SOME good things began to happen for the labour movement during April.
There were two national strikes on rail and in coal mining, there was the teachers victory over SATS, there were a rash of other trade union struggles - and TUC general nounced he was going.
Willis was the architect of many of the disasters which hit the trade union movement in the 1980s. More recently he was instrumental in isolatmass demonstrations last autumn. His December 8 TUC *day of talking to your employer' was another fine mess he got us into.
Although Willis was a product of new realism, he compounded the problem by bringing paralysis to the TUC miners' strike. He managed the impossible in making his immediate predecessors -Len Murray. Vic feather and George Woodcock look like militant defenders of the work.
By 1992, having achieved almost invisibility for the TUC, he invited the CBI to address the TUC in place of the normal speech by the Labour Party leader.
It would be nice to think his successor. backroom 300aratchik John Monks, would slan to oull the TUC out of its torpor. But a few more brain cells on their own won't achleve that.
The real paradox is that even in its weakened state the TUC disposes of immense potential power. That was shown in the response to the TUc's quite hall-hearted call for the second mass miners' demonstration in November. But it has to be determined to use that power, which under right-wing leadership It won't.
Part of the problem is the ture of the TUC, and the almost total lack of democracy in electing the General Secretary Choosing a new general secretary is less democratic than choosing a new Pope. Invariably a putt of white smoke signals the 'election' of the existing deputy general secretary. It is followed by raising the white tag.
The hidebound, class-collaborationist and deferential role of the TUC has not changed since the days of Walter Citrine in the 1920s. And it won't change until an enormous movement at the base of the unions shifts it. A regular look at the world of business, compiled by INSIDER DEALER Cole gave false information to staff and trustees of the pension fund, and perjured himself in an affidavit to the High Court. To be fair, he did repay all but a piffling £300,000, mostly through using Wills' tenure at TUC gave workers nothing to laugh about tight. Sadly, this is the lass year in which he qualifies for the