ACTion SociAlist last week's TUC saw the right wing remain in conTOr Lne remains the ot two unions.
GMBATU, on every crucial On all other key the NGA, for the no-strike Council, the Ihe reorganisation of General Council, is also beginnAlan Sapper and Ken defeated when APEX will the smaller 11lLU the small The General seats elected by section will become Finally although the the General depends solely NALGO represenat year's on the Council voting the right the OVel struggle The right wing does not mean miners' Because the for their own pura series of other Were one a whip-round to buy Len a goingaway present. would you like to contribute? how much it will be used to try impose promise settlement or the NUM the TUC decisions on solidaritv make it easier today to build support action for the miners.
Most fruitfully on certain questions the leff is prepared to go beyond words, which are useless in themselves, to actions. The sendersoo OTI Lne TGWU has fought for the docks ASLEF and the NUR, no matter what their position on the current redundancy dispute in British Rail and London Transport. fought for ettective boycott of the movement of coal by rail. At the base of the TGWU the militants have been able to hold the nine onue cocks sunkel Local support for the the filicis movement is overwhelming.
But the problems which are confronted by the left wing in the trade unions today are also obPolitically has succeeded in disarming the lett on ar Hutcasine series of issues Membership of the EEC has beer accepted. build up in conventional spending has been accepted. Increasingly the old trap of incomes policy being discussed well as, according to Roy Hattersley, the need to acCeDE mend overl staying at a minimum level of two million The tactics used by the 'compulsory' strike ballot legislation aims to make institutionalise the whole process.
at this level among the rank and file members, that the biggest weakness of the union left lies today. Even the positive steps taken to coordinate action show the weakness of campaigns that for years have rested mainly 'the machine' The NUM has held regular meetings with other leaderships throughout the strike but no one knows directly decided. The TGWU left was able to was win the election for Ron Todd but it is not organised for rank and file camCOCKS weakness which the zovernmenl attempts constantly utilise. required Liaison Committee for the Defence (LCDTU) always strictly significant its GOr the 1970s by The Left Organising Committee the Par .,, forces, does While to be built area by area. The tradition of the early 1970s, where regular conferences the local movement were called around key disputes and campaigns, has to be revived.
Secondly, no matter bovcotts called for, 'compulsory ballots action and other attempts by the government to intervene in ine normal procedures o trade unions at a rank and Crevel golng •Deconne governine. • policy. The fight against : them means the left must HER engage in far more agita tion and work at the rank file level than ever before will not be ROU enough just to secure the leadership and hope that on every type campaigning and organisation at the rank and file level left wing caucuses really campaigning broad lefts the workplace branches of the Labour Partv. he test of any left wing leadership ir a union is how tar it en suur sand discourages, such rank organisation The left leadership the • trade unions ana une TUC must organise its own base in the unions and Labour Party Finally the most im history of the unions will be taking place next year - the vote on maintaining political funds and on affiliation the with the ballots on the closed shop these are going to shape the entire future ot British trade unionism After winning the miners' strike, winning these votes is the single most important task of the union left in the next year.