Militancy to Marxism, Left View, 19.95. Pricil Delore troublesome workers they were IN THE SIXTIES and seventics, writing bonks on the problems a growth industry. Ex-Labour to get in on the act. The price BOB PENNINGTON of industrial relations became academics and needless to say for their expert opinion was queues outside the publishers 'learned" writing about ever boped to narurally was a hell of a lot cabinet ministers, one-time the rate for the job, which Their conclusion varied. Fleet Street jormalists, all Jostled each other in the more per hour than the union bureaucrats, get
consuited you before they gave you the rack. Others opted lor they were the employers who One lot might favour a more enlightened management — tough management. But
From militan month from membership dues: SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 2 July/August 1987 would he be the last to pay the out how "They were happy for penalty for the collaborationist time again the union militants shouldes at what their oflicials management they were not so Thornert shows how time and need to keep their eyes on the management, but also needed were getting up to. He points on the shop floor did not just effectiveness as a trade union practices of the paid officials. initial union organisation of the branch to spearhead the employed in the body plant He was not the first, nor to keep glancing over their but when this resulted in a thousands of pounds every the plant and send them next door, reducing his The officials wanted militant fight with militant. keen. the British Motor Corporation, to consultation before sackings occupations, people like Frank to concede seniority and agree Horsman the 1GWU convenor the workers took strike action. accepted a solution that whilst Longbridge only supported by powerful boost of a boycott of were victimised, and although arbitrary sackings. A strike in Management was then lorced BMO cars by TGWU duckers. exmployment meant he was redundancies as a means of stewand and convenor still the national union leaders before management were i minority, but given the But positions like shop forced the bosses to the albeir ar Cowley and stopping him losing forced to stop using remained high risk negotiäting table. took place. Trimshop women join the strike, hating William Morris, joining 1956: crossing a picket line Nor were the carly post-war at Cowley'. As he says: Some movement in the Morris plant years exactly haleyun days for permanently over their heads. In the thirties when the place tantamount to asking for the of them are still there today. management' He chronicles trade unionism. It was 1956 Damoclean sword that hung both the struggle to organise principles.,. who faced and face every day, not just the fighting the same fight and pressures of the track, but how these "unsung heroes" organised the union in the developed the trade union was owned by the unions plant. It was never easy. Victimisation was like a the union was almost and the attacks from defending the same July 1959 sack. Oxford Mail workers, class conflict has gone Oxford, and 21 of those a shop moderate British worker, down almost without exception, they insisted were leading the sane, minded minority — who they years a car worker at Cowley. Now from the other side of attitudes of individuals to the building the union in the car the track, Alan Thornett, 25 committed trade unionist, a knows that the class struggle socialist and a Marxist' who He rightly pays tribute to conflict. It seemed to escape industry, Unlike the former insists that what determines determines what goes on in steward, has written about extremists - that "bloody- their notice that ever since would now describe as the "loony left'. These are the there had been bosses and between management and all came down against the industry and society, and Kinnock and Hattersley, state is the reactions and concessions to academic the thorny path of class derachment or so-called sensible and essentially the outcome of conflict what I suppose Messrs people who built and authors he makes no impartiality. He is a class struggic. on. 36
REVIEWS Vietnamese peoples against the war. Unlike the reformists, the Naturally this carned them the right-wing Labourites and the - such policies hear the Trotskyists in Cowley did not undying hatred of the bosses, workers to take the authority government in this shameful tell the workers leave things the union burcaucrats, the to us" they argued for the complicity of the Wilson Eventually, an unlioly hallmark of subversion. USA, and atacked the into their own hands: press crisis for the working class was a crisis of icanership, accorded groups. What appealed to him towards building a base in the worker militants at that time. was its determination to turn other stewards in the factory. about the SL.L, and the same workery movement. Further its intellectuals and students significant of the Trotskyist more its insistence that the experience and that of the thing appealed to quite a They only had to look at number of other serious very much with his own Strikers 1956
and the union officials, assisted sacked Today management is and the threat of victimisation back in the saddle and thanks workload has been intensified alliance berwcen the media, to those reasonable people who believe in 'realismi' the undermine the militants ar hy the bosses: was used to Thurnett was framed and unions are weakened, the testimony of what can be Cowley. In 1982 Alan Cowler stande as a achieved by political is again in the air. antics of the Labour leadership working cliss and had become Despire its malformations and In time he was to leave the Transitional Programme and the works of Icon Trotsky. This ultra-left pracuices, the SEL. SLE not because he rejected Trotskvism, but because be bureaucratically degenerale. had provided accesss to the t doubted sectarian and serving the interests of the to-know that was certainly Transport House and the Was convinced it was not CORPOCT.
all that casier. For the working bureaucracy. This is why From the upsurge of militancy in the urganisation on the shop floor and equally it bears testimony Thatcher's anti-union crusade brings our how that militancy Militancy to Marxim is a book ro be treachery nf the union potentiai that existed during was diverted and centually realism' is indeed a heavy bureaucracy, thus making sixties and seventies, and to be read. It shows the betrayed by the labour class the price of TUC LOne This chabled them to lead a trade union laws whether they were they drawn into the trap members in the Cowley plant meant that Alan and the SEL fight ar Cowley against wage disarmed when faced with a employers. or the Tory and political ellensive from the restraint, and against anti- Labour governments. Nor Barbara Castle or Edward originated from Labour's themselves and were not of the class collaboration advocated by the tanion were able to edurate officials shop floor to the struggle for a icy to Marxism that he joined the Communist union life and it was nor long: after starting work at Cowley need quite early in his trade Party. It was not long cither day to day struggles on the: Thornett recognised that before he realised that the socialist programme' story of Cowley and this holds meant they saw their role, not as representing the workforce conditions in the factory, but as mediating between capital consultation and negotation with the employers, which What emerges from the in taking over control of and labour.
37 Furthermore the book shows that employers can be defeated of marxiam — we can actually base in the mass organisations and in the unions. Unlike the who want to interpret marxist movement has won a industrial relations, this book the class struggie and the use particularly in the workplace. - with the methoris of if a serious attempt to show and the bureaucracy can be change them, so the working swept aside, providing the class can rule society. of the working class, 'experts" how open the books" and call for a imperialism and supported the shorler working week with no Being Marciss they did not redundancies, the Trotskvists could not counter the bosses! factory issues or the issues of Unlike many militants who arguments that talling sales Heath's Tory government- restrect their campaigns to at Cowley would demand reocgnised the threat of and rising costs meant British politics. They liberation war of the loss of pay Communist Party did not base the Socialist Labour League at that time the largest and most desk in the personnel office or make his accommodation with of its members in the unions, Unlike many who have left began to recognise that many particularly those in full-time reformism. Instead he joined the Communist Party he did themselves enmeshed in the not finish up sat behind the itseit on the methods of the or leading positions, were class struggle and he also union bureaucracy. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 2 July/August 1987 truc for every other workplace, necessary as it is, on its own 1s management, and the struggle reaching the right conclusions. the unremitting bartle against Even militancy, desirable and to bring the unions under die the constant need to link the always in the author's words be it factory or office, is that something that can be left to dependent on either workers control of the members is a not enough. There remains or stewards spontancously herculean task. It is not chance, nor can it be
of the National Front. Formed The ANL was a comparatively movements who have refused women's equality and peace. belies the work of significant socialist currents within both initially secured be socialists attempt to challenge the rise others such as anti-racism, the labour and trade union struggles at the expense of both the ast and RAk was In face the formation ul unions or political parties. active cither in the trade to privilege shop floor" successful project in its "There ain't no black in the union jack' Gilroy relies on this analysis discussion of race was pulled Ir alsu: against whom Britain fought of nation and rare to explain denting the electoral support danger of such arguments in labelling the latter as Nazis Anti-Nazi League (ANT) in the war. All good Britons playing upon nationalist of the National Front by could not be Nazis. The resonances was that the the success of the of the away form the centre. rendered anti racism produced by, the rise of 'new On the way, he explores the highlighted by, and possibly 'crisis in Marxiem" which is Jerrisoning the dominant amalyses Britain in the pas Paul Giroy, There ain't no: prism of race and racism. SHAHID TILLEY IN THIS BOOK Paul Gilroy two decades through the black in the union jack, view of racism which Huthiun, £7.95 social movements
churches. Tabour parties and challenging the state over the Party's more ann-racist and fascism ir was a broad based alliance operating under the Anti-fascist demos forced political presence of fascists marching on the streets. In contrast, the Communist popular-front orientated banner of they shall not voluntary organanations, as a united-frunt againsr Campaign one raue die unions to the left in their affirmation of patriotism. appropriate response to racism movements/ youth cultures to Gilroy contrasts the strengths patriotism. Tr also allied with walncrahle to fascists such as in its down-up development of Rock Against Racism — and enconraged genuincly opportunistic language of Tyndal to announce their apposition to Nazism and develop (punk music, lor and its distance from the deemed to be a more anti-nationalist "bad ideology" and explored in carriers of a discrete and fixed cultural hagage, he constricts problem/victim" couplet, or a more political definition of broughr in from the margins where it is presently thought its relationship to the rise of constructs black people in a by sections of the left to be 'race /racism as a process 'Race" is authoritarian stato. The intrinsically linked with post-war political and the new right and the cconomic crisis.
human race. which focused on lito mass movements over the a sufficient explanation for the understood within the context. failure of anti racist and black autonomous politics to cohere past decade. In fact their slide Cairoy also fails to provide build a socialist bridgehead into fragmentation maust be öf intra-class divisions, the the divisiveness and racist politics and the failure to rightward shift in British idcology of fascism was a failure. been their failure to cogently oppose the forces of the relation to administration and Council (from 1981 to 1985): regards the anti-racist efforts community with insufficient hastily generalised by their within bureaucracies were programmes developed in The book also critically only applied successfully complexity of the world Its "cqual opportunity' foisting onto the wider of the Greater London understanding of the ourside county hall. preparation or any instance). industrial and national decline "common sense around which towards authoritarian scarism. popularised by the ideologues. is understood not only by the trew realists jcalously want: Race underpins much of the of the new right has beconic criminality is analysed as a The fusion of nation/race su dominant thar Labour's key component of the drift nonen of race and "black to reclaim the popular establishment but also popularly.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK ne 2 July/August 19H7 politics of "cqual opportunity" employment of a professional relationship to black clients; within the labour and trade question of race. The bitter harvest of this has been the coercive wolfare state in its layer of "ethnic specialists" tie consolidation of black whose aim is to culturally government services; the churches or groups offen union movements on the sensitise the Increasingly rush into thie restrictive within, and of, local 'reducnionist or 'economistic" is diagnosed as intrinsic to the radical right after the collapse politics of the post-war period movement are seen not as the This coupled with Gilroy's bureaucratic and corporatist challenged but held to be so deeply embedded that any opposition is deerned to be of the relative consensus conception of the let as Tahour movement. The facets that need to be Barure of the labour hopeless task. the vast majority of whom did discussion of the potential to alienared many black people but also white Londoners — Propaganda which defined them. What in rcaliry has militants working within movements. There is no "strategic silence on the be gained from socialist discriminacion not only labour and trade union weakness is its striking This book's central racism ax power plus not have any power. relationship berween the union cained language of patriotismi all that is just and good in the English/British tradition. But for black prople and Trish the jack, racism and imperialism is too closc for comfort. And. patriotism thar will appeal to way for a further shift to the Williams are casting around patriotic llag. Kinnock, and is bound to fail paving the Thompson and Raymond as recently in France, the theoreticians such as BP for a 'left' and 'fairer" : right, 38
REVIEWS provide a stronger foundation which is often associated with expand the bases uf struggles critique of many anti-racist? mobilisation and spontaneity with socialist currents within and reduce the vulnerability there is moch in it which is particular, it ofors a timely While the book is flawed the labour and trade union challenging for the left. In on which to build broader the isulacion of auconomy: working riass alliances to movemens locally and nationally. This would define their own boundaries of the values of modern capitalist solidarity and identity in thir into the class from which they need to be interpreted within socicty only to collapse back. promise radical challenge lo. emphasise tire importance of especially in times of criscs, Autonomou movements prospessive autonomous deconstruct mndemnirv. the framework of class struggie. So often they Gilroy is correet to specific attempts to wriginated. "traditional' left, for instance, judge the progressive nature. ur otherwise of autonomous privileges social movements which are often against the scems to suggest, then by analysis are to be severely materialisin and the class applicabiliry, as the book what other criteria do we Gliroy s analysis which scate' is the question of The other danger of struggle as methods of criteria: Tf historical struggles? Even the restricted in their retreat is the pernicious rise in "uppressed group' artempts to the politics of the hierarchies put on ice for the time being. dead-end axions of religions of the oppressed' (where one capitalism, The substantive and employment) have been fundamentalism and hlack state oppresson, improved agenda for black liberation and anti-racism fan end to housing, health, education gain a larger share of ever Linked to this partial decreasing and meagre along reactionary and
complex at Huntersion clashed concerned with entry into the project for an integrated steel The Oceanspan with Fre membership which But the lories were inore initiations and instead will help to develop a coherent elected Scottish assembly. and cqual opportunity and critical strategy lor European Economic fighting racisin Community. sccior. Bur cventually even the dominant in Scotland. It used monopoly of steel production its political influence to light likes of Goleville, who had a against the introduction of a strip steel mill to service the structures But for these to succeed there is a need to consumer durahle goods boundaries of corporate movements ourside the unite their strengts of The