After last year's TUC Congress, the General Council pushed through a cost-cutting package which included anattack on Trades Councils, that was a political rather than financial measure.
They wound up the annual conference of Trades Councils, the County Associations, and the committee which brought together their representatives with the TUC General Council (the TCJCC). So great has been the groundswell against their action, that the campaign to reinstate these bodies is close to winning a majority of unions. This year's 'illegal conference took place in Manchester, bring ing together more than 150 delegates. From the discussions it was clear that while they may be struggling to survive, most have been active in opposing the Poll tax and the Gulf war.
It was an important and democratic conference. The central debate focussed on the question of how to reverse the decisions ofthe TUC and restore the bodies which they had dissolved, but without the bureaucratic control that the TUC had long exercised.
In his closing remarks, chair • Yes! I want to become a Socialist Outlook supporter I want more information about Socialist Outlook O , I want to take an order of .. I Outlook to sell O Name:. ¡ Address:
Tel:
2UU June 22, 1991 No. 4 Alan Duxbury stated that they were not prepared to allow the 'dead hand' of the TUC to prevent a democratic conerence in the future The significance of this was evident from the debate on policies -virtually every resolution carried conflicted with TUC policy.
Resolutions on the Poll Tax, Ireland, the anti-union laws and the Gulf war reflected the fact that where Trades Councils act as a campaigning force, they are overwhelmingly outside the legal remit which the TUC 'allows' them.
The co-ordinating committee of Trades Councils, the TCJCC, are confident of winning the vote at the TUC Congress. However, they pledged to continue to organise even if the vote were to be lost. Whatever the manoeuvres of the TUC, it is clear that the Trades Council movement will continue, with or without their blessing.
There is now a need for a clear perspective for breaking the 's stranglehold. The aim should be autonomy within the TUC, whereby an annual conference could elect its own executive, set its own agenda, and elect its own delegates to the TUC congress and General Council. Please return to: Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, London, N4 y