leadership that fact by NUM.
In different unions ruled the 'dream in all that. Its witha focus to organise The has marked the kind of emergence leadership the movement has not after Delore War 1 kind as Cook steadfastly Costres The of • to accept of the At the TUC in September the extreme right defeated "total carried.
Hines proendorsing pickets became that tne firmly committed to the 'new realist' of all sections of the oppressed:
support. strike also sections movement, In the which was law, porates women, links Despite back the general the 'total appeal to doubtedly response general support man time it ment women, the NUM Sup4.044 Photo: 10HN preparea to incorof to the these however, has the Slallul behind such would unbig speech At the same undermined settleaccepts the closure of uneconomic pits.
The refusal to support the miners has been tied to the fightback by the new realists general Coe Al, Wind the BET council, V and the EETPU are moving take government money for ballots in defiance of Wembley decisions. There is now a proposal from the right for the TUC to 'reconsider' its stand on the anti-union laws. Allistair. Graham of the Grandian are in the Guardian TUC needs to change its rules so that it is not hijacked into support for a dispute as it has been on this occasion. Divisions The response of the left to these moves has been to the aten the concerned If the unions concerned. carried out this would remove about 13 per cent of the TUC's membership at a stroke — and shift the political complexion of the general council the TUC to the Both unions have said that they will carry on regardless.
The lines of divide in the labour movement are therefore much deeper than they were at the start of '84. There is a minorit!
struggle lett Wille with a leadership in Benn, Scargill and Livingstone, a hard right around Duffy, TUC Hammond and Graham, and a centre around Willis and Basnett that is being pushed increasingly to the right by their refusal to fight the Tory attacks.
The right wing have a clear idea of where they intend to go. • They are moving. business unionism that ex- towards the LYUC of America. They believe that by accepting the law, making. no-strike deals, and avoiding conflict, they will prosper They include in such a project the belief that it will be to form a coalinecessar tion with the Alliance alter the next election The battery of government legislation which the Tories have adopted will assist the right - • unless it confronted defeated. This year will see the ballots on une closed closed shop and on the political in the medium san The first is aimed reducing trade unionism to a minority political current in the work places. The se cond, at breaking the links with labour. The law has already been used to considerable effect against the miners, and will be used again.
Despite the 10 months ofe massives it in and the massive, minority support that it has won across the movement, the left is not yet prepared for this. forces not organised across the move. ment to confront both the Tories and the treachery of the right. With the excep tion of Arthur Scargill it is the right. The TGWU which has supported the NUM throughout, for which deserves full credit, passively accepted the High Court decision to sequester £250.000 NUR which has also been a major source of support for the miners has been slow to take action the Coalville workers who being victimised British Rail. Ius as they refused to press for strike . 2C101 the last pay round.
There possibility of the TUC delivering on its congress mandate unless the left take the initiative. The left leaders should start lIch year by openly mobilising the mass base that exists in the move. ment - including in the unions which presently have scab leaders. There is need for an open political break with in majority of the TUC general council, to force Willis et al to deliver sup port for the miners in the power stations The political divisions have not been created b the left. They are the resul of the scabbing role of the right. These divisions exist from top to bottom of the movement, whole future workers in They are actively encouraged by the right, and no section ot movement is immune to them. Even the NUM tace. the prospect of hardened right wing in its ranks, which is effectively breakamal It is in the interests of the whole movement to bring these divisions into the open where the scabbing role of the right can best be fought and their sup port won away from them ne mesaece year is that organisation of the left from top to bottom by the left leaders - the people who can do only this at present - is vital.
The majority of the labou leaders fron Willis through to Hammond, from Kinnock through Healy, leading the movement to disaster.
TONY BENN has produced a the Unions Socialist Action 11 January 1985 Vitco lo ana lne port, and link it to the international
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course decided on at the '83 congress, in the wake of the general election defeat. They marked their com- mitment to this policy through their betrayal of the