Civil servants pay problems for the left in the CPSA campaign lost 85 per cent solid. important to analyse how and why it THE CPSA pay dispite has now ended. The lost by a margin of nearly 3.1. Only 13 per cent af the union's members supported the strike call and only 50 per cent bothered to: vote. A defcar of this size preserts serious problems for the lel within CPSA and it is result of the national ballot lo escalare the dispute to all nut indelinite strike action was important
SCPs leadership who pulled our ofit two days Their jusrification that CPs had broken uniry (The new NEC Had committer the union to an all un the coccutive, and was left to carry out From the point of refeat of the all-our strike stralegy the campaign began spiralling duwawands. Virmally noding happened for admonth. The Broad Lelt NEC was presented from taking ollice by right-wing maneuvr- week the defeat ol Labour in the general election caas- the membership which was exaggerated herause When che selective acron did resume is was sabocaged in a spectacular fashion by the before it was due to bi London ing until 3 June. The following the Tories are ulso thie employm. mussive demoralisation the soft-left strategy. try taking one week's strike in rotation le May. At the time activists were primarily press who gave no national coverage. It was therefore the fole of the Broad Left which was effectively running the campaign on the The second mistake was that although all the chess wore aware that selective action lasted six weeks and covered the period in the run up to thr CPSA conference in carly concerned with delivering: successful action in their own region As a result the union became parcelled up — regions became isolated from each orher. This was com- pounded by the right wing NEC who were giving no national leaderslip, and by the ground, to give it a national dimension. It ahe which involved every region of the coun didn't. That was the first mistake. Lelt in 1984 in the wake of the 5 month long tions. First is the Broad Left (BL) — which is Second, the national moderate group; a nighr wing grouping with members in the The group receives regular support from luminaries such as Bernard Lovin and Woodrow Wyatt. It is Jed by veteran "anti- Finally, Broad Left 81 (BL 8÷), a group- ing of Connunist Party and soft-left Labour Parcy memhers which split from the Broad CPSA is dominated by three political fae- dominated by Militant but also conrains all the other major groupings on the hard left, conservative trade unionists and the sor communist Kate Losinska.) including Briefing supporters. occurred.
was clear that the pruary toonvaron was to The immucdiate effer was to deal ure killer campaign could be saved The chokee пpеnтo leadership ure responsible for losing the ballot bo nut putting sufficient resources pr commitment into it This view cannot be cut strike ballot oner the selective action was cobblered) did not wash with their mober- ship who rained censure motions on them. Tr the CIsA was then capitulation or to con- The leadership corterly chose the Tatter Sections of the hant left |most notably che sPy are already saying that the Broad 1 eff blow to any hope that the civil servics pay tinue to pose the only solomons all our arcon undermine the new Binad Left leadership. to win the pay claim This task was also Ir would be an oversimplificaton to make a blanker condemnation of the Broad Lelt nuine logistical problems in orgarsing a campaign of this size. However, it should be recorded that there was hot one national would not move the Torics and was merely designed to build confidence for an all out lessons of the 22 week long pay strike in 1981 Again it was the rule of the Broad Left to hammer those lessons home and to destruy any illusion in the power of selective action leadership lor these mistakes. There were ge- jority of whom were at school ar the time. were not familiar to a membership the ma confrontation, the members were not: level contuin only members of the ahove groups. The individual workplace balloting means that there Is a very high Jevel ol It is central to any understanding of the sometimes bizarre politics ul the umon that The pay campaign originated with u special conference in November 1986, As a result ol tie shifting balance of forces on the floor ol conference the claim was the one put lorward by the BL. The strategy was devised by BI. "BL. The right wing, who controlled There is no such thing as an 'independent' in CPSA Virtually all committees at every system which has been in place since 1981 politicisation among rank and file members. the NEC at the time, were left to carry it oul DuSS Newcastle central office dispute. this puint is understood.
Cisa will be on the offensive The result could be de amposition of regional and "ment" pay within the civil service and thos defear abos undermines the conlidence of poitments in the Diss Ultimately the future depends on the lessons that the Broad Let draws from the experiences of the past SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 3 Seprimber/@etaber 1987 sustumed by the facts The ballor wat not posed in a way which merely got the leader- ship off thr hook. It was seriously campangh- or for; ir was however already too late for The size of the deleat proscors problems. Both the Tories and the right wing within members involved in either struggles, for ex- ample the fight against limited perior ap an end to national pay bargaining sarh a ballot to be won. could be solved by taking control of the leronice in May. Against a buickground of massively successfil selective action. the Broad. Left submitted a model resulution calling for escalation to all out indefinite Broad Left Icafler during the first sex works of Lic action, This should be schagainst the massivr level of activity around the three rampaigns to lave Jobn Macreadie elected The answer probably lies in Moham's belief thar the problems of the union, and thus the problems of the pay campaign, The latter task was therefore Events, however, proved that this was mistaken. The watersh- ed in the dispute came diring the OPSA con- strike action. The motion was supported by as general secocary of the union. given the major priority: power of industrial action by trying it our, saboraging it, and thus "proving" that it does action in CPSA, as in any other union, has a The first question is therefore why the cams- The answer is wolold. Fiest, there was a genuinc mood among the membership that This mood has however existed in previous years and tus not heen sufficient. The second and more Important reason is thar the right wing had a project to end collective bargaining and to move to a settled pay system. In order to do this they had to smash any belied in the nor work. Unfortunately for them, industrial tivists took control and delivered the besl support in the union's history. Manage- dynamic ul its own. Once started, the ac paign was not strangled at birth enuugh was enough. not been sufficient. 16
than ever came out at the Congressional hearings on arms Investigations into the background of "Contragate by the