WHAT HAVE Congress House, Transport House, and New Printing House Square got in common? The answer is that none of these buildings — respectively home to the TUC; the Labour Party, and The Times publishing a NEHIER CLeRe Today's debate at the Trade Union Congress includes thé issue of press freedom, and several union leaders expected opportunity to call for a feasibility study into the publication by the labour movement of a mass daily paper.
Moss Evans, Transport secretary, expressed his enthusiasm for the project last week by declaring that the TGWU which spends about £250,000 en its monthi journal, would be willing to spend an even larger sum on a daily paper produced by the labour movement.
paper bid ENACA - is presently national daily newspaper, but the Union general HOW much longer will the bosses have a monopoly over the mass media?
Few union activists need persuading that the medhs in. Kritain anti-working class bias; the line-up on general election and the coverage of last winter's strikes amply attest to their rampant Toryism. In a country with 11 million paid-up trade union members, such a uniform volume of bias, distortion, and plain slander reqaires urgent correction.
The position in Britain is in sharp contrast to that in other West European for example, only Communist Party's newspaper L'Humanité have a daily circulation equivalent to that of The Guardian here, but now the Socialist Party, along other left-wing openly defies the state monopoly of the airwaves by broadcasting radio programmes from the party HQ It is understandable, however, if the theught of a TUC-Labour Party daily does not instil joy ii cheshen ts hich floamts. Te Judge by the discussion which took place mass daily paper.
lorry drivers', pronounced TUC-Labour the strikers support? countries. similarly.
does the why there And that is the Media' held by the Institute of Workers Contrat, it is the question of ownership and control of a labour movement mass daily that Is the dread hand of bureaucracy exhibited by the leadership of the TUC and the Labour Party, coupled with its opposition to most of the policies and activities needed to fight the Tories, reason to seek other means of launching a working class newspaper? There are two considerations why the answer has to be No.
The first is organisational. The TUC and Labour Party centralise the funds of the labour movement. Only these bodies have the capacity to provide the finances required to launch and establish such an expensive undertaking as a The second consideration is political. Moss Evans pointed to the atrocious coverage of the local authority and workers? strikes as the reason for the labour movement to have its own voice. Would a Party have Probably not (although the TUC's pamphlet 'A cause for concern' ably lakes apart the mass media's coverage);
But there's the rub. While the strikers may not have been moved to respond to the attacks in the Mirror, the Mail, and the rest, it is considerably less likely that they woud have stood by if 'their own' paper had treated them In all probability we would have seen pickets of Congress House and Transport House with demands by the strikers for the right to put their case and cail for support. In any event, that's what socialists would haye urged.
It is these kinds of pressures which explain ¡cocaly ннец enthusiasm among the labour leadership for a daily. They would be placing themselves on a vulnerable line not simpły on trade anion matters but on ever Issue confronting the working class movement.
precisely what soclalists shomld 'USING THE MEDIA', a handbook Fleet Street to follow which requires our attention.
They will say: 'You talk about trade union Most tinion journals health right of reply, given the daily!
movement campaign's pamphlet, Road, Hadleigh, Essex.
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should do, for it is by insisting that they take up our struggles and confronting their collaborz. tionist policies that we can best challenge the The Guardian has already poured scorn on the idea of a labour movement daily, and as the prospect draws closer we can expect the rest of They have оБе particular response to the aceusations of bias press freedo nd proprietorial control. But what about tl journals? They are simply mouthpieces for the bureaucracies. Put your own house in order.' And so we should.
are a mockery of press freedom and therefore ought to be made a target at every single union conference, with demands for the regular election of editors, the and genuine debate. Such 1 campaign would take us a long way forward i helping to persuade the mass of trade unionists and other sections of the working class that &. independent voice for the labour movement is & crucial asset. Forward to a TUC-Labour Party *A Campaign for Press Freedom has jus been launched with sponsorship from variom figures journalists and academics. Individual membership is £3. Thr 'Towards Press Fret dom', costs 30p. Details from: John Jennings. Campaign for Press Freedom, 274/288 London *The South-east Region of the TUC is to hold a conference on 'Workers, Unions, and the Media' on 3 November. Speakers include Bill Keys, general secretary of SOGAT, and Tony Benn. Up to four delegates from unios branches and chapels, at fi a head. Detais Scott, South-cast • Congress House, Great Russell St., WCI.