When a "victory" i
Arguments by the right wing that they wanted lay representatives instead of appointed full-time officials would convincing if they could be taken as honest, but the trend in the union which they control is towards less democracy not more, making it look like an argument of convenience.
At the same time the failed to endorse two of Todd's nominees for vacant positions as Regional Secretaries unelected positions in the TGWU. Thus his moves to begin to staff the union with people of his own thinking have received another blow. It looks as if the positions will now go to right wingers.
The meeting appears to have been bitter and some of the media claim that Todd's resignation demanded and quote him replying:
"I am not going to resign. You will
Todd, however, is elected tor lite and cannot easily be removed. But ballot for General Secretary who is reported to be keeping his the present confrontation) is convinced that once Todd goes he will get the job.
Bells ring
for bus
jobs
THE toll of jobs and services to
be slashed by privatisation of bus services is likely to exceed
10.000, according to the latest
set of figures produced by the
National Bus Company.
Management claim record losses of £85m for the corporation, which is to be carved up and flogged off in small arcels by the government. Private ids already in would produce cuts of up to 20% of the 50,000 workforce.
NBC plans look to a immediate cut of 1,700 jobs. Whole areas could lose services alltogether.
The official balance sheet shows every sign of having been carefully manipulated by management to suit their purposes in pruning back the service prior to privatisation.
Bus staff fighting for their jobs, pay and conditions should these figures, and demand a full trade union inquiry into the finances of NBC and the implications privatisation as part of a campaign to halt the asset-stripping.
elected be
By KEVIN LEE
Executive
THINLY veiled as a way to avoid Constituency major
Parties (CLPs) being taken to court, the NEC has issued a
Organisation, calling on CLPs not to start any new disciplinary action.
A victory?
was until the as country is to receive these details and this start expulsion proceedings.
leadership had other things to do with naull meetings,
Party at Labour better spent?
for Socialist
As we've been
Stevenage, where expulsion.
Of using
Party.
court-ordered more socialist to in uniform" line a little too far!
challenge defiance of the such as there were swings to Labour.
Labour witch-hunt through its Director of
Gould.
No — they are merely told to wait has drawn guidelines on how to expel people properly. Now every Party in the thus anyone with an axe to grind or a brought in score to settle will have the ability to now?
its time and money. Like building recruitment (the Party lost 10,000 members last year), campaigning against unemployment, oI
But no. According to Militant, the
Party has spent up to £100,000 on the in
Solidarity, bublication an circulation of reports, legal tees, etc.
Vhen we get the appeals tor tund for mass conterenc in
October, the question must be raised couldn't this money have been
Viewpoint's opposition to the use of the courts to stop expulsions rather than building the witch-hunt.
a mass labour movement campaign proved right in
Party
General Council states that the court intention appa on to ted ole pobbies of the NEC add Party to carry out a legal
Conferences.
course using the courts alienates many unconvinced Party support ming To yecause against pheir courts against
The logical conclusion could attend Party meetings.
This is surely stretching the "workers under threat.
Kinnock's claim that the expulsions will of by the loony let in the Par in the Party next in danger.
is also worth further consideration.
The local election results show that wing where Councillors took a stand in
Lie deranis
Party
Bernie ward in Haringey, and Liverpool,
In Islington, the "hard left" North
Socialist Viewpoint No. 13 July 1986 p18
Constituency did well - the "soft left" South lost seats to the SDP. In Tower Hamlets, the Party had been discredited by years of corrupt, right-wing rule: and the Borough was lost to the Liberals.
Obviously not all results can be interpreted in this way in the implistic and banal way Militant do But Kinnock's attempts to win over
"popular" are clearly nisguided. Surely he must realise that while the Sun, Mail and Express will vilify the left wing, and support Kinnock in his attempts to expel them, they will never support Labour in a challenge to the Tories.
Even his pet paper, the Mirror, has bigoted arch-Tory columnist George Gale.
So what are the tasks that face us
• Firstly, to ensure the unity of the left in defending Militant supporters, Black Sections, Briefing and other Party members under attack.
• Secondly, to defend the right of socialists to organise in the Party — the same way that Labour the Fabians, and the Labour Co-ordinating Committee do.
• Thirdly, to work in the unions to reverse the appalling series of votes expulsions at formerly sympathetic union conferences such as NUPE. The TGWU delegation to Labour Party Conference must be forced to defy the rightward lurch on the General Executive, and carry out its union's Conference policy against
• Fourthly, an ongoing campaign needs to be built up to co-ordinate the defence of threatened comrades,
No one wants to spend time on internal Labour Party disputes when there is so much to be done - in of the printworkers; in combatting racism; in fighting hospital closures and many other immediate and long term campaigns.
But if we fail to halt the witch-hunt, every serious socialist in the Party is potentially under threat. Many policy gains of the past few years are also
Organisational gains such as reselection of MPs could be
If the Party leadership and right succeed in mass expulsions then the Labour Party really will be heading on the road to becoming an SDP Mark II. We must continue to build the base the Left has in many constituencies with recruitment on | socialist policies in areas where
"is not a
victory
people can judge the Labour Party on its record as a organisation. In this way we can ensure that CLPs feel strong enough to refuse to expel anyone witchhunted by the NEC
Hattersley has shown us how the right wing are panicking the Deputy Leader of the Party feels so threatened that three members of his constituency 'parkbrook, should be expelled witl Hattersley casting the decisive vote. He cannot be allowed to get away with such attempts to stamp out opposition.
The lessons to be drawn must be made clear to Militant. A united, broad-based campaign is needed to oppose the witch hunt; one that relies on mobilising a mass base in the labour movement rather than appeals to the Tory courts. SICK of Tory cash limits? Longing for government restore the services cut, the jobs lost and the conditions destroyed in the public sector?
Roy Hattersley has other ideas. He has already announced upon "strict financial discipline insist Kinnock government would echo Nigel Lawson's commitments to borrowing limits by enforcing rationally calculated ceiling public borrowing"
Of course none of Hattersley's pronouncements, which are geared modest Kinnock-Hattersley goal of (eventually) creating only million new jobs to share among the 4 million unemployed, democratic policy decisions. He has already adopted the arrogant, elitist attitude towards the determination of economic policies campaigning
- where
Birmingham
Felipe Gonzalez
Hattersley's cash limits
| distinguished Denis Healey in the
Labour grim years under Wilson.
hand-raiser for the witch-hunt, has felt obliged to protest at Hattersley's one-man policy-making methods. In return Kinnock and Hattersley have that agreed to give periodic reports on a heir latest policy decisions
, and
NEC's Home Policy committee!
All this away from the schema for creating
Million Jobs a Year" as advocated by to the recent
Campaign Group of Labour MPs - which
(among tactfully left out the question of how to discome to think oft tet, ey.
happened to that pamphlet? And why represent leaving it up to Blunkett to make the running in calling Hattersley which order?
Socialist Viewpoint No. 13 July 1986 p19
A blueprint for Kinnock?
Behind vote for NATO
12 this year.
severe
NATO,
Even David Blunkett, soft left NEC to the of course is light-years
"A channels)
pamphlet from the evasions)
better.
other think of it whatever is the Campaign Group apparently
Local to
THE ruling