NURSING sisters have invited them into their offices mobilise support. Council workers have gone off to 'wash their hands' and distributed They have been interviewed by radio. Campaign for Action in NUPE is getting a real foothold in the city of Nottingham.
The Campaign, launched nationally during last year's public sector wage claim, was set Up In Nottingham November. CAN aims to fight for an alternative leadership and policies for the union.
*In Nottingham we're fighting as hard as we can to have the nine per cent offer thrown out, says Graham Attwell, a NUPE shop steward and leading activist in the campaign.
•We've printed 1500 bulletins with the "No Sell Out' message. We'll be taking them all over the city and talking to as many branches groups workers as possible And we'll De back on me local radio pushing our policy. After the NEC vote we'll be saying reject the offer and for all-out strike action. It's all or nothing now.
The local government strike committee, of which Graham is a member, has called for a of all NUPE shop stewards in Greater Nottingbut tony Morris, assistant divisional officer, has tried to block it by saying that the meeting would be unofficial and shop stewards should not attend it.
Democracy is the key to organisation in the The People are just desperate for information' says *No one nationally has been telling them what was going on - apart from the mass media. We're the only people doing it?
This lack of information has also brought small problems for CAN. Graham pointed out that, due to the *For action to win the pay information coming from the union leadership, lena lo assume leaflets are tendency is strengthened bestrike. cause there has never been any previous organised opposition Graham. in NUPE as such.
As Graham says: 'CAN is getting a reputation. The main reason for this is that right from the start we've called for an all-out strike. *We've won increasing support for that policy as the strike SaCK of has gone on. Back in November members that CAN official. This narrowly defeated.
strikes. Now Graham local officials initiative. I put a motion to my local government branch calling for all-out action nationally. It was A lot of people had illusions in selective all the local government branches in Nottingham are behind the all-out When the dispute started CAN in maintains that the were "scared stiff of the membership taking any part in running the dispute. *They tried to stamp on any the members and recallable by them. For branch mands make strikes *Unity of the union against all attacks on black people. meetings.
of hospital workers, through the Opposition to all racist immigration Campaign against fascists holding positions in the *For the full development of Leyland House, women in the union. For the So CAN won the idea of a rank and file strike committee elected from the local government branches district committee — a shop stewards body.
One sign of this was the 40-strong meeting organised by early February.
NUPE official had to go on the radio to say that CAN was unofficial and that although these people wanted all-out action some people think there Is too much action'. Himsel implementation of the de of the Working Women's Charter, notably on maternity leave and nurseries For creche facilities at Branch, District, Area and National This platform was adopted by the last CAN Conference For more information about CAN write c/o Ray Varnes, 47, Poplar High Street, London E14. group for one.
The main work for CAN in the future is to step up the call for a rejection of the nine per cent offer and call for national action to gain the full claim. In Nottingham CAN members will be considering a regular bulletin and producing pamphlet on the dispute, which will be a major way of fighting CAN candidates forthcoming union elections. A central part of the CAN platform will be campaigning around the position of women in the union.
Jim Collins, a caretaker at the local Bentinck school: "There's a lot going for CAN not least in ECSIOS manifesto, watch includes demands against sexism Tacism. We must ry i bang solidarity within the union, against the segmentation, and take up issues concerning who make up the majority of the membership.
For Graham the prospects for building alternative leadership in the union are bright.
*What we've done here is not exceptional. There are NUPE militants in every city who are completely frustrated at the current leadership of the union. We're likely to be the only offering an alternative. OLL a national level Socialist Challenge 1 March 1979 page 5