That very thing happened at the T&GWU Biennial Delegate Conference In 19/3. The executive sponsored a motion which accepted the social contract on condition that eight points were fulfilled. Amongst. these were permanent price controls and vastly improv ed social services. But when it came to the 4½ per cent deal, relaxation of price and Healey's cutbacks, T&GWU executive, led by Jack Jones, happily ignored their own decisions Finally, if the gags and the deaf ears fail, the sledgehammer is brought in. Bans and proscriptions are operated, expulsions occur. The most spectacular example of this has been the suspension of Oxford and Camden Trades Councils. for refusing to implement Rule 14. They were then reconstituted with more 'reliable' delegates.
But it's not only happening in the trades councils. In Hull, the credentials of every T&GWU shop steward were removed by the union's regional committee because the dockers refused to lifi a blacking imposed in a fight for jobs. In Strathclyde the entire Area Committee of the Fire Brigades Union was expelled for opposing the £6 limit.
Outlaws To defend the rights and living standards of their members, the trades councils, the Glasgow firemen and the Hull dockers had to fight the policies of the Labour Government and the TUC - so they found themselves outlaws in their own organisations.
The present attacks on democracy in CallIOL unanswered of their organisations the workers will never be able to challenge the control of bosses over the whole of society. challenge will only develop if the weapons are forged today by turning the organisations of the working class and the struggles it wages into the embryos of the future workers democracy.