This month members of the engineering section of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers will be balloting in a new round or elections tor Tull Time orricials. Although none of the contests arrect tne executive committee, many of them are toi important local positions like regional officers and district secretaries. There is also the election for a new Assistant General Secretary to replace the retiring Ernie Roberts.
All of these seats are being contested by right-wing candidates who can be confident of plenty of free publicity in the capital ist press and media. Unfortunately it looks as though they will score some major successes as wen. Not only will they implicitly have the backing of TUC official policies - support for the £6 #mit and acceptance or unempioyment - but they will be helpec by the absence of any real fight by the Broad Left (the Communist Party and its allies) in the AUEW, and the left wing nationally in the TUC and the Labour Party.
In none of the Broad Left manifestos. for instance, is the E6 limit even mentioned. The nearest they get to opposing the Labour Government's attempts to cut living standards is in the statement oy boo vrent candidate tor Assistant General secre tary): 'No-one would deny that the present Government is endeavouring, within the system in which we live, to bring about a control on the rapid inflation which so seriously affects our economy, but one must question whether these actions are correct or sufficient to ensure success."
Wright leaves the rank and file guessing as to what is his attitude towards the £6 limit - it could even be read into his manifesto that the Broad Left feels that more severe wage controls are necessary! Of course thev do not but what this reflects is that the Broad Left prefer to duck out of fighting inside the AUEW against the central political attacks of the However the bankruptcy of the Broad Left's present policies should not prevent militants from voting for them and campaigning actively for them in the unions. The spectre of an openly right-wing dominated AUEW - supporting Wilson right down the line - is a real danger not only to the jobs and living stan. dards of the AUEW membership but to the whole working class. 'Moderate' officials can only lead the membership to major defeats, with no prospect of any official backing for struggles that confront the employers and the Labour Government's anti-working class policies.