working class policies.
Seven trades councils have now thrown out the new Rule 14 which seeks to ban "cooperation .... with organisations whose policies and activities are contrary to thuse of Congress', And Camden Trades Council has put out a call for an all-London meeting of trades concil delegates opposed to the ruling.
End to support If implemented, the ruling would mean an end to trades concil support for anti-cuts committees and unemployment demonstrations like that on 26 November, which mobilised 20,000 and was hysterically attacked by Len Murray. It would amount to a significant undermining of democratic freedoms in the labour movement. Trades councils would be expected to become the tame mouthpieces of an already tame TUC leadership.
Unfortunately a number of trades councils have accepted the ruling with no more than disgruntled verbal opposition, Indeed, the Communist Party's position appears to be to Mounting opposition is meeting the TUC's latest attempt to muzzle resistance to its collaboration in the Government's antivote for the new rule and then pretend you can ignore it in practice - or perhaps just use it against the 'ultraleft" when convenient? This can only sow confusion in the rank and file The TUC hasn't brought in the amendment just for the fun of it. More cuts, more redundancies and an even tougher wages deal are on the way. The bureaucrats want to hold the line of collaboration with Wilson and Healey at all costs.
Yet in recent months trades councils have been to the forefront in organising resistance to Wilson's attacks. Numerous local conferences and protests against unemployment have been promoted or backed by trades concils. The sponsorship of trades councils has been important in building such national events as the 26 November unemployment demo, the National Assembly on Unemployment next weekend, and the national demonstration against the health cuts on 25 April.
A curb on this independent role of trades councils would be a big blow to all those organising against the Government's policies, and a Trotter was a marked man. During the late 1960s he had been a central leader of the Black Power movement that emerged in Dominica at that time. He was an organiser and main speaker at African Liberation Dav demonstrations on the island in 1971, 1972 and 1973.
A senes or suikes by agricultural workers led the Dominica Labour Party boverment to intensiy is repression against its left-wing opposition. Two days after the killing of the American tourist, then Deputy Prime Minister Patrick John made a radio speech charing that the shooting was "the handiwork of a few degenerate leaders, who see themselves as architects of a new society, projecting new standards ame cuttes unacceoane come majority of our people....
The evidence against frotter was the testimony of a police corporal who claimed to have found Trotter sitting on an overturned bucket with a gun beneath it two months after the killing, and the account of a 15-yearbig boost to the right wing - strengthening the bureaucracy's hand in policing the trade union movement.
On this score the Communist Party is ignoring its own history. In the early 1920s, the CP-led Minority Movement claimed to be 'the first organised movement to draw attention to the importance and real role of trades concils in the labour movement", urging their transformation into local councils of the working class'. position helped the CP to build strong Minority Movement.
General Strike Between 1924 and 1926 over 50 trades councils, including Lonwas gained for transforming trades concils into real concils of action - a role many played in the GenWing class"?
This clear don, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield, sent delegates to the Minority Movement conferences. Significant support HEMPSTEAD TUC is trying to crush such challenges to its class collaboration as the 20,000-strong jobs demo on 26 November And today, when trades councils are in many cases initiating concrete actions of the rank and file against the Government's attacks, are they not beginning to turn again into such 'parliaments of the local workThe TUC responded in identical fashion in the 1920s. First a stern warning was issued to all trades concils against associating with the Minority Movement and the Communist Party. This was followed by the present Rule 14, which the TUC General Concil introduced to reinforce its position by refusing recognition of trades concils which associated with the Movement in any way, effectively killing the National Federation of Trades Councils.
The CP then failed to wage a resolute fight against the ruling with the tragic result that in 1928 the TUC was able to use this as an excuse to dissociate itself from the National Unemployed Workers Committee, The Minority Movement was on the slide.
A refusal to fight the new ruling is to accept defeat in advance. It is part and parcel of the TUC's sellout policies, of its attempts to police the Government's attacks on living standards and jobs.
Important The trades concils which have rejected the ruling have given a fighting lead. The all-London meeting initiated by Camden is an important move. Now the task is to fight for the rejection of the ruling at the May Trades Councils Conference, and to fight for a recall TUC to reverse the ruling and-end support for the Government's policies An effective challenge to this ruling will help to defend democratic organisation in the trade union movement and enormously aid the whole labour movement in the fight against Wilson's policies.
Anna Larkin