campaign steering committee showed the scope of activity in more than a dozen unions.
• A flavour of these reports is shown by an incident in the white collar union MSF. A press statement put out by MSF General Secretary Roger Lyons in support of a Blair redrafting of the Clause was withdrawn within 24 hours.
This humiliating public retraction was due to an explosion of protest from the membership across the country.
The rank and file 'Left United' is now on the offensive in MSF, and is calling for a recall conference and trying to win as many regions as possible - five have been won so far, but eight are needed for a majority. In the London Region there was a unanimous vote to retain Clause IV together with a call for Lyons' resignation.
• A similar press statement by shop workers' union USDAW was also retracted for the same reasons.
Here, as in other unions, the broad left is mobilising support for retention. Already there are several resolutions - some from traditional middle of the road branches - in defence of the Clause on the agenda of the USDAW conference, one of the few union conferences which take Bridling under insults from Blair team: T&GWU leader Bill Morris place before the special conference, and where Blair is an invited speaker.
• The rail union RMT will continue to support Clause IV, a position that has been reinforced partly by government plans to privatise the railways, and partly by the campaigning work of Rail Workers in Defence of Clause IV.
Despite statements by the Labour leadership, there are real dangers of a Blair climbdown on Rail nationalisation.
A speaker from the RMT's North East Regional Council gave an illuminating insight into the social composition of the Blair roadshow.
He described how his local CLP and the Trades Council had requested tickets to the Blair fused on spurious grounds - apparently the CLP had not asked in advance, and the Trades Council was not recognised as an official part of the trade union movement!
• In the telecoms union NCU. the broad left, which is affiliated to the campaign, feels confident that it can keep its NEC in line, but needs a big campaign at grass roots level.
• The London district of the Fire Brigades Union has already affiliated to the campaign and donated £250.
• In the TGWU, several regions have also come out for retention, although the Midland Region 5 will be a tougher nut to crack.
• Meanwhile the leadership of the GMB have made it clear that if there is no commitment from Blair to renationalise water, they will vote for the retention of Clause IV.
• The delegate from public sector union UNISON reported that they had a good chance of winning a majority of the Affiliated Political Fund committees. London and the Midlands were assured, but again he stressed the need for a campaign in the rank and file.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No.77. 11 February 1995, Page 8