A BATTLE IS GOING ON THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. It is taking place at every union conference and in every trades council, trade union and Labour Party branch. It is being fought out on the district committees and in the shop stewards committees.
It is a battle between those who support the the Government's policies and those who - at least in words - oppose them.
The last few days have seen the Transport & General Workers Union executive unanimously endorsing the TUC and Government's new round of wage cutting. With the masterly air of a feudal baron presiding swung his "lefts' into line.
Meanwhile, Denis Healey standing ovation at the annual conference of the clerical workers' union, APEX.
BUT....the annual conferences of the Association of Scientific, Staffs, the Technical and Supervisory Section Engineering Union and the Civil and Public Services Association have all overwhelmingly rejected the new pay deal.
More is involved than a battle of words - the jobs, social services and living standards of the working class are at stake. have contemptuously als and demanded £100 a week. Scottish, Yorkshire and Lancashire miners them.
But one-time left' Lawrence Daly says that the Government's policy will be carried at the miners annual conference in July, while rightwingers are threatening a possible split in the NUM if the union goes against the deal.
In the engineering union an equally savage fight is taking place. weight behind Healey and Callaghan, the issue has been sharply posed to the supporters of the JOHN STURROCK (Report) Broad Left: with the 'left' bureaucracy for paper unity, or united action against the cuts and unemployment.
If the right is gaining the upper hand in the trade unions and the Callaghan/Healey leadership of the Government feels more secure, this is for two simple reasons:
1. The right wing knows what it is doing. Every capitulation, every betrayal is justified by a single phrase: to do otherwise is to bring down this Labour Government and return to the neverending struggle suffered under the Tories.
2. The left bureaucracy, execute.
LINE OF MOVEMENT.
over his fief, Jack Jones has Government, by was receiving a Technical and Managerial South Wales miners rejected Healey's proposhave supported With Scanion throwing his where it has not actually gone over to the right, has not raised a finger to mobilise action against the policies of the Government. Their inaction simply serves to demoralise their supporters. This was reflected at the ASTMS conference, where despite overwhelming rejection of the pay deal, the right emerged with a small overall majority on the BUT THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE RIGHT IN THE LABOUR It is possible to fight for more jobs, better wages and social services and maintain a Labour demanding removal at every level of the labour movement.
In every union and Labour and Callaghan's policies. opposition forms a majority.
of of the right wing.
ASTMS delegates vote to reject pay deal-but leaders refuse to organise fight. See conference report, page 4 those leaders responsible for the present anti-working class policies of the Labour Government and the replacement of their supporters Party branch, opposition to the policies of the Labour Government exists. The vast majority of Constituency Labour Parties are opposed on paper to Healey In some unions the Bringing these forces together in a common movement of class struggle action could put paid to Labour's Tory policies and hasten the defeat