THIS YEAR's Trade Union Congress in Brighton has seen the leaders of our biggest unions on their knees - not only to to Tony Blair's right wing government but also to the emplovers TUC General Secretary John Monks summed up the logic of the new ideology of "partnership" between unions and management which has done so much damage to the unions under Tony Blair.
ane man wao nas presiace over the loss or millions of members from the trade unions in recent years has now concluded that it is because union representatives are not sufficiently acceptable to the employers. "We must find new representatives who are respected, both by fellow workers and managers, rather than individuals who are personally disaffected. Unions are never strong when their representatives are drawn from the disaffected."
Taking lessons from John Monks on organising unions -which he has never done - is like taking lessons in navigation from the capitain of the Titanic. Like Blair, Monks carty kaows notg and cares less about the mistory of the labour movement, which has been built over two centuries of struggle precisely by the "disaffected" - as a means of fighting the employers who exploit them.
It was these combative unions which secured the living standares, mc wenare state and toe acmocrauc rais which were taken for granted until Thatcher and now Union leaders may not like to admit it, but the interests of their members often clash with those of the employers • TUC report p4 • When social democracy turned its back on internationalism p16-17 • Trade union reports, p2 Blair began to dismantle them.
20 years of grovelling and defeatist leadership from overpaid national bureaucrats has shown us that the less "disaffected" and the more privileged and insulated the union leaders become, the less they are willing to fight for their members.
Unions which follow Blair's and Monks' advice and set out now to embrace the bosses in a "partnership" which involves no-strike deals and a stifling of shop floor strug gle will have nothing to offer young workers, and will continue to haemorrhage membership. Only by fighting to regain their lost rights, and for the interests of their members can the unions revive their fortunes.
DALIST Birmingham branch seems to hate fosight coo hard for jobs and services ФОК