Trade Union Bill & How to Kill it
-
Upload
communist-party -
Category
Documents
-
view
220 -
download
1
description
Transcript of Trade Union Bill & How to Kill it
A Communist Party Pamphlet by Laurence Platt
Foreword by Kevin Halpin
Trade Union Bill & How to Kill it
Communist Party Ruskin House
23 Coombe Rd
Croydon London CR0 1BD
020 8686 1659
www.communist-party.org.uk
Twitter: @CPBritain
Facebook.com/communistpartybritain
Wales PO Box 69
Pontypridd CF37 9AB
www.welshcommunists.org
Scotland 72 Waterloo St
Glasgow G2 7DA
0141 204 1611
www.scottishcommunists.org.uk
South West & Cornwall www.southwestcommunists.org.uk
Midlands www.midlandscommunists.org.uk
Northern www.northerncommunists.org.uk
Young Communists www.ycl.org.uk
Communist News & Views Subscribe online at www.communist-party.org.uk
Published by the Communist
Party September 2015
Copyright © Communist Party
2015
Author: Laurence Platt
Editor: Graham Stevenson
ISBN 978-1-908315-35-9 RRP £2 A5/£3 A4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission of the publisher.
Britain’s
Road to Socialism
The latest edition of the
CP’s programme - presents
and analyses capitalism and
imperialism in its current
form; answers the questions
of how a revolutionary
transformation might be
brought about in 21st
Century Britain; and what a
socialist and communist
society in Britain might look
like.
The first edition was
published in 1951 after
nearly six years of discussion
and debate across the CP,
labour movement and
working class. Over its 8
editions it has sold more
than a million copies in
Britain and helped to shape
and develop the struggle of
the working class for more
than half a century.
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 1
Foreword by Kevin Halpin 2
The Tory Trade Union Bill
& How to Kill It
by Laurence Platt
Introduction 4
Why unions still matter 7
2015 Bill: Sajid’s Blunderbuss 9
Campaigning against the Tory assault 15
Build our Union work by Graham Stevenson 19
CP Solidarity Fund 23
Page 2 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
Foreword by Kevin Halpin
This pamphlet is a timely reminder of our belief and experience that action
and solidarity do have the power to defeat anti-trade union legislation and
defend our freedoms and democracy.
Of course it’s not going to be easy; it never was - but it’s a fight that must be
waged and which we can win.
We may no longer have as many shop stewards committees because our
industrial base has shrunk, but these types of collective bargaining organisation
still play a key role in many workplaces, and today we have a new weapon -
social media - in our armoury; clearly recognised as such by the Tories who
want to move from writing the questions on our industrial ballot papers to
controlling when we can talk to our work mates and what we may say.
On the other hand, as is rightly pointed out in the pamphlet: ‘Unlike the
early 1970s the leadership of the movement, including the TUC, has made
clear its outright opposition to the Trade Union Bill and has called for the
widest possible protest.’ So thankfully it’s not longer the case that Congress
House will call on the local police to move trade union members lobbying
outside for ‘disturbing the peace’, as happened to me on more than one
occasion.
Over the past 35 years blood-chilling references to the 'bad old days' of the
1970s have been used by new Labour and old Tories to warn of the dangers of
unions that are 'too strong'. But what was the reality? Certainly, unions were
never strong enough (even if they had wanted to be) to sack a single employer,
let alone thousands of people at once; or to sell off or shut down a company
without warning; or to issue a death sentence to a whole local community.
The impression given of the ‘70s is that mass meetings were held every day,
taking instant (‘wild cat’) action at the instigation of a small number of union
agitators. As one who was there, and others will confirm this, I can tell you
that this picture is nonsense. Just as frequently, mass meetings voted against
action. When workers came out, it was usually because they were fed up with
being treated like machines, to be speeded up and driven to the limit, or as
casual labour to be picked up and discarded at will.
So by taking a stand for dignity and some control over the job, as well as for
better wages and conditions, working people gained in confidence; confidence
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 3
to defy and win.
KEVIN HALPIN was Industrial
Organiser of the Communist Party
from 1988 to 2010. As founding
chairperson of the rank-and-file
Liaison Committee for the Defence
of Trades Unions (now merged into
the Campaign for Trade Union
Freedom) his role was pivotal in
defending the rights of workers
from both Labour and Conservative
governments.
After his victimisation by Ford after
14 years as an AEU convenor, he
was clearly on the engineering
employers ‘blacklist’ being turned
down for for work by 48
companies in three years, at which
time the manager of the
Dagenham Labour Exchange,
convinceπd he’d never get back
into engineering, suggested he
retrain as a hairdresser. An offer he
refused and finally, thanks to union
colleagues, found work in London’s
ship-repair yards until (under Thatcher’s de-industrialisation) the docks closed when
he went on to London Underground becoming chair and convenor of the joint trades
unions committee.
Flyer produced by the TUC in 1971 for the rally against the Industrial
Relations Bill . Courtesy of TUC Library Collections
Page 4 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
Introduction
The 2015 Trade Union Bill marks a further attempt by a Tory government to
make any trade union activity ineffective if not impossible. Throughout the
twentieth century and now into the twenty first, Tory governments have tried
over and over again to restrict Trade Unions’ ability to defend and advance the
interests of their members because they recognise that workers organised in
the workplace, independent of government and employer, are the single
biggest stumbling block to the implementation of their reactionary policies.
Ever since people worked for an employer there have been attempts to
regulate their employment. As far back as the fourteenth century feudal
governments legislated to prevent land workers, artisans and craft workers
demanding higher wages (The 1351 Statute of Labourers). Closer to our own
times, the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800 made it a criminal offence for
workers to join together for political purposes. The 1824 Combination of
Workmen Act repealed the Acts of 1799 and 1800, but this led to a wave of
strikes. Accordingly, the Combinations of Workmen Act 1825 was passed to re
-impose criminal sanctions for picketing and other methods of persuading
workers not to work. The 1834 case of the Tolpuddle Martyrs is now so well-
known as to need no further detail here.
In their modern form anti-union legislation has largely been a feature of the
last three decades of the twentieth century and has been aimed at reducing
the freedom of trade unions to act on behalf of their members. The first of
these was a 1969 failed attempt initiated by Barbara Castle’s In Place of Strife.
But Ted Heath’s ill-fated attempt did make it to the statute books in the form
of the 1971 Industrial Relations Act, steered through Parliament by Robert
Carr as Secretary of State for Employment. Successive pieces of legislation
from the Thatcher government in the 1980s have ensured that postal ballots
have to be organised before industrial action takes place, that sympathetic
(secondary) action in support of workers taking action was outlawed, union
political funds have to be reaffirmed every decade by a ballot of the whole
membership of the union and the ‘closed shop’ has been made illegal. The 1992
Trade Union and Labour Relations Act (Consolidated) placed further
restriction on picketing, limiting a picket to six and confining them to being
close to the workplace where the industrial action is taking place. Failure to
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 5
abide by this legislation lays a union open to sequestration of its funds.
We may wish to note in passing that this battery of regulations has and
continues to come from a Tory Party that in all other areas of the economy
are the most steadfast opponents of regulation. A Party that lectures us from
breakfast to dinner time on law and order, yet their anti-trade union
legislation, which has been at the heart of much of their programme in
government over past decades has consistently breached many of the
international treaties that the UK is signed up. Most crucially the ILO
conventions on workplace rights and the UN’s International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural rights! The ILO convention on Freedom of
Association states clearly that:
Article 2
Workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall
have the right to establish and, subject only to the rules of the
organisation concerned, to join organisations of their own
choosing without previous authorisation.
Article 3:
1.Workers' and employers' organisations shall have the right to
draw up their constitutions and rules, to elect their
representatives in full freedom, to organise their administration
and activities and to formulate their programmes.
2.The public authorities shall refrain from any interference
which would restrict this right or impede the lawful exercise
thereof
These articles were included in the ILO Charter in the immediate aftermath
of the Second World War and were designed to ensure that workers
organisations were free from government interference and an essential part of
any democratic society. Since the early 1980’s successive British governments
have arguably been in breach of Articles 2 and 3 and therefore in breach of
their international obligations. The latest Tory assault on trade unions
continues this trend in UK Labour legislation and indeed carries it further than
ever before. If you ignore the law on picketing or any other aspect of the
legislation you stand a good chance of being hit by a policemen and by a Judge
Page 6 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
whilst the Tories can blithely ignore their
international obligations without let or
hindrance. One law for you - another for
them!
In 2015 we face the next round of anti-
union legislation from what history will
undoubtedly regard as one of the most
reactionary governments that Britain has
had in over a hundred years. The purpose
of the Bill is to demolish, they hope once
and for all, any meaningful trade unionism
in this country. This represents the latest
in a long line of attempts by the
representatives of the Capitalist Class to
prevent workers from effectively
advancing their terms and conditions at
work and having a real say in the society
within which their work creates much of
the wealth. A poster at the time of the
imposition of Heath’s Industrial Relations
Act said ‘SHUT UP AND KEEP
WORKING (by order)’ and this sums up
the thrust of all the anti-working class
legislation that successive governments
have passed down the centuries,through
the Feudal Court or the Bourgeois
Parliaments. The Trade Union legislation envisaged by the Tory government is
no different in its intent and must be stopped in its tracks!
Pamphlet produced by the TUC in 1971
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 7
Why unions still matter
Trade unions give workers a voice in the workplace that would otherwise be
denied them. Unions also go some way to redressing the imbalance of power
between bosses and workers. At its most basic people at work need someone
to speak up for them. That is as true today as it has been throughout the
history of the trade union movement.
But trade unions do much more than that. Over the last fifty years our
unions have been at the forefront in ensuring that the workplace is safe for
workers to be in. The trade unions were the main force in society that
ensured that the Health and Safety at Work Act got onto the statute book.
Unions have led the fight for compensation for workers exposed to asbestos
and now suffering from Mesothelioma, as well as a whole range of other
industrial illnesses. Before the destruction of the mining industry by an equally
right wing government, the National Union of Mineworkers had played a
central role in making British deep mined coal the safest in the world.
Our unions were, and continue to be, a central part of the forces in society
that saw the passage of the legal framework to ensure equal pay and equality
of opportunity for women and black workers and more recently for disabled
workers and Gay, Lesbian and Transgender members.
Without our unions we would not have seen the better pay, better working
conditions and better pensions that have been an important feature of a
working life over the past half century. All of these things did not just happen,
neither were they ‘gifts’ from a benevolent employer or government. They
were negotiated and, when necessary, fought for by workers and their unions,
often in the face of ferocious opposition from employers and the State
throughout the post-war period.
The trade unions have also been able to use the money contributed by
members to their political funds, not only to support the Labour Party which
has given working people a political voice, but also to be able to run campaigns
on many issues that affect the day to day lives of the community as a whole.
It would be wrong to say that the advances to which the trade unions have
so centrally contributed are now complete - there is much that still needs to
be done. . The battle against capitalism and the capitalist class will continue as
long as capitalism survives.
Page 8 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
The ability of the trade union movement to continue to fight for is now
under the most direct threat that has been seen for at least a generation. The
proposals contained in the Trade Union Bill will prevent any effective defence
of gains that have been made in the post-war period (much of which has
already been eroded) but will make virtually impossible the fight for any
further advance for working people.
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 9
The 2015 Bill: Sajid’s Blunderbuss
Although there are differences of detail, the overall thrust of Sajid Javid’s Bill
has some remarkable similarities with the 1970 Industrial Relations Bill.
Writing at that time, Communist National Industrial Organiser, Bert Ramelson,
pointed out that:
“The Industrial Relations Bill 1970 is the most vicious piece of
politically motivated class legislation since the Combination
Acts of the early 1800s. It has been framed by big business for
big business. The Bill is not only an attack on the trade unions …
It is aimed equally to deprive the British people of some of their
basic inalienable democratic rights such as freedom of speech
and expression, and the right to demonstrate and organise in
support of their views and opinions. The threat to trade
unionists and their rights is also an attack on
other human rights….. the Tories -
henchmen of the boss class - have thought of
most of the circumstances when trade
unions are likely to have to take industrial
action, declared them ‘unfair industrial
practices’ and therefore illegal … the Bill
even deprives the trade unions of the right
to remain voluntary organisations framing
their own rules….’
(Ramelson, Carr’s Bill and How to Kill it: A Class
Analysis, C.P. 1970.)
We are now faced with a Trade Union Bill just as extensive in scope as the
1971 Act and just as likely to provoke a similar mass opposition. This
blunderbuss approach may be the biggest weakness in the Tory strategy to
remove the trade unions form the industrial and political scene in the UK.
Once they become law the provisions contained in the Trade Union Bill will
make industrial action almost impossible. They will:
Page 10 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
Impose virtually unachievable targets on Industrial Action Ballots before a
strike can be legally called.
Try and break the financial link between the unions and the Labour Party,
thereby ending our political voice.
Prevent unions and management bodies agreeing to facility time for trade
union reps.
Criminalise picketing during strike action.
Will legalise the ‘right’ of the employer to bring in scab labour to replace
those who are on strike.
Abolish check-off in the public sector.
And finally, in a sinister twist since it impinges on the freedom of the
press, they will insist on the government being notified in advance of
anything a union puts on social media relating to support for members in
dispute with their employer.
Ballots
The regulations covering balloting for industrial action demand that at least
50% of those eligible to vote do so and that in essential services there must be
a 40% vote in favour of all those entitled to vote before that action is deemed
lawful. In other words a no vote is taken as a vote against action
As has already been pointed out by many in the movement if this same rule
was applied to elections to Parliament or to local councils there would hardly
be an MP or councillor in the land but it seems that it is one law for them but
another for us!
At the same time the government has rejected any suggestions from the
TUC to modernise the way in which voting takes place, for example by voting
online through secure websites or properly monitored workplace ballots.
What is also worth pointing out is that once a strike is called the real ballot is
the number of members that actually come out. It is faintly ridiculous to argue,
as the government and sections of the press have, that the turnout is the
result of intimidation of a ‘majority’ by a militant minority! Workers take part
in strike action because of the strength of feeling over the matter at issue -
plain and simple! There are no similar restrictions placed on the ’rights’ of
management to close down whole workplaces and throw hundreds and
sometimes thousands of workers on the scrap heap - as can be seen by the
recent announcement by Tata Steel in Rotherham and the decision to close
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 11
the Goodyear factory in Wolverhampton and move production elsewhere in
the EU.
Political funds
The attack on the political funds of the trade unions takes us back to the
1920s when, in the aftermath of the General Strike, similar legislation was
enacted which required union members to ‘opt in’ to the political fund rather
than opt out as is currently the case. The government knows that this will
dramatically undermine the efforts of the movement to campaign on issues
that have an effect on their members. It is well known that some of the funds
go to support Labour candidates at general and local elections. What is less
generally understood is that the political funds also enable the unions to
campaign on issues that have an impact on people’s lives. Recent examples of
this are the unions’ input into campaigns against TTIP and the ‘Bedroom Tax’. It
goes without saying that there are no similar proposals to restrict the ‘rights’
of the bosses to ladle cash into the coffers of the Tory Party or indeed to
prevent employers and their representatives campaigning on whatever issues
they like!
Facility time
Facility time for trade union representatives has, and continues to be, a
positive influence on the workplace. It represents the ability of shop stewards
and safety reps to raise issues with management and resolve them before
matters reach a crisis point. The attempts by the government to abolish this
would make you think that they actually want to provoke industrial action by
workers!
Agency workers
The intention to allow employers to bring in scab labour to break a strike is a
recipe for disorder if ever there was one. The government seem quite ready to
contemplate this in their headlong dash to eliminate effective trade union
action in the UK.
Check-Off
The addition of an attack on check-off was added out of the blue some three
weeks after the original publication of the Bill itself. It is nothing other than an
Page 12 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
attempt to weaken any trade union organisation in the public sector. Check-off
arrangements have been freely negotiated between unions and the employer
and have served both well over a number of years and more importantly have
not been the subject of any complaints by employers themselves. If the Tories
get away with this one then it won’t be long before it seeps into the private
sector. Above all the way in which the announcement was made, outside of any
of the Parliamentary processes that are supposed to be followed once a Bill is
published and that the consultation launched by Sajid Javid is a sham.
Picketing, social media and leverage campaign
Amongst the most sinister provisions of the Bill are those that deal with the
conduct of an industrial dispute. Even where it is possible to win a ballot,
further hurdles are thrown in the way of workers acting effectively to win the
dispute. Unions will be
expected to provide the
police with information
about the numbers
attending a picket or
associated protest,
whether or not banners
or placards will be used.
The Police must be
notified in advance of a
nominated person who is in
charge of the picket or protest and
this person must wear an armband
and carry a letter of appointment
from their union, which they
must produce for inspection by
any copper who asks for it! A
complete plan of how the
industrial action will run has to
be provided to the police in advance
of the action taking place. The use of social
media is to be controlled, with the union expected to inform the police in
advance of which media is to be used and what is to be said, when and by
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 13
whom; again, a breach of civil liberties.
Needless to say there are no provisions in the Bill which insist that
employers should inform the union of what measures they intend to take to
defeat a strike; much less is there any suggestion that the police inform the
union of the measures that they intend to take to police industrial action.
As with any proposed legislation there is a consultation period and the
published documents associated with this are illuminating.
In 2014 the then Coalition Government commissioned Bruce Carr Q.C. to
conduct a review of trade union action in the conduct of strikes. He
abandoned this, giving his reasons as:
1. Being increasingly concerned about his ability to gather
meaningful evidence from either employers or unions.
2. Suggesting the political environment in the run up to the
General Election made an objective review difficult.
3. And that he had reached the conclusion that it simply will not
be possible for the review to put together a substantial enough
body of evidence from which to provide a sound basis for making
recommendations for change.
At the time, this was a considerable embarrassment to the government but,
being driven by their own class instincts, this has not been allowed to stand in
their way!
And so it is that in the Impact Assessment it is acknowledged that there ‘is
no definitive evidence of the scale of any problem relating to picketing and
intimidation. Evidence from the Carr review indicated that though breaches of
the code (Code of practice on picketing - 1992) do happen this evidence
could not be substantiated.’ It goes on then to state ‘We aim through
consultation to seek further views on the proposed measures and how they
relate to the potential problems’.
This is a bit like saying ‘We’ve decided that you are guilty and the sentence
has been agreed - we’re just waiting for someone to provide us with the
evidence’!
One of the specific forms of effective industrial action that is singled out in
the Tory attack is the leverage tactic that some unions have employed.
Leverage works by putting pressure on the supply chain of an employer with
Page 14 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
whom the union is in dispute in order to bring about a speedy and successful
outcome to any industrial action. This is completely within the law and has
proved very effective. This is now characterised as ‘causing fear and
intimidation’ and in a desperate attempt to get over the fact that Carr could
find no evidence to support this ‘fear and intimidation’, Javid is now seeking the
‘evidence’ through the consultation process that the Trade Union Bill has to go
through before it can become an act. It will cause no surprise if this process
comes up with the ‘evidence’ that so far does not exist!
What all this amounts to is a wholesale assault on the freedom of the
working class and its industrial and political organisations, as well as the wider
civil liberties of the population as a whole. It will remove any realistic chance
of people improving their working lives and of having any real say in the
society in which we live. It gives the green light for the bosses to behave in any
high handed way that they feel fit and for us, as the poster from the campaign
against (only politically related) Robert Carr’s Industrial Relations Act put it,
to ‘Shut Up and Keep Working’.
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 15
Campaigning against the Tory assault
The blunderbuss approach that the Tories have taken in the Trade Union Bill is
probably its greatest potential weakness. Its wide-ranging provisions are likely
to have an impact on not only the trade union movement but on wider
sections of society as a whole. This is particularly so with regard to the parts
of the Bill which relate to use of social media. It can be nothing other than an
attack on freedom of opinion and expression to demand that trade unions
involved in industrial action have to submit for police approval the details and
content of anything that they intend to put on Facebook or Twitter in support
of striking members. What is not clear is what happens to someone, trade
unionist or not, who puts things on social media in support of striking workers
and is not directly involved in the dispute. It probably won’t be long before the
courts come up with a solution to that! What is being proposed is nothing
other than the silencing of freedom of speech and the expression of opinion
by working people and those that support them. There appears to be no such
restrictions envisaged for the bosses and their supporters in the right wing
press and it unlikely that their political representatives, the Tories, will accept
any legislative attempt to do so.
The last time such an all-encompassing attempt to silence the trade union
movement was attempted, in the 1971 Industrial Relations Act, a combination
of protest and industrial action utterly defeated it. It was precisely its catch all
nature that gave rise to the groundswell of opposition, led by the LCDTU,
which defeated the Act. A very important lesson for us today and the key to
understanding why the 1971 campaign was so effective was the campaign to
take industrial action. Mainly Communist trade union leaders – both rank and
file and full-time officers - arranged prior activity to brief and alert masses of
trade union members in workplace meetings that primed important sections
of the working class to agree to be ready to act. Thus, the surge of walk-outs
against the legislation did not happen spontaneously. Mass one-day stoppages
in 1968 and 1970 laid the basis for this. It would be wrong to imagine that we
have exactly the same circumstances as we had when large numbers of well-
organised workers were in key industrial sectors in both the private and
public sectors and there had been a rise in working class militancy over wages
from the mid-1960s.
Page 16 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
However, even in a time where people are far more scattered and isolated
than ever before, there continues to be a willingness amongst workers to take
action to defend themselves against the high-handed actions of management. In
the recent period there has been widespread action in local government and
the civil service, on the railways and in other areas of transport. Such action
has also been occurring in some of the most unlikely of places - at the
National Gallery over the outsourcing of the jobs of some 400 staff and at
Sotheby’s Auction House, where cleaners have been sacked for joining a union.
Perhaps the most instructive has been the recent industrial action in the
construction industry where a sacked shop steward has been reinstated after
a picket was put on at the place where he worked. This picket was supported
by construction workers from all over the country and no doubt social media
played a part in the mobilisation for this - precisely the sort of communication
and rapid response that the Tories will attempt to silence.
Unlike the early 1970s the leadership of the movement, including the TUC,
has made clear its outright opposition to the Trade Union Bill and has called
for the widest possible protest. The task that faces us is to build on this in
order to create a mighty campaign that will stop this vicious anti-working class
legislation in its tracks.
It is probable that the Tories will get the Bill on to the statute book but the
campaign that we build now will be the essential bedrock on which action can
be developed which can make the new law inoperative.
In the immediate future we must work for the maximum support for the
action that has been called for by the TUC and ensure that there is no
backsliding by the leadership. There will be calls for a general strike against the
Bill and when it comes to the Act. Such calls should not be dismissed out of
hand but all must realise that the conditions in which such action could have
any possibility of success must be built. A general strike cannot be pulled like a
rabbit from a magician’s hat.
Full support should be given to the lobby of the Tory Party Conference and
the lobby of Parliament as called for by the TUC. These can be seen as the
building blocks for further action.
At a local level there is every reason why MPs, both Labour and Tory, and
others should be lobbied in their own constituencies. Leave them in no doubt
that the anti-union legislation is unacceptable. Press Labour MPs to actively
work to frustrate and delay the passage of the Bill through Parliament. Make it
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 17
clear that it is not acceptable to give vague promises that they will repeal the
Act if they get back into government in 2020. They must be encouraged to
work alongside us from the outset in moves to derail the Bill and, if it gets
onto the statute book, the Act itself.
At a time when more and more workers are taking action to defend their
jobs and their terms and conditions, there is an increasing likelihood that they
will become enmeshed in the provisions of the Act. This is what happened in
1971 when dockers pursuing an industrial dispute aimed at extending the
Dock Labour Scheme to container terminals found themselves on the
receiving end of court action under the Industrial Relations Act and were
thrown in to Pentonville Prison for contempt of court. Mass action and the
threat of a general strike by the TUC general council secured their release
after five days. 1971. We need once again to ensure that if any workers in the
course of taking industrial action are threatened with legal action under the
Act that we are in a position to deliver the same response as was delivered in
support of the Pentonville Five.
Labour unrest in the period 1970-74 was far more massive and
incomparably more successful than its predecessor of 1910-1914. Millions of
workers were involved in campaigns of civil disobedience. Over 200
occupations of factories, offices, workshops and shipyards occurred in two
years alone and many of them attained all or some of their objectives. And the
coal miners’ victories in the two Februaries of 1972 and 1974 gave a finality to
a temporary defeat for capitalism.
As then, mass defiance by workers and their unions must be at the centre of
our response but we must also reach out to the widest sections of our
society and bring them into action, particularly around the threat to the
freedom of expression and opinion. Our ability to do this is the best guarantee
of being able to create the circumstances in which the anti-working class laws
can be defeated.
Our future is at stake! Either we build the movement to defeat this
legislation or we pass under the shadow of the most reactionary laws this
country has seen in many, many decades. At the centre of this will be our
unions but we must also build on the work already done by the Institute of
Employment Rights and the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom alongside the
widest possible mobilisation of public opinion. There is no room for
compromise here; there is nothing in this act that can be seen as providing any
Page 18 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
kind of basis for creating a fair and equitable society. It promises nothing but
legal sanctions, fines for both our unions and individual members and the
probability of imprisonment for any attempt to advance our terms and
conditions at the workplace and any moves to have a real say in the affairs of
our country. Full support must be given to all those who find themselves in
conflict with this rotten law.
The power of mass protest.
Just a day after the TUC mass lobby of Parliament on the 2nd of November
the government announced it was withdrawing some of the provisions of the
Trade Union Bill. The proposal to force unions to publish a protest and
picketing plan 14 days in advance of action being taken which included what
unions intended to post on Facebook and Twitter. The Tories have also decided
that they will not pursue with proposals to create a whole new raft of criminal
offences around picketing and make every picket wear an armband or give
their name to the police. Perhaps most importantly the proposal that the
picket organiser must carry a letter of authorisation from his or her union to
show the police or any member of the ‘public’ who requests to see it has been
removed.
These changes to the provisions of the Trade Union Bill have undoubtedly
come about as a result of the growing pressure from trade unions, the wider
community and the fact that at least five Tory MPs have indicated that they
may well rebel over the Bill.
But no one should be fooled - the bulk of the Bill remains intact and indeed
the withdrawal of the provision to make unions publish protest and picketing
plans including their intended use of social media will be more than
compensated for by Theresa May’s ‘Snoopers Charter’ which is also on its way
through Parliament and will give the ‘security’ services virtual carte blanche to
spy on all our internet use including emails and social media!
Still at the centre of this odious piece of class legislation are the new rules
on balloting for industrial action and the scrapping of the laws to outlaw the
use of scab labour in an industrial dispute.
The mass opposition outside parliament has created the circumstances
where the government has withdrawn some of the proposals in the Bill but
most of its most dangerous provisions remain intact and continue to pose a
grave threat to the ability of unions to effectively represent the interests of
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 19
their members. The TUC and its affiliates must keep up the pressure, along
with civil liberties campaigners and we must be prepared to take all the
measures necessary to utterly defeat this vicious attempt to silence the voice
of the working class.
This is a fight for freedom and democracy. This legislation must be defeated:
Kill the Bill, Demolish the Act!
The momentum which gathered behind Jeremy Corbyn’s labour leadership
campaign shows what can be achieved when a voice is given to those who
have been abandoned by the neoliberalism of the Tories and New Labour. The
campaign is shifting the terms of the debate and breathing new life into the
case for a genuine socialist alternative to endless austerity. At the heart of this
has been the Morning Star, which as the voice of the resistance and the only
daily paper supporting struggle is now more critical than ever. The Morning
Star is at the centre of the Kill the Bill campaign. It will report and support
the many meetings, marches, rallies and groups that will undoubtedly be es-
tablished in the fight to defeat it.
It does not have the same resources that the capitalist press can rely on.
There are no billionaire oligarchs or non-doms backing the Morning Star. It is
wholly owned and supported by its shareholders from individuals to trade
unions, including Community, CWU, FBU, GMB, NUM, POA, RMT, Ucatt and
Unite. Read it! Donate to it! Get your shareholding now! Better still, get your
trade union branch or other progressive organisation to do the same. This is
a critical time for the movement and your voice and your paper are a vital
tool in the fight in the class war. Don’t be without it.
Page 20 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
Build our Trade Union work by Graham Stevenson, CP Trade Union Organiser
One of the bugbears of British capitalism, its state, its security services, and its
propaganda machine has been how Communist have for so long been at heart
of our unified trade union movement. This was especially with the Party’s
leading role in the trade union struggles of the late 1960s and early 1970s. A
prime minister once had a vision – fed to him by MI5 – of a "tightly knit group
of politically motivated men" behind disputes like the seamen's strike of the
1966. Of course, it’s not like that now – we have women, too!
From the National Minority Movement of the 1920s, to the 1926 general
strike, Britain’s Communists have never been found lacking. As the task of
leading the great unemployed struggles of 1929-39 faded, the National
Unemployed Workers Movement leader, Wal Hannington, became national
organiser of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. The Party’s legendary
general secretary, Harry Pollitt, called for a `Turn to Industry’ and a new wave
of union organisation began, with Communists at the forefront and regularly
awarded the TUC Tolpuddle medal for astounding number of workers
recruited. Tom Mann, a heroic leader of an older generation was a Communist,
as were up and coming miners’ leaders, Arthur Horner and Abe Moffatt.
During the Second World War, and for a generation after it, Communist shop
stewards became almost the norm. The reason so many known Communists
were elected by their workmates was because of their integrity and
incorruptibility.
As the cold war faded, Bert Ramelson, the Party’s infamous national
industrial organiser from the mid-1960s, stood at the heart of the modern
idea of a broad left. The alliance between Communists and other lefts was so
strong that Ramelson was able to once comment that he had only to "float an
idea early in the year and it will be official Labour Party policy by the autumn."
A full quarter of the delegates to the 1973 TUC congress were reputed to be
Party members.
The sharp decline in union membership during the 1980s was initially mainly
due to the high levels of unemployment. A highpoint of 12% of the working
population was hit in 1983. Sectors like coal, steel, and manufacturing were hit
particularly hard. Until recently, a big exception was the public sector, which
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 21
saw an expansion and strengthening of trade union organisation. But the
working class also suffered a series of major defeats. Proceeding cautiously at
first, Thatcher aimed at a strategy of isolating and then defeating key groups of
workers and slowly introducing anti trade union legislation.
Join the Communist Party or Young Communists
The Communist Party’s Aims and Constitution make clear that we are mainly
focused on achieving a socialist Britain: “in which the means of production,
distribution and exchange will be socially owned and utilised in a planned way for the
benefit of all. This necessitates a revolutionary transformation of society, ending the
existing capitalist system of exploitation and replacing it with a socialist society in
which each will contribute according to ability and receive according to work done.
Socialist society creates the conditions for advance to a fully communist form of
society in which each will receive according to need.”
The Communist Party punches well above its weight but, with more
members, we could achieve more. Having read this pamphlet, will you consider
joining our Party? Since our last Congress, the Communist Party has been
working hard to take its work amongst trades unionists to the level of activity
the present Tory offensive calls for. The development of more and better
advisory groups to the executive in specific industries has been steady in
building our Trade Union Advisory Network. Especially in promoting our
bulletin Unity!, with Anita Halpin as editor-in-chief, at union conferences and
events.
We plan a special Solidarity Fund to help young Party and YCL activists
become better involved. A more organic involvement of Young Communist
League members in our work is increasingly evident and there are exciting
new possibilities for unionisation in the fast food sector. We have even held a
weekend school for Young Workers in our trade union cadre development
programme. We hope to developing educational resources, such as podcasts,
even short films, tutors’ notes, all of which could be used to reach out to a
new generation of potential activists.
Retired Members
The Party is looking to see how our members can be better co-ordinated in
their activity in the many Retired Members Associations and other pension’s
campaigns groups. Volunteers with a particular knowledge of pensions’ matters,
Page 22 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
especially workplace pensions, are already forthcoming but more would be
welcome to be involved in this and suggestions of names would be appreciated
to.
The nature of work today is fragmented and sections of the movement aren’t
really interested in organising out of the way and difficult to service individuals
or groups. Let’s get all who can join into a union! And, while we are at it, let’s
recruit, organise, and train a whole new generation of activists who we can be
proud of in building a new and more vigorous profile for Communist trade
union work.
Needs of the Hour
New international briefings in the Communist Party series, Needs of the Hour,
are now available to view and download online.
For TTIP, see:
http://issuu.com/communist_party/docs/international_bulletin_ttip_may_201
For Ukraine, see:
http://issuu.com/communist_party/docs/international_bulletin_ukraine_may_
We are now developing others for domestic policy and would positively
welcome suggestions and drafts for trade union briefings on:
The economy and the way forward
Pay, prices, and profits
The fight back in the workplace and community
Co-ordinating industrial action, including solidarity acts
Building national and international conglomerate co-ordination in all
industries
Linking each strand of the economy into a new alternative economic and
political strategy
To offer help or if you have any queries about the Communist Party’s trade
union policy and work, please email: [email protected]
Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 23
Younger Member Development
Solidarity Fund
Whether you are a member of ours or not, you can help the Communist
Party in its campaign to renovate involvement and activity of younger people
in the trade union movement. Young Worker Students do not have to be
members of the Party or YCL to be eligible for CP Trade Union Training.
We have just held our first ever successful Young Workers' Residential
Weekend School. Most of those attending were in low wage and unstable jobs.
The event focused on training to become involved in union branch activity, or
how to organise a workplace, to get involved in committee and conference
work. We aim to hold more of these events. Can you help fund our next
school?
We have set up a special Solidarity Fund to help younger trades unionist get
better involved, for example by funding their attendance as part of our Unity!
bulletin distribution team at union conferences. That way, militant younger
trades unionists can get to go to the many fringe meetings, mix with veterans,
and even sit in as visitors at their union conference and learn the ropes.
Give what you can to our Solidarity Fund on a regular basis by completing
the form overleaf. It doesn't matter how little or how much - everything given
this way by you will be ear-marked purely for the foregoing use.
Make a few quid a week contribution to help train young
comrades by signing up to our Solidarity Fund.
Or make a one off donation - £100 will get a young activist to their
union conference and put them up whilst they give out copies of our
trade union bulletin, Unity!
Page 24 Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it
Please pay: Unity Trust Bank plc, Nine Brindleyplace, 4 Oozells Sq, Birmingham
B1 2HB. Sort code 086001 Account Number 20092959
£ each week/month until further notice
and debit my account number
Bank sort code
Starting on (date)
Signature
To: The Manager (Your bank name and address)
Postcode
Please fill in and return to CP, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd, Croydon CR0 1BD
Bankers Order Form
Name
Address
Postcode
New pamphlets from
the Communist Party
From each according to their means ISBN 978-1-908315-08-3
by CP Economics Commission
This hard hitting discussion pamphlet deals with the
essential tax reforms which should be featured in a
left progressive programme, including: radical
proposals to tackle tax evasion; restoring fair rates
of corporation tax; introducing an innovative
alternative to existing property and council taxes
with one based on the actual value of land; and the
introduction of an annual wealth tax aimed at the
super-rich.
EU withdrawal - the people’s answer to
austerity ISBN 978-1-908315-33-5
by John Foster
CP international secretary puts the case that the
social gains won since the Second World War are
being wiped out across Europe by the EU and that
EU withdrawal is the answer to austerity, racism and
xenophobia.
The New Scramble for Africa ISBN 978-1-908315-07-6
by CP International Commission
This pamphlet presents a detailed look at the
accelerating impact of imperialist countries across
the African continent as they seek to control natural
resources and dominate markets. It also examines
contemporary political developments & movements
of resistance in Southern and Central Africa.
All pamphlets available in A5 (£2) or A4-large
print format (£3) + £1 p&p.
Send orders (Cheques/PO payable to “CP”)
to: CP Shop, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd
London CR0 1BD.
thinkglobally readrevolutionary
£1 six days a week from all good newsagents
Online at
morningstaronline.co.uk
Printed & published by the Communist Party
ISBN 978-1-908315-35-9
Morning Star incorporating the Daily Worker - for peace and socialism
daily paper of the left