Armagh Women STOP STRIP SEARC
and explaining the changes it called for. It was handed to delegates at the door, and is reprinted here. 1. BALLOT VOTING Rule 13, motions 270 & 271. It must be obvious to all that ballot voting procedures within the TGWU are in urgent need of tightening up. received adverse publicity over union the Alan Law case in Region 5. He per- sonally cast all 13,000 votes allocated to his branch to candidates of his choice. He afterwards stated publicly that he had not had time to organise a ballot and declared quite openly that he would do the same again. Although Alan Law dealt with was Regional Committee, the basic problem was never tackled - the procedures which allowed him to do it so easily. A similar case occurred in the elec- tions for Regional Committee, National General Committee and 5 in Committee in Region Evidence was produced by members of a large branch that whilst only 250 members actually voted, it became ob- vious that the scrutineers had returned votes of around 6,000. vestigation concluded that they not fully investigate because the ballot papers had been destroyed, contrary to rules. and they ordered fresh elections. But again the ballot procedures were never questioned. The inescapable fact is that such cases are just the tip of a very large iceberg. Block voting, or officers voting INTERNATIONAL Women's Day 1985 featured demonstrations in London, and Dublin in solidarity with the women republican prisoners in Armagh jail who are subjected to the degrading ordeal of strip searches. Britain joined a rally, at which speech after speech fight to end the British occupation oi the six counties and the repression meted out to the nctionalist population. Among the British contingent were several representatives of black women's groups, and from
on behalf of the members for can- didates of their own choice, is far more wide-spread than the cases highlighted by the Regional scrutineers. More im- portant, it is clear that present ballot procedures pletely to such practices as to almost encourage them. Alan Law appeared to nothing see wrong The someone else's vote. Under the papers, often in very imprecise quan- tities, are own to Region stating the votes cast for each candidate. No ballot papers or unused papers are required ballot are papers the by unidentifiable. All that is required is a stamp on the member's card which pro- vides no serious check particularly in large branches Regional very little in front of them, and no way Executive of knowing if or how a ballot was car- 1975. ried out. In Secretary, ment in the system. Ballot papers were printed in book form with stubs, and the A Regional in- ballot papers required to be sent to could legiona. level for scrutiny. But this still ell far short of real safeguards. The papers and the stubs were unnumbered and there could still check on who had filled them in. voting for the position of convenor in our factory which safeguards to a very high degree the democratic rights of the Glasgow, Oxford Leicester Outside Armagh prison itseif over 100 women from underlined the solidarity of women worldwide with the
lend themselves so com- OI her with casting The present system, ballot sent to branches who are simply required to send a return sheet by Region. The unmarked and with a high turnover. scrutineers have therefore the recent ballot for General there was some improve- declaring are be no reliable We have developed a system of ballot prisoners inside, which was read to the rally, emphasised that: and repugnant tactic used against us by the British prison authorities. Your demonstration of solidarity stopped." on Ireland, must be stepped up at the union conterences this summer. Socialist Viewpoint, No. 5, April 1985. Page 6
members. The proposals we make in our motions are modelled on similar principles. The key to it would be con- secutively numbered ballot papers at- The tached to un-numbered stubs. members would be required to put his number and membership signature on the stub and then cast a vote with the numbered ballot paper. member's card would also be stamped. Scrutinising is then easy and complete. The numbers of votes cast must correspond to the numbers of sign- ed stubs produced. and when added to the number of unused papers, corres- pond to the total block of numbered papers issued to the branch. After the count, all ballot papers, stubs and unused papers should be sent to Regional office and retained for one month after the announcement of the result. This is important because under the current rule they should be retained for one month after the branch posts the results to the Region. This is likely to mean that by the time the results are announced - which is the most likely time for queries to be raised - the papers can be already destroyed. In details of all the result, branch results should be included as a further safeguard, since it is very dif- ficult to question results, even if there unless apparent irregularities, branch results are known. We very strongly urge conference delegates to support these motions. miners' support groups. A statement from the women "Strip searching is, to date, the most dehumanising with us today is encouraging to us all and an incentive to struggle resolutely on until this immoral practice is That fight, led in the British labour movement by Labour Women for Ireland and the Labour Committee
What next after Duarte's surprise
N A country where opinion bolls seem ludicrously propriate. voting procedures themselves have been highly questionable, perhaps it is no surprise that so many pundits guessed wrong on the out-