Cohse: Left Wingers Fight for Action

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HOSPITAL ON to A REMARK which sums up the week was made at a Health Workers for the Full Claim fringe meeting. When a delegate said that if it had not been for Group 81 (the Broad left) the conference would have been very dull and boring.

Both in the fringe meetings and the debates the left provided the only political expression of the week.

In a year which is facing the most serious attack on trade unionism ever seen in this country the COHSE leadership refused to even discuss the Tebbit Bill.

A resolution on Tebbit with two good • amendments was lost as the delegate moving it was not at conference. An emergency resolution was ruled out of order. But Group 81 had arranged a fringe meeting on Thursday with Michael Meacher, COHSE sponsored MP, speaking on Tebbit.

110 people came to hear about the Bill, took away fact sheets and are now committed to discussing it in their branches.

As a speaker at the meeting pointed out COHSE's record of opposing industrial relations legislation is not exactly reassuring and everyone felt that Tebbit should have been debated in order that a firm policy on fighting the Bill could have been decided on.

The leadership, wary of members who are prepared to fight, would rather sit 3805 back with the other TUC bureaucrats and talk about their opposition instead of actively fighting the Tory attacks.

Not content with stifling debate on Tebbit, Spanswick on the same afternoon issued a statement about two branch secretaries who have been sacked for organising strike action but refused to allow any discussion and would not allow the sacked members to speak to his statement. He gave no commitment that COHSE would call for supporting strike action in line with the NEC's emergency pay resolution which was passed on Tuesday.

But one of the sacked officials spoke at a health workers for the full claim SAMS 2743 CAN fringe meeting on day night.

A resolution calling for indefinite strike action had been defeated on Tuesday in favour of a weak NEC resolution calling for sectional strikes. The attendance at the Health Workers for the Full Claim meeting showed that there are a lot of COHSE members who are prepared to strike indefinitely and realise it is the only way to win. A special bulletin was produced for conterence and nearly everyone at the meeting agreed to take orders for future bulletins.

The conference firmly established the role of Group 81 in COHSE. Rule change is biennial and most of the changes proposed by 22-215 3% 83 WE A

JANE GOSS reports the Broad Left's wol last week's COHSE conference

the left in the campaign for more democracy were lost.

A resolution which would have given delegates control of Conference Arrangements Committee was only lost because the President refused a card vote.

But there was no doubt about the impact of the Broad Left. Every day brought us more credibility and more supporters.

The final Group 81 organising meeting • on Friday discussed a strategy for strengthening and improving the organisation during the next year. The enormously successful fringe meetings provided a political perspective for the first time at COHSE conference. Changes are on their way in COHSE and the sooner the better.

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JOHN HARRIS 9.00 COFFE