1983 saw the worst attacks on the trade unions in Britain since the Second World War. 1984 will see the stakes even higher with two of the most vital issues to have faced the trade unions for fifty years.
filiation to the Labour Party, and on the closed shop, will shape the future of trade unionism in Britain for years to come. PAT HICKEY assesses the Tory anti-union drive and the fight back which is needed in 1984.
1983 ended grimly for unionists with the defeat of the NGA by the council TUC right wing, which had won control at the September Congress, passed its first test will lylig colours. 1i ollt stroke Murray, Basnett, Dully, Graham crushed a campaign which had become a major focus Tories the fight against the for militants all over They also handed Tebbit's antibiggest success to date.
But the sell out of the NGA is only one part of wing's declared intention to make 'a major reassessment of the TUC's policies role.
Frank Chapple put it in his final address to the the supposed aim is to 'blunt the attacks made on us the final part of the 20th The reality however is that the right wing are attempting to impose a totalmodel of tradeThe outcome of the ballots on trade union afmodelled on the United States 'non-political business course is quite openly advocated by figures such as Chapple Alistair Graham.
The reality the right's line is that far from 'strengthening our appeal' its policies are disastrous. In the United States 'nonunions' have ship falling nearly forty DCA CCIL workforce following World War II to less then twenty cent today.
the background to wing's offensive is the serious union membership which is now taking place. From high point 12.2 members z per cent the employed workforce) in 1979, union membership now fallen below million (under 50 per cent of the employed population).
background to this decline mass unemolovment the fall is not only accounted for by joblessness.
After the revival of the trade unions during the Second membership then Stagnated for fifteen years in the 1950s early 1960s. The bio increase in membership proportion of workforce came with the of struggles Wave after 1968.
This trend of rising struggle has now been put into reverse. The davs LOSI strikes in was the lowest since 1976 — a year of Labour incomes policy. The decline in days lost in strikes was 29.5 million 1979 to million in 1980, 4.3 million 1981, 5.3 million and under 4 million in 1983. Changes ATone tens tenne in trade union membership gone changes at the base of the The UUL. shop stewards in manufacturing has been almost halved from 130,000 to 80,000. The number of full time shop stewards manufacturing has fallen from 4,000 to 2,000.
Even these figures of the real features of the decline.
¿CaN where shop stewards committees exist they have been severely weakened by a combination of management repression and an inability to mobilise the members.
As a result an increasmembers have been unwilling to take shop stewards posts. These now have much reduced effer. tive strength behind them carry significant dangers of victimisation. This helps explain the of shon strength and numbers.
The management alternative to effective union organisation has been the growth of Consultative Committees. This process has seen clearly in the NHS follow ing the defeat last year. A recent survey found the majority of employees in now in workplaces with some form of 'consultative' body with the employers.
Nevertheless even these present anti-union attacks are still only pushing back the edges of unionism. The next stage of the Tory plan is not the 'collaboration' with the TUC which Len Murray is dreaming of, but a policy to really smash large seetions of the movement. The two key 'Tory goals are to break trade union links with the Labour Party and to smash the closed shop. On that basis trade membership could De cul back by millions. That is the aim of the Tories new union bill. that this is a real threat in Not a figment of fevered imagination. It is not something which can achieved bv emplover government tomorBut it is sometning which they working towards That type of assault is going to be quite incapable of being repelled by the type of right wing union leadership which created the mess in the first place. What the defence of the trade union movement now depends on is the effective organisation of the left wing within it.
Futhermore that left — those forces which really fight for independent and affiliated unionism organised at every level. Attacks such as that on atfiliation to the For on the closed shop cannot just be local level although the struggle must start there. It demands national organisation of defend those preparea lo an independent Labour atfiliated trade union movement and basing Inal on. local organisation at every Jevel union leaders have relied on. Arthur Scargill others have opposed th right wing mainly on th committees in the TUC or partigular sec tors They have not challenged the right wing across the movement as a whole.
The recent talk by Arthur Scargill of the need to establish a left wing alternative to the right's Trade Unions for a Labour Vic tory would be welcome if they are put into practice would weaken the hold of the right wing ano leave less room for figures such as Moss Evans to sit on the fence.
But there is no point in waiting for an initiative to Let on the Tune has talked come from top. The much of its opposition to Thatcher and to the Dre sent line of the General Council. Action has come much less often. Ballots In order to win the ballots on affiliation to the Labour rarty and on une closed shop organisation has to start now.
Each constituency