By admitting Labour strike.
Tories, to fully recovered.
CRIA * ernment ana unions. basis of mass Line minerscontract. Within two years, Nation: a draconian pay social well over the million mark.
TUC Connivance It is also shown in able to ram home political confusion -While trying to ations it is vital at the same the norm -standards. to the forefront in denouncing in the Tribune group as indeed, perspective.
Tion to the cown ine line Tory one. the call by The was simple Healev: Making us pay more, so the bosses aon t.
The present Labour government was retürned to office on the backs of the miners!
That strike, provoked py ine led to the downfall of the Heath government and plunged it into a 'leadership crisis! from which it hasn't, as yet, Labour's return to office represented, in this sense, a dramatic shift in the re- gains, lation of class forces since the Tories were defeated in what was widely regarded as a trial of strength! between the govIt signitied ine tales leaders. (and most important) set-back in a whole series of attempts to 'curb' the unions that had led Heath into the realms of incomes policy, the Industrial Relations Ac and deliberately promoting unemployment sánds, Labour may have been returned on the action in which ruling circles - disturbed at the combattivity of retained deep scepticism about its ability to ' impose ' the social nowever, the deal cooked up with the TUC has enabled Labour to impose on a combattive and undefeated movement what the Tories were quite unable to achieve through confront• treeze, record service cuts and a jobless total alvsis is not. been able to men has of sensel these through collaboration with the TUC lead -ers la fact it has frequently waved in the face of the left of the party to 'mute! opposition). The same union leaders who were previously giving token support to strike action against the Tories' Industrial RelAct have rusnea to aetena gover'ment policy before their own members Despite the fact that the Social Contract was soon proved a fraud - the jobless total soaring even though wages towed!
at no stage has the T.U.C. worked out alternative policies and sought to mobilise the rank-and-file in support of them This was most graphically Snowl at last year's Labour Party Conference ition in where hardly a breath of opposition met Healey's call for drastic cuts! in living Figures like Jack Jones were even the lukewarm criticism of his erstwhile allies cently, he rebuked them publicly for dargovernment's savage This refusal by Labour leaders to mount explains why the of the labour movement prepared to 'topple! Heath shortly before such as IS, have been paralysed in the face of the Wilson offensive. such a paralysis' does not stem from an unwillingness to strugg- ions, it stems from the tact inal. revealed at Chrysler, no alternative can yet be seento the policies of their leaders that can give their militancy a political The TUC have been quick to seize on this to suggest inal dry oppositSocial Contract can only bring government and return a hardAllegiance This 'retreat! by the labour movement over the past period has undoubtediy disoriented the left which had earlier interpreted the mass struggles (such as the miners! strike) as a sign that layers in ine unions were moving to the lett outside the grip of the Labour Party. short-sighted position was , at the root of IS and by the IMG for virtual abstention in the 1970 election.
Terror made by these groups (and still continued today in the case of the IS)
They confused the militancy its willingness to struggle in defence of gains won, with a political evolution to the left of the Labour Party. This was a major mistake. The rash of strikes that took place against the Tories - and which led to Heath's downfall - was.merely the instinctive reaction of the class to defend the gains made during the post-war boom years. While engaged in defence (on a sectoral basis ) of these it hadn't yet seriously begun to translate that militancy at an industrial level into a fighting programme that could pose a real challenge to that of the Labour This is wny, despite the disillusion with Wilson, millions continued to vote Labour and in 1974 return a minor -ity Labour government, While willing to down tools in their thouwhile militant and prepared to struggle, the vast majority of the labour movement continued to retain their alleg¡ance to the Labour Party - the party they built - and to support its actions. That is why they remained paralysed in the face of the offensive Wilson launched against their living standards and actually labided by the norms laid out in the Social Contract, with a tew exceptions.
Discontent Understanding this allegiance is central to grasping the dynamic that will open up in the coming period. present oar.
of course, permanent but is already beginning to change as the real implications of the Social Contract bite home. The large scale opposition building up in unions such as the NUM or the UCA.
TT to the latest stage in the 'pay deal!
are clear indications or discontent that can, in the coming months and years, lead to mass conflicts.
Precisely because, however, the mass of workers still retain their allegiance to the Labour Party, this growing discontent will more and more find a reflection in -side the party in a series of struggles & conflicts with the right - wing'. Such a trend will be a major step forward since it is only by translating this millancy al an industrial level into a political opposthe Labour Party that a really effective challenge can be made to present government policies.
Such a challenge cannot be mounted by ignoring the Labour Party as IS advocates (thereby holding workers back mere defensive struggles). It can only be made by building opposition in the Labour Party to put the Labour leaders on the spot and make them answerable to a party which was built by the unions to protect its intDespite the syndicalist notions of groups such a trend has already begun to take place. The large vote for Fooi and Benn in the recent leadership elect -the abstention by the Tribune group on the government's social service CUIS