[By Mick Horne Stephen Baxter trade unions were…]

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By Mick Horne Stephen Baxter trade unions were to be ban= ned at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) at Cheltenham, was an unprecedented attack on workers' rights.

By offering a f1000 bribe, the Tories hope to persuade over 5000 members of civil service unions at GCHQ to sell their rights and join tame 'staff associations' - where they will have no power to go on strike. or to have recourse to industrial tribunals.

Those who refuse to take the Judas money will be forced to transfer to other jobs. If they refuse those jobs. they face the sack.

The reasons for the precise timing and form of the Tories' move are unclear. They have chosen to try to ban even individual union membership., rather than just withdrawing union recognition or exploiting the union leaders' evident willingness to sign a no-strike agreement. (A prece"We now know that it is only a matter of time before our members in the public and other essential services face the threat of similar action"

Rodney Bickerstaffe, general secretary, NUPE. dent already exists ine base at Faslane).

But whatever the details, the move is certainly part of the Tories' overall anti-union drive.

As NUPE general secretary Rodney Bickerstaffe has pointed GCHQ can equally well be used against millions of workers in essential services - health, electricity, gas, water...

The Tories have already declared their intention legally to limit industrial action in those services. The GCHQ coup, if it succeeds, will be an important precedent.

Geoffrey Howe has magnanimously proclaimed that the government does not intend to introduce similar measures 'outside the field of security and intelligence..

But this by no means indicates that the ban will not extend beyond GCHQ. Howe's 'field' could, for example, spread into areas such as the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office.

Besides, who would believe a Tory promise anyway? Remember the one about-'the National Health Service is safe with us' The government announcement was met by protest action from rank and file civil servants across the country.

Spontaneous strikes and walkouts took place in London. Manchester. Liverpool, Cardiff, Sheffield, Edinburgh. and elsewhere.

In Nottingham. where four out of the five DHSS offices came out on Friday 27th. one strike told SO. "We can't let the government get away with this. If they win this one. where will they ban unions next? Thatcher talks about trade union freedom in Poland. but over here it's a different Anger is running high at the grass roots. But the union leaderships have been unstinting. determined, and absolutely resolute... in their efforts to stifle any talk of mass strike action, and their professions of patriotism.

Mr Len ('if it goes on strike, denounce it') Murray was at the head of the fight, pledging full support in trying to talk the Tories into changing their minds. Right behind Murray came the leaders of the civil service unions, notably the smarmy Alistair Graham of CPSA. whose eyes are firmly fixed on one day filling Murray's class-collaborationist boots, and John Sheldon of (SU. a union which represents over 1000 radio officers at Cheltenham.

Sheldon declared that to strike would be "to fall into the trap set by Sir Geoffrey Howe" "The Government over recent months has clamped down on civil servants' activities, including refer= ring in public to the effect of cuts - or even writing in private about them to their MPs. They have been threatened with disciplinary action for writing about cuts in union journals.

Guardian, January 27.

The leaders of the trade union movement will not put up a fight unless they are given an almighty shove from below. Thatcher won't back down because of insipid interviews with Len Murray on 'Weekend World' , ог because of a mass rally with speakers from all political parties' (another idea being floated). Only industrial action will get the government to retreat. 'Even senior civil servants' are not immune... They are now being asked for the first time such questions as: Are you a CND supporter? Do you support the Government's policies on nuclear weapons?"

Financial Times, Jan. 27 "An urgent matter of national security... someone in high places in Government service is untrustworthy...

A government spokesperson giving evidence for the prosecution in the case of Sarah Tisdall the civil servant hauled into court for leaking a document to the Guardian about the Tories" plans to manipulate the media over the arrival of Cruise. THE Socialist Caucus' group (the 'hard left' within CPSA's Broad Left) is putting out a leaflet calling on branches to flood union National Executives with motions calling for a one-day civil service all-out strike, as the start of a campaign of industrial action.

CPSA has called on members at GCHQ to refuse to sign the Tories' ultimatum. All the civil service unions should make a major public campaign out of this call.

Refusals to sign will probably lead to suspensions and sackings by the Tories' March 1 deadline -and the unions must be ready to respond with strike action both throughout the civil service and at GCHQ itself.

The issue concerns not only civil servants, but all workers. We should demand that the TUC organise not only for a civil service one-day strike, but for a one-day general strike, to defend union rights.

And the TUC's talks with the Tories on new anti-union laws as well as its collaboration with the Tories on official committees like the NEDC, must be called OIl.

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THE government's announce- ment, on January 25, that

out, the 'national security' argu- ment used against unions in