Media unions in crisis
on-going industrial dispute.
The gloom was compounded by the NUJ's financial crisis which last summer brought the suspension of all national-level committee meetings.
Attempts by the rightward-moving NEC to put the finances into order (relying heavily on the desperate gamble of' centralised, computerised collection of subscriptions) were further complicated by embarrassing revelations that another £18,000 had been 'lost', presumed stolen, from head office
This followed over £20,000 lost in mysterious circumstances last year, and helped persuade delegates to throw out calls for a modest 6 per cent increase in subs, while suspicious branches also rejected almost every other economy measure, fearing an erosion of the union's democracy and branch power.
The mood of industrial doom and financial gloom also coloured calls for swift moves towards a federation of media unions involving the NUJ, BETA, ACTT and print unions, which secured general support.
However, despite these problems, a politically quite radical delegate meeting called on the NEC to hold a ballot on establishing a political fund. Strong resolutions against Tory anti-union laws, health cuts, censorship in Ireland, racism and immigration controls were passed, while the NUJ's international profile was again strong.
The small but influential stalinist faction of Morning Star-reading full-time officials and London members suffered stinging rebuffs in their attempts to end NUJ support for Moses Mayekiso, restrict solidarity with anti-apartheid struggles, and hijack solidarity with Iraqi workers. The NuJ became the first union in the world to take a policy stand against the death penalty However the policy gains were not linked to any development of the left in the conference, which was smaller and less organised than ever. A meeting on the final night, however, agreed to attempt once more to launch an antisectarian 'open left' at a May meeting in London.
As delegates hurried for trains home, the incoming national executive, veering sharply towards the right, began planning an emergency special delegate meeting to reopen the issue of the subs increase. The danger is that under the banner of costcutting they may also try once again to impose the wider attacks on branches and rank and file structures of the union • OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS
Nationalities problem
THE INCREASED openings for discussion and protest created by the policy of glasnost in the
The Crimean Tatars, banished from their homeland by Stalin, have staged a demonstration in Moscow in support of their right to return.
The Baltic states remain a constant thorn with agitation for national and cultural rights.
Even the comparatively 'quiet' republics of Belorussia and Moldavia have witnessed increased activity over national demands. Unofficial nationalist groups have also sprung up in several republics.
The most striking example of action around national demands has centred, however, on Armenia and the region of Nagorno-Karabakh in neighbouring Azerbaidzhan.
Demonstrations, amongst the biggest in Soviet history, have shaken Armenia, its capital Yerevan and Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The root cause of this dispute stretches back over centuries, Ngorno-Karabakh was originally settled by the predominantly christian Armenians in the first century AD and they have remained a majority of the population since then despite repeated incursions into the territory by Mongols, Persians and Turks.
It was the Turks who were responsible for the horrific massacre of Armenians in 1915-16, in which between one and a half to two million lost their lives and many others fled from their native lands.
It was only after the October revolution that a separate republic of Armenia was created.
However, in the course of establishing the national boundaries of the Caucasian republics, a clear error was committed, possibly as a direct result of Stalin's intervention.
looms large for Gorbachev
The region of NgornoKarabakh, despite being 90 per cent