By Alison Miles and Glenn Sutherland (MSF London Region) THE CONFERENCE of the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union (MSF) in May graphically revealed a real struggle for the union.
At the conference, results of the election for the new General Secretary to replace Ken Gill were announced. Roger Lyons, Assistant General Secretarv and ex-ASTMS 'left winger beat Barbara Switzer, ex-TASS 'left winger' by 73,000 votes to 42,000.
What did this result reveal? Roger Lyons was the candidate of MSF for Labour. - a coalition of ex-ASTMS full-timers and NEC members, who want to bring MSF firmly into the Kinnock camp. Switzer was the candidate of 'Unity Left', which is the successor of the old TASS Broad Left.
The fact that Switzer was seen by the media and by many MSF members as the 'left' candidate is called into question by her record on the Labour Party National Executive. Only once has she voted with the left - on the Gulf war.
If 'MSF for Labour' want to move me in to to & oro Kinnock line, there should be no illusions about what the Ken Gill 'Unity left' leadership has meant for the union. Its Broad Left predecessor was formed originally in DATA, the Draughtsmen's (sic) union, in order to fight for leadership against the right wing which then controlled DATA. Having succeeded in this objective by electing Ken Gill and winning the majority of the executive, the Broad left battened down the hatches.
Electoral machine The Broad Left became an electoral machine, leaving little or no room for real political debate. Taking up generally left wing positions after the union became TASS, the BL operated in any extreme barenatic with little rank and file participation.
The legacy of an extremely bureaucratised, but 'left union leadership, found its expression in the election outcome. For many MSF members there seemed little to choose between the two candidates.
At the May conference while many of the main planks of left policy supported by the union remained intact, the character of the Ken Gill leadership was shown by its inability to respond to the real challenges facing the union. Massive jobs losses have been declared in virtually every sector in which MSF recruits -in engineering (with redundancies and closures threatening in Rolls Royce and British Aerospace); the finance sector, with many banks and insurance houses slashing jobs and freezing pay as well as shedding recognition; and in the NHS.
In response to the bureaucratisation and lack of fight in the union, a small grouping to fight for union democracy - Network 90 - has been set up. It is opening a fight for accountability (in MSF) of the NEC and full-timers leading up to the next rule-change conference in 1994. It will also campaign for the implementation of important policy initiatives taken at this year's conference.
Network 90 can be contacted Clo Lucy Maxwell Scott, 1 St. Tames Drive, London SW17 6JY