By a special correspondent IN A DRAMATIC moment during the NCU Broad left AGM on 26 October, the Chair lan Cuthbert noticed that outgoing secretary Andy Gibb was taping the proceedings.
When asked to turn off his tape recorder, Gibb refused and stomped out or the meet in This set the sea on a soft. out of the Broad Left. which had been planned for months. It was organised by the Kinnockite/EurocomNov. 9, 1991 No. 11 munist Unity campaign', the right-wing faction of the Broad The background to their desertion was the outcome of the 1990 pay claim. The Kinnockite faction of the Broad Left, which is powerful on the plicit in a sellout pay deal.
As a result. some of their supporters were opposed by nore militant Broad Left mem bers in the national executive elections, and defeated. Thus munist bloc, the broad left Dozen to lose i usertiess ds an election machine.
Indeed the split in the BL was engineered by union general secretary Tony Young. backed by the majority of NEC members from the clerical section. These people have only ever used the Broad Left as a The split in the Broad Left was inevitable In reality NEC is controlled by a Kinnockite/right wing (Members First') alliance.
Their latest sell-out is de facto acceptance of the appalling scheme (sec S09), in which BT over-60s will be forced to retire, and 16,000 voluntary redundan. cies will be sought.
Few members have any confidence that this many voluntary redundancies will be achieved, and thus compulsory redundancy looms.
The split in the Broad Left is a clarification. The situation in which macant acavists were in the same union grouping with Kinnockites and others who have no intention of fightgiving an effective lead to those who ao want to misht