Harold Wilson's Labour government had already tried to introduce anti- union legislation in 1969.
There are some more positive factors in the situation. The total trade union membership, though down from its height of 12 mil lion, remains at 9 million, and in
Company some white collar sectors there stores!
has been a strengthening of trade unionism.
But these factors cannot offset the damage which has been done through the defeat of traditionally strong sectors such as the miners and printers, and the decline of the shop stewards' movement* (in strength more than in numbers) in the blue col-
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BRITAIN to strike
stick SINCE this article was completed the Tories have announced a further package of anti-union laws to be pushed through parliament early In
1992, This uses the same "carrot and stick" method employed throughout. On the one hand, they will Impose a "cooling off period" before any strike, even a legal one, can take place and, on the other, they will require the presence of independent scrutineers to be appointed for all union elections.
This is a very skillful package, aimed at restoring government popularity before the election. Whilst
Imposing a further constraint on union action the measures appear to address the Issue of union democracy - which Is popular among the rank-and-file of the unions. The author of this article, for example, struggled for many years
In the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) fo get agreement on Independent scrutineers in union ballots — with little success. Now the Torles are cashing In on the traditional corruption in the unions for their own ends. lar sector and in productive industry. Previously a challenge would have come from one of the powerful and well-placed sectors and opened the situation up. This is less likely to happen now since there
This does not mean that the working class has lost its will to fight. It means that there is a feeling that, under present conditions, the odds are too great.
The problem is that the trade union laws are now routinely complied with, and it is this which has to be changed. This can be codified in the slogan: "defiance not compliance". The laws have to employers made to pay a price for using the law against unions. Until this starts to be done, the straitjacket will remain.
The spectacular victory of the mass non-payment movement against the poll tax shows that non-compliance is perfectly possible. Some 14 million people defied the law and the government was forced to retreat. What was possible with the poll tax is also possible with the anti-union laws. However, it must be remembered that the anti-poll tax movement was completely outside the organized labour movement; indeed. the TUC was urging people to pay.
A campaign has to be built up now so that a serious challenge to the law can be whenever that may be.
The main reasons for the collapse of confidence are political and the most important factor that will effect it is the outcome of the general election which has to come within the next
The Tories are in deep crisis and the most likely outcome of the general election (although by no means certain) is a Labour government. It is a paradox of the present political situation in Britain that the Labour Party has moved further to the right than at any time since the war — at just the time when the working class needs a
Labour government more than at any time since the war!
Even under Kinnock, a victory for
Labour would boost confidence, raise expectations and set the scene for battles with Labour when
Kinnock opposes these aspirations. A fourth term of office for the Tories on the other hand would compound the present situation and make a fight back
In itself, the election of a Labour government would not resolve the matter of the anti-union laws - far from it. In fact, the Labour government would probably soon be using the Tory laws against a more militant working class. The struggle inside the labour movement to commit Labour to repeal of the anti-union legislation is thus of crucial importance.
The campaign which has thus far done the most in Britain to keep the issue of the anti-union laws at the front of the through the trade union committee of the Socialist Movement, which has developed an initiative called the "Unshackle the Unions Campaign".
Last year this campaign organized a lobby of Labour Party conference on the matter, and it held a highly successful conference this April bringing together some 250 trade union militants to discuss the impact of the anti-union laws and how to fight them.
Such work is crucial if militants in the unions are going to be able to prepare the ground to reverse the situation. 1. "New realism": the name given to the formal renun2. Formally speaking, the unions' political funds can be used to support any party or cause, but in fact they are the main financial resource of the Labour Party a fact of which everyone is well aware. ordered ballots of union members in the early 1980s produced overwhelming majorities in favour of retain3. Closed shop: automatic and compulsory union 4. Shop stewards are directly elected workplace representatives. In the 1960s and 70s shop stewards' networks formed an important alternative power centre in the unions to that of the bureaucracies.
against
Fujimori
IN HIS first months in office, Peru's president Alberto Fujimori has dashed the hopes of the many who voted for him in the belief that he represented an opposition to the privatization and austerity programme on offer from the far right grouped around the candidacy of the writer Mario Vargas Llosa.