Tories celebrated too soon. They mistook the damage they had inflicted, and the effects of new realism, as the death agony of the trade union move- ment. Now they are panicking in the face of mass strikes, watching the confidence of the working class rise every day. Every time there is a strike ballot, the media now assume that workers will vote for action. Some of the votes are remarkable, particularly the 3- I second ballot of the dockers and the NALGO vote. This is the first ever national strike of NALGO, after two previous bal- lots were lost. Many NALGO branches report a big increase in union membership since the strike decision was taken. It is clear that there has been a fundamental change in the mood of the working class in this country, which is not just reflected in the strikes now taking place but also by in the lead in the opinion polls that Labour now SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 17, Summer 1989
UPDATE UNIONS Graeme Cookson have over the Tories. The Tories are now seen to be failing on the economic front, previously seen as their greatest strength. The stock market crash of November 1987 has worked its way through, via a credit-led boom, to rising inflation, record interest rates and a balance of trade crisis.
This crisis of the Tories gives the working class the confidence and necessity to fight back. Suddenly attacks on the unions and the public sector are not so popular. The real rate of inflation for those with mortgages is at least double the official rate of 8%. These conditions raise the possibility of a generalised fightback.
The industrial upsurge also poses the possibility of a regeneration of the trade union movement and an opportunity to repare the damage done over the past ten years. But such a development poses the need for a political fight against the defeatist line of new realism, which is still at the present has reached its highest point. With the clear exception of the NUM, most trade union conferences have been adopting policies within the terms of Neil Kinnock's Labour policy review, in readiness for this year's Labour party conference. The newly-launched Socialist Movement, as the most important national current opposed to new realism, has a particular responsibility to organise against this.
The most important problem created by new realism remains entirely unresolved - the matter of the anti-union laws. They pose a direct threat to the present round of disputes, in particular
Tago noigo
ROSSERVES On their first-ever national strike: NALGO local government workers the dock strike.
At the time of writing (day three of the strike) the main ports are solid, but with a small number of registered dockers working in several smaller ports. At the same time the employers have had iwo months to organise the diversion of cargo - which is now taking place on a massive scale.
There was never a chance that a dock strike could be successfully conducted within the law. Now this must be faced. Any registered dockers still working need to be picketed out and the diverted cargo challenged in the unregistered ports. It would be a disaster if, at a time of rising levels of industrial struggle, the dockers were isolated and defeated.
The policy of compliance with the law adopted by the TGWU conference is not a strategy which can win: it must be challenged by the dockers if the strike is to be made effective.
Compliance with these laws which has been advocated by the TUC for the past five years has been a disaster. Every time a union has complied with the law, the Government and the courts have gone further.
This is not to argue that the ruling class are not divided over exactly how far and how fast to go with anti-union legislation. This was clear in the contradictory decisions of the courts in the legal battle over the dock strike.
First the High Court refused the port employers an injunction to stop the strike; and then the Court of Appeal granted it. This was then overturned by the Law
ALL OUT HAIGO SAYS
OFFICIAL • MALGO PICKET Lords at the final stage. Partly this was because of the far-reaching nature of the Court of Appeal decision, which, if upheld, would have ended the right to strike in this country at a stroke.
But the decision also reflects more general divisions in the ruling class, which have also been evident over the discussion about banning of strikes in public services. The Tories are determined to go ahead with more anti-trade union laws, but they know that their is a real danger of triggering a fightback against them which they cound not control or confront and therefore they have sharp disagreements over tactics.
The need now is to consolidate the dock strike, push forward with the other strikes and force the Tories to fight on several fronts at the same time -something they managed to avoid in the miners strike and are deeply concerned about now.
Thatcher herself heads the Cabinet Committee set up to fight the strikes, and which controls their day-to-day strategy. This influence was evident on the first day of the dock strike, when suddenly, after weeks of saying "no compromise', the British Rail Board suddenly backed down, agreed to negotiation on both pay and bargaining structures, and starting looking for a settlement with all urgency.
It is crucial that the unions refuse to fall for this strategy. There should be no shabby conpromises which leave the dockers isolated and wind down the present round of action. The actions should be stepped up and
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Battle lines behind the
the initiative seized by the unions pressed home to the full.
At the same time a mass support movement for the dockers has to be mounted on the lines of the support groups in the miners' strike. There are already important initiatives in this, for example in East London and in Bristol. The dockers must not stand alone. The great dock strike of 1889 led to the development of the general unions and the TGWU in particular. We have to ensure that in 1989 the dockers, and all the other sections of the movement entering into struggle, are again victorious. headlines When union conferences meet in the middle of the biggest rash of industrial militancy seen in this country since the 1970s, it's not surprising that media interest focusses on what conference decisions made will mean for that action and for Labour's newlyimproved prospects at the polls.
But on the conference floors and behind the scenes there is much else that it's easy to miss: a constant battle being fought out over broader ideas and strategy, and the character of the political and industrial leadership of the movement.
In this year's round of conferences, the skirmishes between camps vying for power are varied - but the underlying stresses are similar and the chosen battleground is common to many. Boardroom deals and
golden handshakes
Union mergers - some out of financial necessity, some in the name of the members, but all carried out in the interests of those at the top - are the name of the new game.
The much-discussed mega merger beiween the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) and the public sector Page 4
UPDATE/UNIONS John Harris/FL This year's union conferences white collar union NALGO rumbles on. This year's conferences saw the merger plans nudged along, and now the health union COHSE is desperately trying to get in on the talks at the very last minute. Their conference this year agreed to look at feasibility of mergers, clearly looking to the two bigger unions as potential partners. COHSE leaders should prepare for a rough reception.
Behind the scenes at NALGO and NUPE, serious effort has gone into preparations for the harmonisation of rule books, with a 'levelling down' of internal democracy likely, to ensure that the power stays where it is - at the top. Trading top positions so that the spoils are shared out in a gentlemanly fashion is another important part of this process.
The NUPE/NALGO merger is a classic case. NALGO's shadowy General Secretary, mystery man John Daly, announced his decision to take early retirement just before the