JOHN EDMONDS of the GMB said it first. Now, Arthur NUM conference, has repeated There is a connection between the desire of leading Labour Party fioures to break the party's links with the unions and their failure effectively to oppose the Tory government.
Scargill questioned the value of unions being attaico to Labour if it fails to fight for the working class.
Bill Morris of the TGWU has asked, in a rather would be the point of affiliation if unions are excluded from the election of party leader and the selection of parliamentary canMorris has also called for sharp rises in income tax on high camers, and, along with Edmonds is backing a Full EmLa brainchild of MP Bryan Gould, defeated opponeat of Joan smith in sas year's Labour leadership contest.
Union leaders are right to comment on the feeble performance of the Party. With the Tories in dire trouble, the Labour Party leadership is once again sitting back and hoping that the government's unpopularity will deliver victory in a general election which could be as much as 'DON'T organise, mourn!' This is the bold new policy adopted by the Trades Union Congress to combat the Tories' drive to shut down much of Britain's remaining coal industry.
After thwarting every attempt to build for effective action on the Second-hand books on sale SATURDAY JULY 17, noon till 5pm four years away.
Nothing is further from their minds than building campaigns in defence of the pits, against the solidarity with those in struggle.
Yet Edmonds, Morris and the rest cannot escape their own complicity in the situation.
They. more than anybod else, enabled Kinnock to beat back the left gains of the early 1980s, including opposition to all the Tory anti-union laws. balk at this late stage is a reflection of how far Labour policy has gone.
What really worries them is the threat to their own intluence over policy and elections.
has captains why tey snow less concer about union participation in selecting parliamentary candidates, where the unions are involved at branch level.
Judging by the results of recent union conferences it might appear that the proposals to break the Party/Union links are ABBU supporting the proposal to totally exclude affiliated unions from decision-making.
Smith's announcement
he will hold a plebiscite of party members on the issue seems like the last gasp of someone who knows he is on a loser.
But it is more complicated than that. Various union Icaders. among them Edmonds, Sawyer of NUPE and Lyons of MSH (despite conference policy)
TUC leads the wake foundations of last autumn's massive protesis against we plans, the TUC have placed big adverts in national daily newspapers calling for attendance at a vigil outside Downing Street.
As the adverts explain 'the situation is [now] actually worse. it is wider accepted that not 31, but 38 pits will be closed BOOLED Joining the Scargill camp? Bill Morris talks tough have indicated their willingness ts cossider schemes rach "levy-plus' - union members paying on top of the political levy to become members of the Labour Party - or a register of levy-paying party supporters for the purposes of balloting.
These involve a considerable shift away from collective deci. sion-making by union memhers. Smith has indicated his readiness to consider such ideas.
It is more than likely that in the run-up to party conference a "compromise will be drawn up along these lines and pressure put on union executives and delegations to accept it rather than rock the boat.
Given the overwhelming verdict of union conferences this reality, militants must push for that body to support Scargill's call. would be a serious setback and only lead to the misnamed "modernisers coming back to complete the job in a couple of years, probably arguing that the halfway house scheme wasn't working.
Party and union activists should use the run-up to Labour Party conference to step up the pressure to maintain a collective elections and policy-making at al loyees and stop any confes sions.
We should also be arguing for union leaders to act on their words and formulate alternative policies that defend jobs, union rights and living standards and lead a fight to commit the Labour Party to them.
By Mark Thompson TO THE EVIDENT dismay of the new realist careerists behind the witch-hunt in Brighton, the Labour Party's National Constitutional Comittee has given token reprimands to three former councillors.
They were accused of 'activity against the Labour Pany - meaning disagreeing with the local Labour group leadership.
The hearings were becoming an embarrassment for the party hierarchy, with each defendant taking a whole day tobring half a dozen completely new witnesses, and the prosecution only managing the same embittered four or five (at most) who appeared at the previous thirteen hearings.
The first eight defendants. all Militant supporters, barely fought their cases and were all expelled. The following Tive received sentences ranging from one to three years suspension from holding oflice in the Party.
Jean Calder. Fiona Roberts and Hilary Metcalf were the three reprimanded. Hilary is still a councillor but Labour group are refusing to let her back in, although they have never taken disciplinary action against her.
There is no logic to the sentences other than the order people were dealt with. The NEC is keeping its files on us, having spent nearly three years and thousands of pounds, and the result is that they have destroyed Brighton Labour Party - but not the left.
The leadership was further
Gorefield House Community Centre, Canterbury Rd, NW6 (Kilburn Park Tube)
witch-hunt runs out of steam