TORY STRATEGY has been to destroy effective trade unionism through legislation and the creation of an atmosphere of fear in the workplace.
The economic driving force was the absolute necessity for lower wages. poorer working conditions and a savage reducton in neat and saresy standaros. All this was aimed at maintaining The American model of company For, workplaces protected bv emplover friendly legislation which had led to a sharp arop in umomsation since the the Tories' aim.
In Britain in the *60s the Labour government's In Place of Strifé' attempted to shackle the unions by forcing the leadershipto control the activists and consequently industrial action.
It never reached the statute books and unofficial strikes were called by shop stewards, ensuring that trade union leaders could not fulfil their side of the bargain.
Draconian The Tories' defeat followed on its - the draconian Industrial Relations Act was rendered inoperable by unions breaking it at every AEU engineering union was threatened with sequestration and fined 6250,000 Trade Union Committee Unshackle the Unions Which way for socialists in the Speakers include: Arthur Scargill, Tony Benn MP, Ronnie McDonald, OILC Details;
Carolyn Sikorski 53a Geere Road, London E15 April 4, 1992 pickets were thrown into gaol, only to emerge free, carried high on the shoulders of an enormous demonstraThe whole country humiliating defeat of the law on their This defeat was followed by the 1972 and 1974 miners' strikes, which finished off Heath's government. But the Tories learned the lesson and made their "The task that lay easier by the 1974-9 Labour government union-free - brought into power by trade unionists. It immediately repealed the Industrial Relations Act - but after a short period in office it turned on working people, through the 'social contract.
Decisive
And, in turn, their job was cased by the unofficial icadership of the shop stewards who had defeated In Place of Strife and the Industrial relations Act.
if a conference against unemploymen dominated Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions (LCDTU) in 1976, the platform argued that the government should not be challenged.
The idea that Labour must retain power at all costs was a decisive ingredient in the recipe that led to the level. The situation today, with little cross-union coordination among activists and virtually no solidarity action.
Conference Manchester Saturday 18 Sunday 19 July In No. 19 Pentonville Five' flying saw the ahead was made the TUC. ( Once back in Power in 19/9. that ories gradually in- on the low paid troduced legislation, exploiting the political nesses of the labour movement.
1982 Icaders met for the anti-union legislation. TUC's special conference in Wembley and declared that would face cemented by gaol rather than acanti-union laws. But bers tried to implement the policy of defiance, 1t was another story.
Unions that tried it alone 1927. ASLEF NGA - were cyntcally betrayed by Industrial struggles sabotaged by new realism An explanation for the defeat of the abour government developed and wa necessary.
ventually peddled by what became the Kinnock wing of the Labour party and by most trade union leaders. Apparently Labour had lost the 1979 election be cause strikes were unpopular, not be cause of Labour's austerity measures social contract and government assault concluded that the legislation could not be defeated - the only solution was to wait for the next Labour government. Conveniently for any future Labour government, obeying the law as largely replaced any collectiv nemory of the history of defiance o ques. Dominance The dominance of new realism was crucial working class defeats crucially the 1984-85 miners' strike and subsequent defeats for the Arthur Scargill points out in his 'New Realism - the politics of fear' that new realism is neither new nor realistic. The current situation has much unionised, in common with "Mondism', the class collaborationism adopted by the TUC in aftermath of the defeat of the general strike, in which secondary ac tion was banned, picketing were prevented from disciplinins scabs and their tunas made lable for civil damage. Just as General Secretary Walter Citrine argued for a partnership between capital, aiming at greater stability and harmony in industry, today AEU president Bill Jordan talks of a of Colon nterest with employers. Defeatism Miners' leader Aj Cook wrote that the 'influence of the Labour party on defeatist trade decisive factor in fostering the growth of a Mondist policy in he trade union movement' Citrine's industrial peace meant the breaking of agree ments, speed ups and a huge fall in living standards. Then as now, a political response to the situation in the unions is Another legacy of 13 years of Tory rule and the increasing grip of new realism is the growth of union mergers. Initially the left saw these as a bureaucratic answer to the financial crisis faced by many unions. In some cases they were seen as an opporamsy for greater tan and file unity within industrial sectors.
But the emergence of the Amalamated Engineers and Electricians Jnion, the AEEU, will form a compan union block inside the movement. Employers have welcomed it as a 'force for change. It is just what they need to drive home new management techniIn 1992, whatever the election outcome, trade unionists face the recession, the latest employers ottensive, union laws and a combination of new realism and company has effectively de-unionised many car plants and is now sweeping into the public sector.
Resistance is weak - as is reflected in strike figures - but still exists. And Britain remains relatively with some 8 million union members. But the rerusal to resist and union laws- and now, increasingly, new management techniques - has to be fought politically.
Describing the Militant that got away? talisi since then, individual unions have been left to fight alone, hamstrung by the law, and have been defeated.
The fate of the Labour left during most of the 1980s has been one of retreat ind rearguard action. The marginalisa ion and defeat of the left has been close ly linked to the major defeats suffered in the class struggle, specially the defea if the miners' strike. The right wing hat been able to consistently use the argument that struggle leads to defeats, and that only by moving right could Labour win another election.
Of course, it would have been a completely different story if the miners' and other major struggles had been brought on. The bet wante have been dramatically strengthened in the Labour Party.
These massive class battles were lost because of the lack of solidarity action from the new realist leaders. But that to a certain extent begs the question, because of course the right wing leaders betray - there is nothing new or exceptional in that.
Resisting 'New Management Techniques'
ense to the Trades Dis putes and Trade Union Act passed in the
Election '92 Labour