The second problem is the more important one, and one most full-time officers don't solve. Working as - in quotation marks mon-political militant' in the anion is one thing. But if you are really going to be of value politically then clearly part of your reason for working for the union is to produce a more socialist line among membership you represent and to draw people towards the political position you hold.
That's where, as a member of Marxist great deal of progress, where a fair number of other people who belong left-wing organisation work for a union may be good industrial militants but are not particularly useful political cadres.
You sit at the table at the end of the room and people listen to you. And they think, oh, isn't For he's lousy.
But it's a little difficult to get involved across-the floor, hurly burty or political, argument, because they tend to look at you as une giver of wisdom. They distance you themselves as members of the union.
When I first joined NUPE in 1974 it was an even more undemocratic union than it is today, certainly on paper. It full-time officerdominated union. which had experienced a massive increase in membership - often due to the activities of fairly left-wing full-time officers recruited Socialist Challenge 8 March 1979 page 6 secretary and certainly kept in line by a full-time officer whom everyone thought of as god, roughly. The re-organisation meant that the membership began to compete for electoral positions and over particular policies.
As a result of bavele hasts become has particularly in the the Midlands but elsewhere too, with different sections of the taking sides more on the right than on the left.
All this made difference to ine position ol someone like me. and could buzz round area saying and doing what you liked; so long as you could show a membership increase at the end of the day bothered what you said. With the re-organisation the leadership became a good deal more concerned about the political attitudes and policy statements people like myself and branch secretaries were making.
As far as I'm concerned, that is very fruitful. It means that for the first time - and we've lay certainly seen this during the present pay sector dispute the membership is starting to become really capable themselves, simply where they work but on a much wider basis.
At the '78 conference there was extreme dissatisfaction with the handling of the 1977-8 wage claim. So the executive came out with a policy which was progressive on these the left-right fierce, West bureaucracy quite In "74 you YULL OWE no our £60 target - all in one go.
Basically, that we shouldn't get the membership over-excited.
The ambulance dispute over which I resigned became such a focus because in late November all sorts of underway as a consequence of the frustration members felt about what was going on over national bureaucracy was terrified that members would get control and take action on their Any happened, they would jump on at once. Lobby of AHA on day of Chris Adamson's resignation.
Friday, imposing a lockout.
Following disputes were my boss, 1 understood claim. The which also out of Sunday, little thing that forward.
It was a atmosphere.
as they able they following divisional reactionary November, by discussion the NUPE divisional officer, more that instantaneous action would be taken to ensure that the lockout was made official, The TGWU, had CHOCES political involved, made it official on the Sane une following afternoon a NUPE meeting was to be held to discuss the way very emotional There were 600 ambulance staff there, virtually all those who had been locked out. They were furious as soon heard of the leadership's decision.
There was a lot of personal support for me and considerdisagreement with the executive's position. A number of shop stewards and I took a spontaneous decision to march to the AHA and lobby Twenty-four hours later NUPE made the lockout official, but anomalies' claim. wouldn't support shop Untortunatel COVe the two weeks the officer who took charge of the dispute managed to turn it around and get a return to work on an extremely / basis. Somewhere between 10 and 20 branches in resolutions to the executive council calling for a inquiry into ambulance service and for my reinstatement, but the executive turned them down.
Electing full-time officials in NUPE would make a hell of a lot of difference. If you cleared all the officers out and said we're now going to have an election, you might initially get right-wing group of officers, because of the general nature of the membership. But eventually that would sort itself This out and it would make the struggle within the union that much more realistic.
Looking at my own position, there's no way I'd have had to resign if I'd been responsible to the membership. In fact, I was strings. But I don't think they'll continue to do so because the feeling at the base tremendously SETONE The potential for the Campaign for Action in NUPE is enormous, especially with the fallback in what last summer looked on paper like the . leadership's progressive position on pay.
In 1977, prior to that year's wage claim, CAN, along with the Birmingham social services branch, tried to get together stewards local authorities, the health service, and the water works. We were incredibly meeting of about two hundred people pledged to take one-day action in support of the claim My divisional officer and other officers were obviously very concerned at the turn this was taking, and we received instructions not to attend the meeting, which lignored The initiative would have developed further, but we shot our bolt by over-doing what we should have done al the meeting. Every one voted for the proposal for a day action, but no one bothered to turn out on the day.
In retrospect it's clear that we should have called merely for a co-ordinating kept the thing going. But that experience shows the potential that's there.
contribution by CHRIS ADAMSON is taken from conversation with GEOFFREY SHERIDAN. It you know someone - perhaps yourself!
who could make a good subject for our At Work series, do let us know