Cuts, pay and privatisation NUPE agenda reflects PHOTO: JOHN HAPRIS members' anger

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THIS year's NUPE Conference comes at a crucial time for workers in local authorities and the NHS.

We are faced with a Tory government that is ready to move in for the kill after their victory in the NHS dispute last year. Their favourite weapons are cuts in services and the use of private contractors to replace whole sections of the public sector. These have been tried and tested in the Local Authorities.

Last year, Wandsworth dustmen took strike action against private contractors while NUPE Conference was actually going on.

The new Tory Council in Cardiff is threatening to privatise rubbish collection virtually as its first act.

Labour's mediocre performance in the recent local elections shows that Labour Councils were fooling no one with talk about good housekeeping. They gave in to the Tories and cut the services, and most Labour voters know it.

After the TUC Health Services Committee sold us down the river last winter, it was the turn of the NHS to get the treatment. Oxfordshire Regional Health Authority spearheaded the attack by announcing a programme of devastating cuts and closures that ballot procedures.

Anne Marie Sweeney (right) on S.London Hospital demonstration. South district branches.

They set out in detail how we can organise the fight against cuts and contractors by establishing Joint trade union committees at local and national level to organise public campaigns and, by revitalising the Joint Shop Stewards Committees which sprang up during the NHS strike, to organise the membership of all the NHS unions into a solid united front.

The lessons of last year are not lost, and motions on pay and industrial action criticise the EC for its failure to campaign for the 1982 Conference decision for an all-ou' others reject one-das and regional strikes as demoralising and token action, and criticise the TUC Health Services Committee for even considering a two year pay deal.

The message is clear: all-out action is the only way to win in the future.

Reject

Most of the motions categorically reject wage restraint, whatever government is in power, with only one motion arguing in favour.

A clear message needs to go out from NUPE Conference to the Shadow Cabinet, and the Labour Party's NEC that we will take no part in an incomes policy, whether it's called a national economic assessment or not. Most NUPE members remember the last Labour government and the Winter of Discontent' too well to fall for this one.

As far as the internal affairs of the Labour Party are concerned, most of the main motions call for an end to expulsions from the Party, and the scrapping of the Register. Glasgow Eastern Hostels Branch calls for tangible opposition by affiliation to Labour Against the Witch-hunt and the Labour Steering Committee Against the Witch-hunt, and by supporting the right of CLPs to refuse to expel individuals.

Although the list of issues is smaller this year, two that stick out the most are on women and on Northern Ireland.

Last year's Conference passed a wide-ranging composite on women's rights, positive action, child care facilities and affiliation to Women's Fightback. Since then very little has been done, apart from the odd course for women stewards. This is reflected in the complacency of most of the motions which simply call for the setting up of Women's Advisory Committees in all divisions.

Child care

Only the North Hammersmith motion takes up organising at branch level, and also the need for a national campaign within the union on child care facilities, for education - including for male officials - about women's issues, and also against sexual harassment at work. Such a campaign would lay the basis for a real Committees in all divisions.

Only the North Hammersmith motion takes up organising at branch level, and also the need for a national campaign within the union on child care facilities, for education - including for male officials - about women's issues, ¡and also against sexual' harassment at work. Such a campaign would lay the basis for a real improvement in the situation of the majority of NUPE members.

Finally, the Conference will get another chance to commit itiself to some kind of policy on Irefland. Last year we had emotional appeals to delegates to reject the main composite on Ireland, which called for troops out, banning of plastic bullets, repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), and affiliation to the Labour Committee on Ireland. This was rejected on the grounds that while we needed policy on Ireland we shouldn't pre-empt the discussion by passing such a resolution.

Policy

One year later, here we are, still without the slightest move by the Executive Committee to formulate any policy at-all. Their arguments of last year are exposed by their complete inaction.

This year we will again, hopefully, have a chance to discuss Ireland with a motion from Prestwich Nurses Branch along similar lines to the last one, that is, unless it is pushed off the agenda. It is about time we ended the silence the British labour movement on this issue, and actually pass some policy which gets to grips with the problems and suggests a way out.