For months, NUPE leader Alan Fisher -and his counterparts in the T&GWU and CMWU keep the lid on the mounting protest among public sector fed up with low pay and crumbling social services.
Under mass pressure from their members, they finally declared selective stoppages in support the £60 minimum wage and 35 hour week claim. Such action was not intended, however, to win decisive victory for the low-paid, but to allow Fisher and Basnett to gain a few concessions from Jim Callaghan, whose policies they generally accept.
This is why both were willing to join in the chorus of condemnation from government figures to the Tory press, against rank-and-fil e workers taking unofficial as in the case of ambulancedrivers.
The fruits of this strategy were revealed in the recent deal establishing a 9% increase with a promise of a comparability study later in original claim, it was sold to members on the basis that the government had 'scraped the barrel dry' and that further action could lead to redundancies and further cuts in NUPE & GMWU workers - who had been urging all-out action - was one of confusion and anger. London Divisional Council of the GMWU, composed of shop stewards representing 150,000 workers, there were protest actors walked out in disgust, as in Salford or Manchester.
The union leaders astutely calculated, however, that many workers, - seeing the selective strikes as ineffective and beginning to the financial 'pinch'- would be for the coming elections. It is designed to eliminate actions such seen by the Labour right-wing as seriously undermining Labour's by millions of the low-paid for a decent living which is jeopardising Labour's electoral chances. Rather it is the pro-capitalist policies that the government has pursued in eroded wages and created massive Such policies, coupled with anti-union harangues - only serve to alienate working class support and boost the Tory claim that the unions are 'wrecking' the economy and need to be disciplined.
Callaghan's attacks on strikers only open the door to Thatcher who has been quick to claim that Labour cannot control the unions, whereas her policies, involving legal curbs on picketing, will do Alternative The only way to curb this drift to the right - which door io the Tory wolves - is by - tried to workers drawn towards a settlement that would isolate the more militant areas and leave them little alternof ative but to drift back to work. This is precisely what happened. says action, insult.
Lessons The acceptance of the deal does not, in this sense, reflect lack of militancy among NUPE members who forced their leaders to declare action which, in itself, broke the back of the government's 5% norm. they could see no alternative for winning their claim.
The key question for militants in the public sector is to learn the lessons from the strike to ensure such set-backs don't happen again. The first weakness, as many aware, stence on limiting action to selective strikes which inadequate for dealing with a government intent on making the paid a test case for its wage freeze policies. Only an all-out stoppage would have had an impact.
The second weakness was the union leaders determination to presfeel ent the claim as a 'special case, thereby dividing the struggles of FIGHT THE CONCORDAT (continued from page] fighting for a clear class-struggle alternative to the policies of the Concordat. the low-paid must springboard for campaigning, in the unions and in the Labour Party, for policies which can unite the whole Labour movement in opposition to Callaghan's austerity programme.
Elements for such a programme already exist. The fight for a 35 hour week inorder to tackle unemployment has - since the POEU pioneered it - become a component of most wage claims. united with a demand to cuts in the social services and the introduction of a massive public works programme to increase the number of hospitals, homes and schools.
Similarly, most wage claims argue the case for an increase, in terms of the need to catch up with inflation during the period of the trick. Social Contract. Why this argument into a demand to protect all trade demanding that wages should pegged to rises in the cost of livopens the ing (as calculated by the Labour movement)?
Cited action by all public Weakness Many militants and called for an all-out Wing to call Both recently, rank and file democracy, the Lovinsults their own members.
For GMWU It reflects the fact that WCTE was the union leaders' insiwere totally lowSuch policies The mass strikes of serve as a both It should be end all out similar policies, Heath governments?
not extend unionists by be the low-paid and weakening their no retreat What was needed was un- For a sector workers in a common front.
are, of course only too aware of these weaknesses loss of pay.
strike What needs to be more clearly stressed, however, is the reason why the union leaders were unwillsuch action.
Despite the militant speeches of Basnett and Fisher, both of them em. essentially support the policies of the present Labour government.
for example, signed the Concordat, whose thrust is time. to support wage limits by curbing of shop Accepting the need to curb pay, ings. were therefore forced into a position where they tried to curb rather At no stage did they seek to pro-capitalist policies. When the government said it had scraped the kitty dry, they didn't question its intent of paying a 25% increase a drastic cut in defence spending inorder to boost the public sector and public sector workers wages.
nurseries. at branch, It is quite clear that a fight for decent wages and jobs - not to speak of defending the social services - cannot be won by the existing capitalist policies of the present lesson of the present strike is the need to fight for clear alternative leaders.
Fisher which will provide a real channel for the discontent and militancy of millions of workers.
NUPE) was set up by militants to fight for such alternative policies and to demand greater democracy Recall the Labour Party!
opposition to any attacks democratic rights of the unions - could begin to unite thousands of trade unionists and Labour Party activists around a common programme. The focal point of this struggle should be the recall of the TUC and Labour Party conferences.
After all, what mandate does the TUC or Callaghan have for cutting wages and boosting unemployment. 3oth the TUC and the Labour Party, at their last conferences, decisively threw out the 5% norm (the latter by a 2 to 1 majority). What mandate do either have to come to an agreement to curb rank-and-file democracy and to strike break? Did not the Labour movement throw struggles, during the Wilson and Demanding the recall of the Labour Party conference could begin to expose the undemocratic nature of Callaghan's policies and begin to elaborate an alternative on which to fight the coming election. Those leftwing Labour MPs who have declared their support ship and for the wages offensive have a special responsibility in this fight which should be started now. All talk about a leftwing manifesto * For action to win the pay claim, on conference policy. £60 minimum wage and opposition to all forms of wage freeze. For automatic increases in wages to compensate for the effects of inflation.
For a 35 - hour week with no * No cuts in staffing at any level, no cover of unfilled vacancies. Defend jobs and services by national strike action against the cuts. No to the cash limits syst* For full union democracy, For 100% union membership and for monthly branch meetings in work For the regular election stewards for each section/dept at sectional/ dept meet* Unity of the union against all attacks on Black people. Stop all deportations of hospital workers through the work permit system. Opposition to all racist immigration controls. Campaign against fascists holding positions in the union. * For the full development of women in the union. For the implementation of the demands of the Working Women's Charter, notably on maternity leave & For creche facilities district, area and at national meetings within the union. Although CAN is a new organisation whose policies are unclear in certain ways, it can provide a pivot for militants determined that the next struggles are not sold short by the union The policies CAN advocates -if taken up and fought for boldly both in the union and in the Labour Party - can begin to pose a serious alternative to the pro-capitalist policies of the union bureaucr'acy and Labour Party leaders.
Richard Munro which does not base itself on the real struggles opening up, and which does not confront Callaghan head-on, is merely... empty talk.
Fighting for such a programme, allied with other demands in favour of Labour's allies, would do much to offset any tendencies in the union ranks, disillusioned with the Labour governments policies, to think of disaffiliating from Labour or abstaining in the coming election.
Such a trend would be disastrous. We must not leave the task combatting right-wing Labour only be returned to office on a clear union-bashing programme.
The task of defeating Callaghan is the task of the Labour movement That is why campaigning for the return of a Labour government is a key issue for all socialists.
Campaigning for its return is not to identify with - or have any illusions in - the Labour leaders.
On the contrary, such a campaign has tobe coupled with a fight for the removal of its present leaderprogrammie in Iay -our of one based on the real needs of working people.
A.D.Scott
March 79 by Michael Strange