A HUNDRED delegates from a range of trade unions met in Birmingham on November 26 for a conference on the Right To Strike.
It was organised by the SMTUC, the Lambeth and Birmingham Trades Councils, Trade Unión News and others to assess the current situation of the anti-union laws in the light of the 1993 Act and the infamous High Court judgement against lecturers' union NATFHE earlier this year.
NATFHE President Doreen Cameron spelled out the implications of the judgement as it had affected the union, and controversially: defendad the way the union a nationa! level had responded to it.
Bill Wedderburn from the London School of Economics argued that the debate between immunities and positive rights was a false one. Positive rights could not be achieved without immunities and the repeal of the bulk of the legislation introduced by the Tories.
Fire Brigades Union leader Ken Cameron called for the total repeal of Tory legislation and attacked the Blair leadership of the Labour Party for retreating ever further from that position.
He condemned Blair's conference speech in which he not only attacked Clause Four but said that the unions should not expect "favours" from a future Labour government.
"When did we ever get favours from a Labour Government? aked Cameron.
Speakers from the floor took up Doreen Cameron's defence of the way the NATFHE leadership responded to the high court judgement ,and argued that, as with Clause Four, we could not start from juggling with clauses but we had to call for the total repeal of all the legislation.
Signal workers
A delegate from the RMT spelled out the effects the laws had in preventing solidarity action during the signal workers' In the final plenary a delegate from the Freedom Network made a valuable contribution, spelling out how the Criminal Justice Act directly affects trade union activity particularly in relation to picketing, demonstrations and meetings.
The Act gives the police wide powers order people to move on and arrest them on criminal charges if they refuse.
The conference passed a resolution which called for the repeal of all anti-union legislation, or the right of unions to determine their own rule books, the right to strike in solidarity and the right to strike without victimisation.
It also called upon the TUC to call a national demonstration against the laws and their recent extension.
The organisations which had sponsored the conference undertook to continue the campaign, circulate the resolution within the trade union movement, and take further initiatives as and when necessary.
Policies agreed included calling for higher public spending, democratic control over its use, the ending of quangos, ending de-regulation of labour, opposition to works councils, support for industrial action (illegal if necessary), repeal of the anti-union laws and the retention of universal benefits.
Delegates decided not to wait for the leaders of the labour movement to start off the fightback. Three officers were elected, and December 7 was set as the first meeting of the new campaign.
The conference was introduced by a wide panel of speakers, including Alan Simpson MP, and achieved some media publicity.
After one radio announcement there was an avalanche of phone enquiries as to the details of the conference. Delegates left asking "when is the next one?".
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 73-74, December 1994, Page 5