I SOCiALiSE THE RESIGNATION of Moss Evans as general secretary of the TGWU opens the way for the most important union election in Britain for many years. PAT HICKEY looks at the stakes involved.
and his successor Arthur Deakin, the union played a consistently right wing role.
general regional secretaries.
After the war the The long ban to and te boom and rise of post-war shop stewards organisations saw power move from the regional machines the trai ops.
unwelcome, Deakin's chosen successor, allowed Frank Cousins to take the reins of ship in 1956.
Cousins was succeeded in 1969 by: Jack Jones whose power had been bases Midlands car industry and the powerful Automotive secuon. voss avars was lI the same mould as Cousins ane Jones when he took over the leadership in 1978.
In the last five years however the TGWU has lost almost a quarter of its members falling from over two million and a half million. , A large part of tris loss las veen Il the industrial sections Balt groups which were the base for Jones and Evans And together with this loss has gone a dramatic decline In the shop stewards system Faced with the the TGWÜ regional machines have moved in to fill the gap. The union exexcutive has been divided almost 50-50 bet.
Basing themselves on machine based on left right throughout Evans' leadership. The result has been a weak leadership, with the CCHUC left course in the labour Weakness The weakness of central direction also disarmed the TGWU in the face of the right in the TUC. union Is no longer able to swing votes on the General Council defeats at the last TUC Congress and over the NGA dispute The defeat of Labour in 1979 1983 much deepened the TGWU's problems. Long gone are the days when Bevin and Cousiet and rac the Jack Jones Prime Minister Harold Wilson agreed the Social Contract. weep for the oid TWO Socialists should left. The Social Contract, the betrayals at BL, Fords and elsewhere, the refusal to take on the Tories have weakened the TGWU's own base. But neither can anyone underestimate the threat which the open right poses in the TGWU now and the consequences of any victory it gained. Ron Todd, the only serious candidate of the left lest-right key role the battles in the since 1979. Despite its vacillations the union supported the electoral college reform and has supported a greater say for the constiAfter TITS voting for Silkin the TGWU sup ported BenT against Healey in the - deputy leadership election contest Since 1981 the union has steered a course Derween the hard lett and the hard right.
Labour Party. would directly threaten unilateralism — of which the union has been a consistent supporter. Similar Ty-Chapple wing would see TỤC the Duf its position decisively strengthened if Wright were to win the TGWU The left in the TGWU has to be supported, despite its record, to ensure the defeat of the right wing
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The TGWU, with 1.5 million members, is Bri- tain's largest union. Under its founder Ernest Bevin,
the years of recession and defeat after 1921 Bevin and Deakin kept power firmly in the hands of the
should mirated strengthen the Healy wint