Learn lessons of UCW sellout

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IT IS just over three months since the Basingstoke postal workers took strike action in support of Alan Fraser, postal section union secretary and a Socialist Organiser supporter, who was dismissed for his alleged poor sickness record.

If there had been any doubt as to the validity of management's reasons for sacking Alan, that doubt was removed by the reactions of the membership. In their opinion it was a clear-cut case of victimisation for trade union activities, and they were prepared to back that opinion with strike action.

But, as reportea in previous issues of Socialist Organiser, the solidarity and comradeship displayed by the membership during that week of struggle was to be sold out thanks to the treacherAngela Fraser reports on follow-up to the recent Basingstoke victimisation ous role played by Gerry Casey, EC member, and John Tayior, assistant secretary of the UCW.

However, the lessons of how the UCW bureaucracy betray workers in struggle have been learned quickly by the postal workers in Basingstoke, and they have set the right example by sending a resolution to UCW headquarters condemning the conduct of the national officials involved.

A factsheet produced by the postal workers, outlining the causes of the strike and the eventual sell-out, has been distributed to many UCW branches. The branch has also supported the Communication Workers Broad Left campaign, by agreeing to appear on the platform at Broad Left meetings to speak on the strike.

This shows that the branch are prepared to carry on the fight to bring to the attention of all UCW members the shameful and hypocritical action of the UCW leadership during that week of On Saturday November 26 the Broad Left held a meeting in Coventry where the platform speakers were Alan Fraser and Bill Willoughby, who was dismissed from the Post Office earlier this year, again under dubious circumstances.

Bill Willoughby, who is not a member of the Broad Left, gave a detailed account of his victimisation, which seems to have been based solely on his response to a call from his members to chair a meeting called by them.

He went on to inform the meeting that he had recently been publicly castigated by Alan Tuffin, the UCW general secretary, in a letter printed in the Branch Officials' Bulletin.

The letter, which incidentally Bill had not even been given time to reply to, referred to a leafiet that the Broad Left had produced to advertise the November 26 meeting. Tuffin assumed that Bill must have had a hand in this leaflet, and warned him that such publicity could jeopardise his relations with the UCW headquarters, who will be giving assistance to him at his industrial tribunal in the near future.

During the meeting, Gerry Casey and Frank Osie-Tutu, both EC members, entered the room and took part in the debate -though the meeting was supposedly illegal under union rules. There can be much speculation as to why they attended, but it became extremely clear to all present that Gerry Casey felt the need to try to justify his and John Taylor's actions during the Basingstoke postal strike.

Casey opened up by saying that he had to be very careful as to what he said, as Socialist Organiser had a presence at the meeting. He did not believe himself to be beyond criticism, but SO had produced an unprecedented fullpage spread on the Basingstoke strike in which scurrilous attacks had been made on him and John Taylor.

He considered that the EC had done their best, and that it was up to comrades to ensure that they did not give management the rope they needed to hang them.

During that week of struggle it was said many times that it was obvious that Alan Fraser was being victimised, but that unfortunately victimisation was one of the most difficult cases to prove and there was no proof. Yet here was Casey disclosing to a Broad Left meeting that John Taylor had been able to persuade the Post Office to offer Alan a cash settlement of £6000 - approximately one year's wages - with only one condition: that Alan Fraser did not attend work for that year.

Along with other attempts to victimise Alan reported in previous Socialist Organiser articles and the fact that 200 members were on strike because they recognised the victimisation -proof enough, surely..

The response by the postal workers in Basingstoke to the actions of Gerry Casey and John Taylor is stated in no uncertain terms in this paragraph of the fact sheet produced by them:

"The message for us is clear. The existing leadership have sold us out. The way forward must be to launch a fight to bring that leadership to account. If need be, we must replace them with a leadership that will truly fight for the needs of the members"

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