THE PRESS has been largely pre-occupied during the last week with the possibility of a split in the TUC. At one level of course it is wishful thinking by Fleet Street. It is extremely unlikely that the TUC will split this time round — much as Thatcher, Steel, and Owen would like it.
But over the long term there is no doubt that there is little likelihood of the TUC remaining united -tain is already one of only a very few countries which has a united trade union movement. The split dynamic is however created not by the left but by the right wing within the TUC.
The basis of the old unity of theTUC was the ablilty of British imperialism to give concessions to fairly wide layers of the working class. On that basis gains could be fought for by all sections of the unions without explosive conflicts. But Thatcher has broken sharply with any policy. She has consciously pursued a policy of concentrating concessions on relatively highly paid and skilled sections of the working class — a policy clearly spelt out in the famous 'Ridley Report' which provided the build up the confronGiven the way geography and social divisions coincide in Britain the reflection on the electoral field of that policy has been seen in the widening popularity holding up far better in the more prodramatically outside these regions.
Within the trade union movement the same unions such as the EEPTU and the AUEW on one side and other sections of the movement, symbolised by the miners and their allies on the other hand. Within the NUM it is seen in the diviUnder the impact of Thatcher's policies some of the most basic structural divides within the trade union movement are amoung higher paid skilled craft workers - the AUEW and EEPTU - which are the bulwark of themselves the small managerial unions. It is unions such as the NUM, and on an issue such as black sections NUPE, which are the core of the The reason for the deepening division is simple. Increasingly there are going to be only two towards forms of class collaboration far more direct and open even than Britain has seen this mond. It means a direct alliance with the ruling class against the mass of the working class and the abandonment of the most elementary principles of trade unionism — as well as an increasing political distancing from Labour.
The second road is that of class struggle and alliance with the mass of the working class cluding its most oppressed layers -higher than anything seen for decades. the path the NUM started the working class on Hammond and Scargill, figures that sum up today the logical development of these two paths. It is the right wing, rather than submit to even the elementary interests of the working class as a whole.
The TUC is most unlikely to split this year. But over the next decade the internal strains are Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weekly except two weeks in August and the last week of December.
Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent Socialist Action's views. These are expressed in editorials.
Send ail correspondence regarding subscriptions, sales and receipts to Socialist Action Distribution, B0 Dix 5ü, London N1 2XP Send all material for publication (including advertising) to Socialist Action Editorial at the same address. We repret that due to tne high cost cannot return or acknowledge unsolicited copy or photographs unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.
and it should be remembered that Briwith the Tories electoral - the road being pioneered by Hamthese are the two which would finally split away , or postage we Socialist Action 2 August 1985,