Merseyside solidarity

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TUC: call 24-hour general strike! THE FOLLOWING resolution was passed at a rally of about 1,500 people in Liverpool last Thursday, December 1. The meeting was called by the Merseyside Trade Union and Labour Movement Campaign Committee, which is sponsored by Liverpool Trades Council.

THIS MEETING OF THE Merseyside trade union and labour movement condemns the attacks by the courts on the NGA for carrying out legitimate trade union activity. We believe that not only is the very existence, of the NGA at stake, but the existence of the trade union movement as an effective instrument of defending workers against the attacks by the employers and the Tory government is also at stake.

We declare solidarity with the NGA and declare our intention of giv ing all possible support, in cluding industrial action, to print workers taking strike action to defend their union.

Recognising that the support of the whole trade union movement should be mobilised to defeat this attack, we call on the General Council of the TUC to:

*Immediately declare its full support to the NGA in refusing to pay the fines and in carrying out the decisions of the Wembley [Special TUC] Conference.

*Immediately call a 24hour general strike in order to demonstrate to the employers and the Tory government the solidarity of the whole labour movement with the NGA.

*In the event of such action not resulting in the withdrawal of these attacks on the NGA, we call on the General Council to prepare the trade union movement for the calling of an all-out general strike until these vicious anti-trade union activities are revoked.

*We further call on the Labour leadership, like the Liverpool Labour l MPs, to declare their complete solidarity with the NGA and to defend their right to fight, and denounce so-called laws which are designed specifically to give the employers weapons with which to beat working people's organisations.

We declare our support for the print unions' picketing of the non-union plant in Warrington, and call on all trade unionists to give physical support on the picket line to restore trade union rights and to reinstate the Stockport 6.

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Effective picketing and secondary action have now been outlawed: but next year new clauses of Tebbit's law will ban the closed shop seeing under the 1982 Act, some of the blacking which that in the prevailing climate As soon as the injunction was with workers looking for a lead finalised, Ben Hooberman of to their full time officials, the Lawford and Company, the use of the law against the full- POEU's solicitor (an SDP suptime official provided a pretext Prank happilo sas prodiate of. full time official's natural desire detailed memorandum stressing to call off the contested action. the necessity for compliance and When the Act. was used stressing the horrors that lay in against TGWU officials over store if the union did not accept lorry drivers picketing the the injunction. docks against cowboy haulage On legal advice the conferfirms or black workers striking ence discussed the issue in for union recognition at Aire closed session - the memo's Valley Yarns, the officials statement that 'The punishdissociated themselves from the ment can mean imprisonment or action. fines for the personal defenWhen it was used against dants by means of bankruptcy groups of workers already proceedings or by • means of those at sequestration of the union's the law finished the secondary The Broad Left split and the action off. Executive vote to call off the This response has encouraged blacking was carried by conferJOHN HARRIS THIS IS THE BIG ONE! It is no light-minded exaggeration by the left press to say that the whole future of British trade unionism depends in a very important way on the outcome of the Shah-NGA dispute at Stockport.

The new direct-input technology means that journalists or advertising staff can type their work straight onto computer terminals which then send the final product to a typesetting computer.

The phenomenal growth of freesheets, sprouting from 350 to 600 with a readership of 24 million in the last few years, means that outfits like Eddie Shah's or the union-free South London Guardian can set up free of all union controls.

The employers are absolutely determined to exploit this situation to the hilt. Eighteen months ago the Newspaper Society, representing the provincial press bosses, decided to place an end-of-1984 deadline on reaching agreement with the NGA on direct input. Richard Storey, the chairman of Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers, has already declared that 15 newspapers will introduce the new technology unilaterally if that deadline is not met.

In this situation if the NGA is to maintain itself as an organisation then the closed shop, imposing discipline and controlling the supply of labour and the ability to black' material from non-recognised sources become absolutely vital.

As the last weeks have shown with a vengeance, the 1980 and 1982 Employment Acts comprehensively outlaw all forms of secondary action. Next year the detonator clauses of the 1982 Two pamphlets summing up the ideas of Socialist Organiser.

Stand' - 20p plus 15p postage. 'How to fight the Tories' - 10p plus 15p postage.

Or the two together, 45p including postage. Fron Socialist Or. ganiser, 28, Middle Lane, London N8. JACK BUTCHER looks more closely into the NGA dispute at Stockport - and finds wide implications for print unions and the whole labour movement.

Act, making all closed shops illegal unless there is an 80% vote in favour in a secret ballot, will take effect.

This is the background to the firm stand of the NGA leadership.

If Eddie Shah gets away with it, others in both the "run away" and the established sectors will fancy their chances.

A victory for the Stockport Messenger would give the red light for the provincial newspaper bosses, the David Dimblebeys of this world, to uproot the NGA, a move which would then be carefully appraised by the Fleet Street magnates.

This is why musclemen like Tony Dubbins and tailors' dummies like Joe Wade have been prepared to fight.

That is why the predominantly right wing leadership of the NGA unleashed a struggle which, rooted in craft conservatism as it is, represents the most progressive move in the four year struggle against the Tory laws.

Defeat for the NGA will be a defeat fór the whole labour movement.

The last two years have seen more and more employers using the law as a tactical weapon in industrial disputes.

The cases under the 1980 Act were taken against individual the Tories ag'we stand Te Labour Socialist the tain policiest NGA - a strength rooted in craft conservatism against the union itself.

The lesson for capital was called off.

for and a reinforcement of that isolated, such Chloride or Lawrence Scotts, funds."

the employers to use the 1982 ence. Act with the Taff Vale clause which makes the union and its funds responsible for damages caused by strike actions which are now illegal. The provisions of the two Acts mean that almost any of the means required to win a dispute in a recession situation constitute illegal action.

The recent spate of cases involving SOGAT, the NUJ and the POEU illustrate this.

The employers are taking action because of the rich potential results.

The POEU shows what can happen. Mercury, which took the union to court, was losing orders and investment between £500,000 and £1.5 million a year and claimed that a further £4 million was threatened. Barclay's Merchant Bank had already declared its intention of selling its stake.

As soon as Mercury moved, seen to be clearly illegal, Not only did this provide a backwash in terms of taking some of the stuffing out of the whole campaign against privatisation, but Mercury announced that, not content with the injunction, it would pursue the POEU to court for damages.

This is the future for the whole movement if the NGA is beaten.

*Lawyers being called in to advise on the running of industrial disputes.

*The means which are required to win disputes not being used because they are illegal. Workers consequently fighting with both hands tied behind their backs, dispute after dispute which could have been won, going down to defeat.

*Employers pushing home their advantage by going beyond injunctions to bankrupt unions in compensation suits.

*More employers following this example.

*A weakened trade union movement corsetted in the conservative legalistic practice of the US business union. Lawyers would not only be involved in advising on strikes, they would be sitting at the talbe, negotiating collective agreements.

Already some are arguing that unions can protect themselves against secondary action by negotiating US-style "hot cargo" agreements so that members would not be called upon to handle certain goods in a strike.

Apart from the fact that this would place interpretation in the hands of the judges, it would lead to the complementary insertion of 'no-strike" clauses and a giant step down the road to institutionising strike action.

The Tories and the employers understand that the NGA's struggle is the struggle of the whole movement.

They also, understand that it cannot be won by the NGA itself. It is here that the Tories' greatest strength lies.

The TUC have, up till now, succeeded in walling off the possibility of wider support. But without that support the NGA will go down.

The TUC's strategy from 1979 was to carry out a rhetorical propaganda campaign against the Tory laws whilst curbing any moves by trade unionists towards confrontation.

It wished to keep its hands relatively clean of immersion in the Tory law and hoped to achieve their speedy repeal by an incoming Labour government.

The propaganda campaign in itself was totally inadequate. 60,000 copies of the booklet "Hands off Democracy" were The POEU was told that there was "nos produced for half-a-million shop stewards and ten million members.

Their propaganda was based on the idea that the Tories are destroying the joint interest of. the State and the unions.

"Unions can achieve most when they work with government and employers, playing a positive role in moving our country forward, when they can work towards common goals rather than being locked out from influence and involvement."

It was neutered by the TUC's own practice in halting any strike with an anti-government dynamic which strengthened the demoralisation of sections of the ranks in the face of a decisive, hostile government and an intolerable economic situation.

When this demoralisation produced a Tory electoral victory, the TUC decided to drop its anti-lory rhetoric and deepen its collaborative practice. Talks were resumed with Tebbit.

When the POEU asked for advice from the TUC on compliance with the injunction, they were informed by Len Murray that "Congress has not. yet decided that any union obeying an injunction would be contravening Congress policy ... and that Conference had pointed out on behalf of the General Council that there was no question of the TUC setting out to break, or encourage members to break, the law.

This represented a complete reversal of the 1982 special congress's 12 points which, hedged around with qualifications as they were, gave the TUC the power to call industrial action in support of a union threatened by the law. It alsn

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union officers, not as we are How to fight

ORGANISER for party Fight!

THOMSON HOLIDAY THENGA IS HERETO STAY