[those blacklegs sacked for refusing to join a…]
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-03-11Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 9 →
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those blacklegs sacked for refusing to join a union.
What is the response of the TUC leaders?
In Novemher Tebbit unveiled his savage ibit bit's law to on. an to i of eir les nt, ifor imp ent, ång on, ain that it bislcan of Don fenIs.
to rom They ight arm file o to heir 5 of tern mmKOwtant the the spot. tratlegrland CP the ag'ROW Hing ealwill accept this 'responsibility'.
trial action.
shop floor activity by:
prevent the establishment of new ones, strikers.
cracy through secret ballots. cracy. Even in 1969 and after 1971, that was something the CP didn't dare do.
Now, shackled to the bureaucracy, which has bowed its neck to the Tories' yoke, the ur ana those it influences have nothing to offer to the rank and file activists who want to resist except a militant gloss on the TUC policy of meek surrender to the Tories and prayers for the return of a Labour government.
But a Labour government may not be returned at the next election. The SDP and Liberals are pressing for a harsher attack on the unions. The results of the next election may well give the signal for a third round of anti-union legislation.
Damage The policy of putting our hands up now and waiting for a Labour government to come to the rescue is a policy of peacefully surrendering - for the foreseeable future - rights won by the labour movement. in many decades of struggle and effort. The slump has inflicted damage on the labour movement, but this is surrender, not defeat.
Not to fight now is no. thing less than treason to the most basic interests of the working class.
If the official leaders won't lead a fightback -and they won't - then the rank and file must. It those, like the CP. active and influential among the rank and file militants and shop stewards, won t challenge the passivity, acquiescence and treachery of the bureaucracy, then that responsibility devolves on those of us who are not tied to the bureaucracy, who understand that the trade union bureaucracy is one of the most backward, conservative and often reactionary forces in the British labour movement - the central link binding that movement to the capitalist state.
Self-defence
Socialists and trade union militants need to do two things. We must campaign in the labour move-