NUR conference analyses why the NUR conference on a brick wall'

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Campaign for SOCIALIST Organiser fights to act as a real campaigning paper which can organise workers in the struggle for new leadership.

To do so we need consistent support and money. Socialist Organiser Alliance groups Why not join with us? Supporters are asked to. undertake to sell a minimum of 6 papers per week and contribute at least £1.50 IT IS Sid Weighell's constant boast that the National Union of Railwaymen is one of Britain's most democratic He also claims a radical tradition for it - a founder of the Labour Party, and 99% of its branches affiliat ed to local Labour Parties.

The NUR Annual General Meeting, at the Holiday Inn in Plymouth, did not fit this image.

The first act of the 77 delegates was to call off the strike against BR over wages spute to the Railway Staff National Tribunal (RSNT).

Weighell had done only the absolute bare necessities required of him in the run-up to the strike called by the NEC. He sent out notification of the strike and very little else. Indeed, our branch received copies of a very good edition of the union paper, putting forward all the arguments and facts on the dispute, only last Tuesday, July 6 - over one week after the strike had been called off.

Weighell also manoeuvred the date of the strike. The NEC had given the BRB a deadline of June 7 for FUNNY HOW progressive the big block vote can become when it is used in the interests of business.

The latest example came at the Annual General Meeting of Marks and Spencer, where some directors came under attack for secretly having houses bought for them by the company.

Under the deal, the directors were entitled to buy back their homes at five or ten year old prices. The deal involved a total of £1.8 million on buying houses for the directors. It has only been revealed because of recent have been established in most big towns.

per month (20p for unwaged).

It there is no group in your help us to build one?

To 'Get Organised', write 28 Middle Lane, London N8.

Name Address response on pay and productivity, and met that day to discuss action.

A strike, they reckoned, would need two weeks preparation, so coula be called tor Monday June L1.

However, Weighell, who controls the NEC's agenda, refused to bring the information until Wednesday 9th, and so the NEC felt they could not call the strike until Monday 28th, the first day of the AGM.

According to the NUR constitution, the NEC does not exist when the AGM is sitting, so any decisions on the dispute would be taken by the AGM delegates with only the sparsest information.

Lack of intormation does not explain everything, however.

The first resolution at the AGM was of no confidence in the General Secretary Sid Weighell. It failed to find a seconder. The second resolution, on disarmament, was simply a repetition of the previous year's decision in favour of world disarmament, plus congratulations to the NEC on having affiliated to the World Disarmament Campaign.

Once it was passed, changes in the Companies Act, which forces M&S to publish details in this year's annual report.

The row caused a storm at the 400-strong Annual General Meeting, and looked like bringing a defeat for the Board after a vote was called for by Mr Harold Joels, a grandson of the brother of the joint founder of the company.

But the directors found they were safe. Between them the 400 people present had approved the deal by 260 million votes in favour to 4.6 million against. president, Tommy Ham, then ruled out of order all the other resolutions in that category - containing specif ic opposition to Cruise, Trident, the neutron bomb, transportation of nuclear fuel on the railways, and support for CND, unilateral nuclear disarmament, and closure of all nuclear bases in Britain.

The AGM did call for the restoration of democratic and trade union rights in Poland, and condemn Thatcher's crocodile tears on this issue. But it then went on to pass a resolution from Weighell's own branch, Northallerton, calling for incomes control to be part of socialist economic policy.

A resolution on the Tebbit Bill ended up as an endorsement of the TUC policy ('a damp squib', as the Sunday Times put it). This was enough to allow the president to rule out of order the next resolution, which was slightly stronger.

• A call for the next Labour government to nationalise all top monopolies and multinationals was passed, but followed by rejection of a resolution on implementing TUC policy on equal opportunities for ethnic minorities in both the union and the industry.

A resolution from Battersea on positive discrimination for women was also defeated. One of the two women among the 77 delegates proposed the resolution, but the other woman opposed it, arguing that she had not needed any help herself. She was followed by one of the male delegates arguing that a woman's place is at the kitchen sink.

The AGM also rejected proposals for a NUR women's conference.

Rejected

Later in the week, the AGM rejected a resolution calling on the Labour leader.

ship to accept the established right for Constituency Labour Parties to choose their own Parliamentary candidates and for members to take part in unofficial groupings.

This rejection enabled the president to rule out of order other resolutions which called in addition for rejection of the report on Militant and for Labour Party conference decisions to be binding on the Parliamentary Labour Party.

The chair was challenged but upheld.

The tactic of placing a chosen resolution at the head of the group of resolutions on a given subject, and then ruling out all the rest, on AUEW members maintaining a 7.30am 5pm picket it Glendale ngineering, Hythe Rd., London NW10.

The dispute, made official by the AUEW district committee, is for union recognition in this small factory. Blac king of Glendale products is also being sought.

Messages/money: Mick Woods, 76 Austen House, Cambridge Rd., London NW6 SLY was used again on the annual pay claim. The first resolut ion called for a 'substantial pay increase. It was accepted, and then all others were ruled out of order.

A resolution to move the settlement date from April to January 1 was taken, but lost after passionate opposit ion from Sid Weighell.

'Concern'

On productivity, a vague resolution expressing 'concern' was passed, ruling out two resolutions opposing productivity deals.

The issue of one-man operation of trains was deferred to the special general meeting which is to consider the outcome of the RSNT on productivity and Rule changes were a major issue at this year's AGM. Rules revision comes up only once every three years, and the Railworkers' Broad Left had taken the opportunity to get resolutions through branches for * one delegate from each branch (at present AGM delegates 'represent' groups of branches), * voting by branch mem berships, rather than one vote per delegate, NEC members to be eligible to stand again after their three-year period, * the NEC to determine

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jobs, productivity, and investment, referring the di-