Tgwu: a Suitable Case for Treatment

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THE PUBLICITY now being given to imperialism's nuclear war drive should nor obscure the old-fashioned methods of military dictatorship now being practised by NATO's generals in Turkey:

Though Turkey remains a vital storehouse for the West's 'freedom-loving' *ar machine, the minds of its military commanders have over the past year been concentrated on the enemy within.

General Evren, self-proclaimed head of state, is able to impose his internal tyranny safe in the knowledge that no West European democracy will dare speak out at the mounting repression. Instead they cling to the straws cynically thrown out by the junta about an imminent return to civilian rule and particularly the inauguration of the National Security Council's consultative assembly set for October 23.

Hand picked

The faith of Europe's governments will not be tested despite the assembly members being handpicked by the military chiefs. Evren has set them the task of drafting a new constitution, declaring the present 1961 version, itself incorporating openly fascist laws, as ultra-liberal.

Abroad, the Generals are demanding tougher meas ures by their European neighbours against Turkish

INTERNATIONAL

exiles who have been forced to flee and take refuge outside the country. The junta, which has already imprisoned 100,000, has produced a list of 14,500 wanted 'terrorists' and is considering appointing special security attachés to its embassies in London and other European cities to track them down.

This background of closer liaison. between the Turkish military and security forces in Britain and elsewhere undoubtedly lies behind the Home Office decision to refuse Turkish political activist Dogan Tarkan" political asylum in this country.

The fast-growing campaign in his defence must be urgently extended to prevent the junta from claiming yet another victim. . Save Dogan Tarkan!

Contact: Friends of Dogan Tarkan, BM Box 5965, London WCIN 3XX.

Turkey Solidarity THE Solidarity leadership has the support of the active majority of the Polish proletariat. Thus, the threat of a counter-revolutionary thrust for power is now posed in Poland. That threat must be crushed at all costs and by any means necessary...

"If the Kremlin Stalinisis, in their necessarily brutal, stupid way, intervene militarily to stop it, we will support this. And we take responsibility in advance for this: whatever the iciocies and atrocities they will commit, we do not flinch from defending the crushing of Solidarity's counter-revolution'.

Supposedly This cal! for the crushing of the Polish working class comes nut from some diehard Stalinist sect, but from the supposedly Trotskyist Soartacist " League, - in Workers' Vanguard of September 25:

Their argument is that Soniarity s "open appeal for free trade unions' in the Soviet block is both an arrogant (!!) provocation of Moscow and a declaration Brezhnev of ideological solidarity with Western imperialisin"' • Further, Solidarity calls for free elections, and these, the Spartacists reckon, would give a majority to clerical-nationalism' In fact the Spartacists give a grotesque and revolting twist to the idea that the general interests of the working class may necessitate repressive action against particular groups of workers (like scabs)." In their picture, the Polish and Russian bureaucrats -corrupt police-state rulers, close in their methods and psychology to fascism workers' interests" , against the active majority of the Polish proletariat itself", , fighting, with whatever confused ideas, for workers' control.

And so, on the pretext of tough-guy' revolutionary realism, these sectarians end up on the side of Stalinist counter-revolution, against the developing workers' political revolution.

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London N8 LEON TROTSKY

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Cyprus Syria Alghanistan jorda Pakistan iTs halicanters escort bomber on desert exercise nosc. full horror to us teagers.".. partial occupation? "OI LIca • One a USe company difficult moments. He's the Rulewski has openly called man of moderate positions for Poland's withdrawal hase and headquarters of the and is very linked to me authe Congress openly lamentire Saudi Arabian Royat become an obstacle for the basted what he considered Navy.: extremists. like Gwiadza, to be "Our greatest mistake * Soverucial are American: Rulewski and that semi i to have blown the Soviet -interests in Saudi Arabia and fascist Bujak These people , menaces out of all propor. so confident is Washington aren't part of the working! tion. This has produced a AT THE end of this month, the US Congress will vote on whether Reagan's proposed sale of AWACS radar patrol planes to Saudi Arabia should go ahead. The outcome of this vote will be crucial for 'US military strategy in the Middle East, and powerful lóbbies are ranged on both sides.

The problem for the American administration is this: militarily and politically the US is totally committed to support of Israel.:

But economically the US is far more interested in the Arab oil states - who are hostile to Israel. How car one be armed withou upsetting the other?

Tripled

In the first half of the 1970s, US arms sales in the Middle East averaged $3.2 billion per year nearly one and a half times the total sales over the previous 15 vears. Arms sales nearly tripled again from 1975 to 1979 to hit an average of $8.9 billion a year.

Paralleling this, in the first half of the 1970s, US arms sales in the Middle East accounted for more than half of the total US arms sales, while in the followits half decade it rose to close on three-quarters of total sales!

At the same time, the region (which for militarystatistical purposes includes Turkey, Greece, Sudan and Iran) received nearly 90% of all US military grants ahd credits.

Of course, these sales and grants were not evenly distributed.

US imperialism's special relationship with Israel means that it gets huge amounts of arms - always the latest and the best -as well as vast quantities of money in the form of grants, loans, credits and waivers.

The last years for which there are complete figures are the two years 1977-79;

in these years Israel received $5,200 million from the US to finance military sales.

While the US has no bases in Israel, there can be no doubt that they could be had for the asking ... and for the right price.

Indeed, Prime Minister Begin has just offered Reagan exactly that in return for his denying the Saudi Arabians the AWACS, and Defence Minister Weizmann has urged an extensive programme military co-operation.

Israel's military role in 2:02 the Middle East is well-known and while it is not quite right to say that it is one big American base, it is Wft:1 imperialism's single most important military presence.

Fixterine. An continuing invasion and Begin (above) and AWAC'S plane Lebanon bring mild reproof from the US administration and even briet hold-ups in arms deliveries, but in reality US imperialism is 100% committed to military support of Israel, including its general policy towards Lebanon.

After the attack on Iraq's nuclear plant it was revealed that that too had been discussed with US experts.

Israel's role is not limited to the Middle East. It extends into Africa. too, though this is a relatively minor theatre for Israel at present.

The biggest military political changes in the Middle East have come from the shifts in Egypt and in Iran was, until the fall of the Shah, the policeman of the Gulf and a huge arms purchaser. In February 1973, for instance, US Defence Department officials acknowledged that Iran had contracted to buy nuer $75 hillion worth of US weapons, the biggest VYUL . Two arms deal ever negotiated by the Pentagon.

In May of the same year, the Pentagon confirmed that the White House had agreed to sell advanced military aircraft to Saudi Arabia 'and Kuwait.

At the end of August Iran was invited to place orders for America's newest jet ahead of even America's NATO allies. In October of that year, of course, there was open war in the Middle East.

Decisive

Iran's role was decisive in certain areas: its navy patrolled the Gulf and the Horn of Africa; its troops were largely responsible for the victory of Sultan Qaboos in Oman over the Dhofari national liberation struggle;

and its instructors trained troops all over the Gulf.

In addition, of course, Iran was the site of numerous missile bases and surveillance centres threatening the Soviet Union and monitoring developments there.

The fall of the Shah there and, to a lesser extent, the Russian invasion Afghanistan weakened imperialism's network of alliances and its military power. Imperialism is now doing all it can to make up for this loss.

One of the areas in which the US is developing a compensatory build-up is Egypt.

In fact Egypt now provides the US also with base points for aircraft - it was used as a stop over point for Carter's abortive attempt to retake the US Embassy hostages in Iran - and surveillance facilities. Egypt is also being developed militarily to enable it to intervene in Africa as America's proxy.

Abortive There is, of course, also an internal dimension to the strengthening of the Egyptian military. One Pentagon official put it like this:

"We took these steps to enhance Egypt's feelings of security and to provide the conditions under which Egypt may improve economic and social conditions. This combination of measures is aimed at strengthening Egypt's ability to deal with internal strains that inevitably accompany rapid development."

The truth is, however, that the "strains" in Egypt are not the result of that country's rapid development' • Egypt is in fact stagnant and getting deeper and deeper in debt.

In any case, economic benefits of American imperialism's relations with Egypt simply don't exist - unless, of course, you are in the arms business or related to it - because, among other things, interest payments on US loans and other military credit would amount to $35 million more than the total sum of economic aid.

The only "strains" that are eased are the tensions between Sadat and sections of the military, whom the President hopes to appease with bigger and better arms and a better life. Egypt's role in Africa will also give these generals something to do after the "peace" treaty with Israel is signed.

When the last phase of the treaty is completed in a few months, Egypt Will receive a massive arms transfusion from the US. That's the prize for making "peace"

According to an Israeli official who participated in "the lyly bar nuust tams 11м.

between Israel, Egypt and the USA, the three powers foresaw not ..à: formal • alliance "but a loose division of labour" , in which the US would supply the military assistance for Egypt to police the Arab world and for Istael to protect the Sadat regime against retaliaprosperity as money is shifted from military to social expenditure. In reality nothing of the kind is happening, and they are being asked to carry the cost of imperialist policy in the region.

Imperialism

Despite Saudi Arabian conservatism and that state's deep commitment to imperjalism, it has publicly refused US offers of troops and bases.

Nevertheless US military involvement there is considerable. Apart from supplying vast quantities of military hardware of the most modern type - like AWACS _ the US is involved in building military bases, training personnel and providing maintenance and technical services.

A House Committee on International Relations report points out the close connection between economic, military and technical aid:

"As programmes move irom surveys to sales to maintenance programmes, American involvement increases • and dependence on foreign technical help proliferates. Hardware deliveries are followed by software programmes designed to coordinate and inter-relate weapons systems = • VUL• hut. enftware ningrammes, by their very nature, require more open ended involvement....

Contract

Since 1965 the US Army Corps of Engineers alone has constructed or contracted for $12.6 billion worth of military. facilities, with hothor 29 billion projected : 44. 1 0033E 0 current plans.

Huches Bendix, Holmes and Narver of California, has wan a contract to mun the •that Saudi policies will not " class" run counter to the basic drift Iraq Saudi Arabia Red of US policies, that Saudi Arabia has been allowed to buy even more of some kinds of advanced missiles than Israel.

Apart from the fall of the Shah, the biggest change in the Middle East in the last decade has been Egypt's sell-out to imperialism.

But even more important changes could come about if Iraq, which is currently courting US imperialism, breaks its ties with the Soviet Union and goes the same way as Egypt.

Iraq's failure to gain a quick victory over Iran has obviously set back this process: if Iraq cannot police the Gulf, it has little use as a bargaining chip with US imperialism.

TO FROM all sides the voices of moderation have been warning, advising and occassionally losing their tempers with the proceedings at the Solidarnosc National Congress taking place in Gdansk at the moment.

Surprisingly enough these voices of calm and moderation mclude some or Ine Jo leading functionaries of East European states.

In an interview in a West German periodical -Stern - the head of the International News Department of the Soviet Communist Party came out with perhaps the most open endorsement of Lech Walesa and the political line he *hersonifies Within Solidar Mr Zamiantim •said: "Lech Walesa has had some ITA Catholic Churche He chas 1300 banon fran Str. of Hortuz Bedrainate Qater United Arab Oman Emirates S.Yemen The US uses bases in the Gulf, in Oman in particular, for refuelling but there are no US bases there.

Outside the immediate area of the Middle East but strategically connected with it are the many bases and surveillance posts in Turkey and the 199 US-NATO bases and listening posts in the Mediterranean.

Washington learned

bitter lesson when the Shah of Iran was deposed: even the most vicious militarypolice dictatorship might prove unstable.

Thus apart from Israel the US feels it cannot completely rely on the counterrevolutionary forces in the region itself. It has therefore developed its own Rapid Deployment Force (RDF).

And as if all this praise wasn't enough, to have the head of the Hungarian "trade unions" Sandor Gaspar address you as "Dear Mr Walesa" must surely take the prize.

Suddenly Lech Walesa has become - if not exactly the darling of the Stalinists Lantarn Furane at least the devil whom they think they know and definitely preferable to the other candidates for the Solidarnosc presidency.

These others - Gwiazda, Rulewski and Jurczyk are so unspeakably monstrous in Moscow's eyes that the epithet "fascist" rolls easily off the hacks pens, as Pravda tries to convey its Walesa's rivals, farms this Warcow Pact and self-censoring which India The idea is to use jumbo jets to transport huge quantities of men and equipment! thousands of miles to operate where there is no US base.

The RDF strategy has been made possible by the most modern technology, but the fiasco of Carter's attempt to free the US Embassy hostages in Iran shows that the kind of military co-ordination and sophistication necessary for even a small operation of this type is still beyond even American capability.

On the other hand, the US's ability to fly in 10,000 tons of weapons to help the İsraeli Army in the 1973 war. points to the possibility of a very big role for the RDF. propose to reject since it's impossible to know all of the factors which determine the attitude of Soviet imperialism...

Jurczyk, the runner up to Walesa (he got 24% of the vote) also added a strong element of internal demo cracy to his candidacy, implicitly criticising Walesa's 'dictatorial' methods at decision-making - which on occasions has created much ill-feeling within the. move ment.

It was never in doubt that Walesa - so identified with the emergence of the new phase of independent Polish working class activity would actually win.

What was surprising wal that his margin of victory was not particularly great.

The combined vote of his three radical rivals was about 40%. Walesa's 55% insay have assured him victory -but it was also a cleat wate ing by large sections of the movement that undemocrație and concili tory practices will not be automatically 'accepted future in the name of unity.

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Socialist Organiser, Thursday 8 October 1981 Page 6 ighting for union democracy IGWU: A SUITABLE CASE FOR TREATMENT DEMOCRACY is a dangerous thing. It is described in the Oxford Dictionary "government by the people" • It means that those at the top represent the interests of, and are accountable to, those whom they represent. That sounds innocent enough, so why all the fuss?

Yet, as everyone knows, the democratic reforms inside the Labour Party have rocked the labour movement to its very foundations.

It is because it is a direct challenge to bureaucracy, the system which retains all control in the hands of a privileged minority, who represent their own interests and not those of the working class.

Nowhere is this more true than in the TGWU where the impact of the reforms inside the Labour Party have caused a deep crisis in the union.

It is certainly ironic that the union which cast its 1¼ million block vote in favour of the Labour Party's democratic reforms not only defends its unelected army of full time officials, but is completely unable to conduct a simple democratic procedure its own ranks even when the issue is how to cast its block vote on the new democratic reforms themselves.

Its delegation to the Labour Party conference, with powers to cast 1¼ million votes under the new democratic reforms, is unrepresentative in the extreme.

It is filled out with unelected national officers together with regional officials and sponsored MPs.

How they come to be representing the union is beyond comprehension.

This may be ironic, but it is not surprising. The TGWU has never had a democratic structure. Yet its weight and influence in the labour movement is crucial.

It is a vast union of nearly two million members in 16 different trade groups and 11 Regions, making it more like a TUC than an individual union.

Some of its Regions are like large unions in themselves. The London Region has half a million members and the Midlands Region has 350,000 members covering a vast industrial area.

With such power, the TGWU alone could, if it took a determined stand, decide the fate of governments. But that power has never been used. The union is kept split and divided by a rule book designed to neutralise that very sergio.

Such a state of affairs is perpetuated through the power and influence of the rast network of unelected officials and the lack of any real way through which membership can express themselves Or change things.

The only full time official subject to election is the T&G delegation at Labour Part General Secretary, and he or she (in reality, he) is elected for life, under the formula "during the pleasure of the General Executive Council". This to an alarming extent concentrates power in a few hands.

There were only five General Secretaries between the founding of the union in 1922 and the retirement of Jack Jones in 1978.

They were Ernest Bevin, Arthur Deakin, Arthur Tiffin, Frank Cousins and Jack Jones.

Since Tiffin was a sick man and held office for only ten months, it was in reality four General secretaries in 56 years.

Ask a TGWU official about this and he lit is 99.5% certain to be a he) will tell you that the General Secretary and all the army of non-elected executive officers, national officers, regional secretaries, regional officers and district officials are in fact responsible to and controlled by their respective constitutional committee. the members of which are elected lay members In reality the full time officials effectively run the union and are careful to keep all the levers of power in their own hands.

Full-time

Most committee: 'mee once a quarter and discus: conference agendas prepared and controlled by full-time officers. Control of information, apparatus, finance and patronage usually allows a General Secretary, National Secretary or Regional Secretary to mould and control a committee to their own requirements.

Stamp Indeed they are ready and willing to use their power and authority to stamp on anyone who challenges their control.

The TGWU disciplinary procedure is custom-built for such action.

In November 1977 myself and 8 others of the newly-elected leadership of BL's Cowley Assembly Plant were disciplined by a self-appointed tribunal set up by the Oxford District Committee - with the full authority of the Region.

The tribunal was comprised entirely of those right. wingers who had supported the unsuccessful slate in the elections.

It was a blatant attempt to achieve through discipieve in the shopfloor ballot.

We were. allowed no rights whatsoever. Whilst we were denied even the nal called witnesses and heard them in our absence. Then they cross-examined us on the 'evidence' which we had been denied the opportunity to hear! • When we successfully challenged the validity of the District Committee tribunal, we were charged and summonsed before an identical set-up under the auspices of the Regional Committee.

That we remain in the union and in our jobs is no thanks to the democracy of the TGWU but to the consistent support of the members we represent.

We put proposals to change this disciplinary procedure - an ideal witch-hunter's charter.to the union's rules revision conference. Our proposals were voted down - on the recommendation of the leadership!

The reason such a state of affairs has continued for so long gets back to that nasty word "democracy"

Perhaps the most urgent issue facing TGWU members within their own union at the present time is the reform of the notorious methods by which the Regional Committees, national committees and General Executive Council are elected.

This issue is particularly urgent at the present time since nominations for the current biennial elections close on October 15 and the "elections" will take place in December.

The rule book allows two methods of election, by so-called secret ballot or by an electoral conference in which a handful of people decide on committee members without the knowledge of the membership.

In this way 650 or so delegates are elected to the lay committees in the union. In many cases the membership are not even aware that it is happening.

Ballots are under the control of branches and branch officers, but there is no serious control over them. Quantities of ballot papers are sent to the branch secretary who is required to fill in the results on a return sheet and send it to Region.

There is no counting by Region of either used or unused ballot papers. The ballot papers are unmarked and unnumbered, the only safeguard the rule book calls for is a mark on the membership card - which is no safeguard at all.

The obvious looseness of the system is often taken in the TGWU as backdoor sanctioning of 'block voting" - which is specifically barred under rule. But since the system is tailor made to accommodate block voting rather than prevent it, many branch secretaries probably draw their own conclusions. Jack Jones Even the choice of name - 'block voting" - shows an attitude. What is involved is not merely block voting but ballot-rigging - casting someone else's vote for them.

Calling it "block voting" almost legitimises it since actual blockvoting is a legitimate form of voting at many conferences.

Certainly "blockvoting" - or corruption, or whatever - appears to be widespread in the union.

Cast In the elections in Region 5, four years ago, for Regional Committee, National Committee and GEC, Alan Law, a Regional Officer and Secretary of the massive 5/35 lorry drivers' branch in the Midlands, personally cast all 13,000 votes allocated to his members for the people of his choice.

When challenged by the press he said he had 'not had time" to organise a ballot and would do the same again. To Alan Law it was the natural thing to do.

In one of the large cars branches in Cowley, members were able to prove that whilst only 255 members actually voted, the branch secretary had returned about 6,000 votes for each of the three candidates he supported.

Appeals to the Region produced a fresh election, but no action could be taken against the right wing offenders because of a "technicality". . The "technicality" was that all the ballot papers, used and unused, had been destroyed - contrary to rule - as soon as the complaint was made!

Everyone knows tht ballot rigging is not viewed seriously in the TGWU. The only penalty for "block voting" is the disqualification of the branch vote!

Address

On top of this, even if a proper ballot is taken, no one else knows who they are voting for, since, apart from the General Secretary election, election addresses are not allowed.

This means that even if the ballot is democratic, the members are confronted with a baffling list of names - most of which they won't know.

They have no means of knowing even elementary facts about the candidates, where they come from, where they work, how long they have been in the union - let alone what policies they stand for.

The branch of which I am president, the 5/293 BL Cowley Assembly Plant branch, has a long record of fighting for democratic reform, not just in words but in practice.

For the past four years we have introduced ballot procedures into the plant which go a very long way towards a foolproof system.

We used this experience in the resolution which we sent to last year's rules revision conference.

Stubs

We called for a new system based on consecutively numbered ballot papers attached to unnumbered stubs. The member would put his or her union card number on the stub, sign it, and vote with the numbered ballot paper.

The votes cast must then equal the number of signed stubs . This, when added to the number of unused papers, would have to gual the total block of numbered papers allocated to the branch. It is a simple and effective system.

Post Unfortunately our branch had no delegate at the rules revision conference to press our resolution, -since our ballot papers were "lost in the post" and the replacement papers arrived the day after the closing date!

We were told by Region that since it was so important that rules were adhered to during an election no provision could be made to receive our votes late.

To counter the loss of a delegate we handed a statement to each delegate delegates to support it.

Now is the time to press these issues again in the unin.

Democracy is proving not only to be dangerous but infectious as well. From the Labour Party it has spilled over into the unions

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THE TRANSITIONAL PROGRAM FOR SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

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linary action what ihe bur- eaucracy had failed to ach-

"ight to call witnesses in our own defence, the tribu-

as they arrived at the con- terence, urging other