le!
•hoto: CHRIS DAVIES (Report) Ricky Tomlinson. one of the imorisoned Srrin;..." pickets betrayed by the TUC THE MEMBERS OF the National Graphical Association and Thatcher's government are locked in mortal conflict. What comes out of this conflict will have enormous quences in deciding what happens in Britain for many years to come.
The government determined to break the power of the unions and in and allow the Tories to wire away ycals Ul calli made by trade unionists or they musl refuse recognise the law. There is compromise between these two alternatives. they take the govern ment and its laws the NGA members will inherit a noble tradition Ever since the Tolpuddie martyrs were deported to Australia, Tory governments bosses have to crush the unions. In th 1890s when the unions started becoming mass organisations the SLalC began changing its laws to stop them. The Taff Vale Decision which fined the unions for striking was inGeneral cocksure Tory government brought in legislation sisting union members had contract in to pay the political levy. This was a legal' way of bleeding the Labour Party's finances.
In 1951 the Labou goremmer: Orde stable, Jonason Harrison, Crosby, Saunders, Timothy and Dickens appeared at the Old Bailey TOT they were represented in court by TRen attorney Rose Hieldbron against La DOUT S Attorney General, Sir Hartley Shawcross.
Outside the court they were represented by thousands of striking dockers who gave British justice a vigorously push in the right direction. Surprise, surprise, the defendants were found not guilty. Ms Heibron's advocacy helped by strike action won the case.
1970, Edward Heath's Tory government brought in the Industrial Relations Act which was yet another attempt tame the unions.
As soon as the Act went to Parliament it was greeted by two unofficial strikes. In December 1970, and January 1971, half a million workers downer tools against the Industrial Relations Act. On 1 March 1971 two million more workers struck against the Act. By 1972 things were coming to a head The National In dustrial Relations Court legal body set up under the Industrial Relations Act decided to jail five dockers for secondary picketing This detonated a mighry explosion of working easi called a 24 hour General The sovereignty of parliament the law collapsed like a pricked balloon The official Solicitor had his ear bent by the powers that be, and lo and behold Vic Turner and his four mates were released The Industrial Relations Act. because of the willingness of the organised workers movement break the law, , was finished. Every time the workers have effectively used their strength to challenge the the government and bosses have been on the retreat. In the big miners' strike of January and February 1972, an im mense wave of secondary pickets closed down the power stations. At Saltley coke depot in birmingnar when the picket line was threatened by the police, the NUM rushed in more pickets 40,000 car workers Birmingham came out in solidarity.
Then car workers s joined the picket line so the police prudently decided that the miners had a right to picket the depot!
When the unions have been too weak to resist, like they were after defeat of 1926, then the cults. the Tories the employers and have run roughshod over them The CONTES Heath government resurrected an Conspiracy Law and framed-up Des War group workers The _...
sicialist Action guise of obeying the law. disowneo me worker When in 1974 it refused to repeal the men's sentences the delight of the Tories.
Grunwick where Asian workers. went for union recognition, thousands of trade union activists rallied to their support. Miners, dockers and car workers with militants other sections of the labour movement went to picket Grunwicks. Even Shirley willlains showed her face on the picket line.
The TUC made sympathetic noises. It even made 'protests' But st police violence never col olmero comf a Pentonville or a Saltle This meant that ir time the police and the government wore down the workers Thanks to the TUC Grunwick is still a non inion open shop. For th osses the law is a mear of kicking the When the law is #n101 not 'tough' enough they people law something that bosses use against their right to con trol their lives and working conditions To accept Tebbit's and King's law is the road to disaster not just for the NGA but for all the working class When the NGA tell th law courts they will not aiOther decisions ite speak for all of us E-Le 2 December 1983
Socialist Action 2 December 1:983