NUR must face Tory attack

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THE last year has been a turbulent one for the National Union of Railwaymen. It has been the result of a leadership fighting to hang on to a policy of job cuts and line closures (in return for the hope of a pay rise), against a membership increasingly becoming aware that they cannot afford to carry on selling jobs.

In the end, general secretary Dawber Sid Weighell went, and with the union's Annual General Meeting beginning at the end of June, the opportunity exists for us to mend some of the damage he did and continue the fight against some of the people he left behind.

The NUR has previously been associated with « reactionary policies on most issues (incomes policy, Labour Party witch-hunt, nuclear disarmament, etc) and inactivity where its policies were any good opposition to line closures, etc). But a look at this year's agenda suggests grounds for optimism.

The biggest single group of resolutions, for example, is on nuclear disarmament, and every single one calls for either scrapping of Britain's nuclear weapons, or resistance to Cruise or affiliation to CND or support for Labour Party conference policy or a combination of these.

Unity

Likewise on Labour Party unity. The first resolution deplores the threat to members of "arbitrary victimisation and expulsion" and calls for support for the Greenwich constitutional amendment which would give groups in the party the right to organise for their views. And an amendment calls for the reinstatement of the five members of the Militant Editorial Board. However a different amendment "totally supports the Labour Party leader and his NEC in their decision to eliminate the cancer of the Militant tendency. " The notion of 'unity' is a strong one to trade unionists and it will be hard work to convince delegates of the folly of uniting behind Healey, Shore, Hattersley and Kinnock, rather than having a party able to disWeighell with a future Labour government." As I argued at my branch a fully planned economy is a desirable thing, but in practice this resolution would mean planning (keeping down) wages while no real control could be kept on profits, prices and dividends under a capitalist system. We decided to oppose it.

However in the NUR a vote against past policy doesn't necessarily mean it is no longer our policy! A paragon of democracy this one: it works like this. All • resolutions are grouped under separate subject headings in an order chosen by Head Office. At the AGM the President calis only the first resolution and whether it is adopted or rejected he (it's always a 'he') then rules all the rest as having fallen.

In this case, if the AGM rejects this resolution (that we support an incomes policy) the President will rule the other resolutions in the group out of order. That would mean we have no policy. We would then revert to previous policy which is support for an incomes policy! And Tebbit wants democracy?

The Serpell Report, as an outline of options for the Tory government, hangs over the railway industry. The NUR's campaign against it so far has been only on the level of propaganda.

The first resolution on this seeks to keep it that way, but an amendment from Sheffield City Branch is to insert 'including industrial action' in the appropriate place. This, if passed, would reverse last year's decision in which the AGM expressed opposition to closures but deleted the reference to using industrial action to that end.

Obviously it was our weakness in this regard that encouraged the Tories -to consider something like the Serpell Report. WHEN THE conference of the National and Local Government Officers' Association (NALGO) took place in Douglas, Isle of Man, last week, one of the contentious items was the choice of venue.

Homosexuality is still illegal in the Isle of Man. There was a wellattended tringe meeting on gay rights, and a demonstration through the town (possibly the first ever demonstration in Douglas).

Conference voted that future venues should not include places THE strike at Aire Valley Yarns received a boost last weekend when 500 people marched through Farsley in support of the 21 strikers.

The march included members of the TGWU and GMWU from other local textile plants and several Leeds City councillors.

The strike, over the sacking of TGWU shop steward Liaqat Ali is still solid and the strikers are now in their 13th week of maintaining a continuous picket of the mill.

Liaqat Ali's case has been taken to an industrial tribunal but the case won't be coming up for two or three weeks.

The majority Labour Group on Leeds City Council is putting a resolution supporting the strike to the council meeting on 29 June. Plans for a delegation of councillors to the picket line were postponed because of the election.

The TGWU have made the strike official but have done little else. An official call for a mass picket could easily raise the 200-300 pickets needed to stop scabs entering the mill which would be a further boost to the morale of the strikers.

Messages/donations to: Aire Valley Yarns Strike Support Committee, c/o 34 Dirkhill Street, Bradford 7.