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AND 'SOCIALIST W(,N"~N • NOTHING to OFFER MILITANTS the SHEFFIELD NHS Stewards Conference SO Supporters, It Was by and Large Left to WP the Time Being, Unshakeable

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AND 'SOCIALIST W(,N ,.. • INS I • ENTRYISM GAY RIGHTS SPANISH ELECTIONS , ••••• I11 :::;:;:'::::::::::::::::~:~:r~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~{:~:~::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:t~~ STOP THE BETRAYALS! STOP TH'E RETREAT! THE EMPLOYERS AND the Tory oppose them and who are now busy ca I" Government have notched up im~ v,ing out a bosses' labour Government portant new victories for their class. as their alternative to Thatcher have Leyland workers have voted to ac­ lived to dodge a fight another day. Or cept a two year package deal that so they hope. gives them only a 5%% pay rise Thatcher, and her primed cheer lead­ each year. Meass meetings reversed ers in the gutter press, are riding high. As a direct result of the spineless parlia­ previous decisions to resist manage­ mentarians in Labour leadership this ment's plans. Miners have voted to hated and barbarous government is well accept the NCB's pay offer and fai ahead in the opinion polls. The govern­ failed to give the NUM executive a ment is now set to reap more fruit for mandate to ca" strike action again­ its class by introducing yet another st tile Tories. round of anti-union laws frol)"l Tebbit's The wretched leaders of the stable and a share out of profitable TUC Health Committee took these plums shaken from the trees of the decisions as a signal that they could nationalised industries and social and welfare services. now prepare the final derailment These are all aefeats for the working of the health workers dispute. They class in general. The "o~y government is called off the November 8th Day out for even more blood and the Labour of Action, with no new money on and TUC leaders will not stop them. ~ut the table, in reply to a request from they represent, in particular, a defeat for Pat Lowry ex·Ley/and hatchetman the minority of active militants in each now in charge of ACAS. Albert of the unions who have failed to pull their members out behind them to re­ Spanswick did not even try to hide hopes on the possibility that the econo­ at the mass meetings and carrying sist the onslaught of the Tories. They trade union organisations and trade un­ my may expand and remove the mater­ groups of workers with them. Even with this when he declared,"We have are the ones who will be feeling most ion principles alone are not strong en­ been made'no specific offer, we ag­ ough to resist Thatcher. Part of this is ial fears of millions of workers for us. the aid of the leyland Action Commi­ bitter and bewildered in the aftermath ttee's (lAC!. intelligence network Peters reed to call off the day of action of the last month. True they have been based on a real fear of unemployment, "Several things can create such a change more is based on a lack of confidence of mood. An expansion of the economy can only evidence the Cowley Assemb­ because of the request from ACAS." ham'~trung by the Union bureaucrats in the possibility of waging a successful can, by reducing unemployment margi- ' ly vote for all out strike action. Else­ While health workers were preparing and their pathetic do nothing tactics. fight. Not only are the Trade Union lea­ nally and making workers feel their jobs where the militants were not capable to ballot on all out action he was telling In leyland, as in the Health, the bureau­ ders - on the whole- quite visibly runn­ are no longer at stake if they strike." of mounting a serious opposition to the the press that the dispute was in its fi nal crats wanted to pit one day protest ing for cover. The militants themselves The SWP could feel at home again with official line whatever their intentions. stages and that all that was at stake was strikes against this resolute and deter­ lack the political answers for them to Trade Union business as usual. But the The logic of Peters' argument is that whether the horse had enough energy to mined class conscious government. stamp the industrial struggle in their SWP leader writers know they can't put if only the officials in leyland had break the finishing tapel What we pre· all their eggs in the basket of waiting for waged a Scargill-like campaign then the sume he meant by this was that the Militants have found themselves fi;&ht­ chosen mould. The burning problem the economic upturn. The CBI and the members would have proved ready and TUC's bureaucratic carthorse was now ing to support actions that they know facing militants is how to reverse the Tory government themselves could give raring to go. But if this is the case for ready to go off to the knackers yard. all too well are feeble and inadequate. headlong retreat of the officials and a mounting mood of fatalism amongst sig­ the SWP a hundred and one reasons for the working class as a whole, then how Doubtless the news was greeted with But we must also honestly recognise does he explain the fact that Scargill that the militants have not been able to nificant sections of workers. doubting that one. So, just in case, the joy in Congress House. The TUC leaders failed to secure the mandate he sought take the rank and file with them against SWP hold out the prospect of a catas- have been let off the hook from organi­ One answer to this question is to be from the miners? sing a fight against the Tories. Two year the Tories with, or without official sup­ - trophic political mistake by the govern­ found in the pages of Socialist Worker, ment "showing how weak and vulnera­ Peters has no criticism of the way pay packages in leyland and the NHS port. Even in the NUM, where Scargill now the chief prophet of doom on the Scargill waged his campaign. In fact he will take the pressure off the officials as and the leadership did campaign for a ble our rulers really are" and, if all else left. The Socialist Worker catches one­ fails, the possibility that a section of . gives "100% support .... to the way Ar­ the Tories set out to abolish annual pay fight with the Tories the majority of sided glimpses of reality. They realise thur Scargill conducted the campaign." bargaining. The crew that demobilised miners steered clear of a showdown. the down, but not out, working class that there is a serious crisis of perspec­ will rise in spontaneous revolt! Instead he argues that Scargili's forth­ the developing campaign against unem­ The bulk of organised workers are tive confronting the 'active minority' of right leadership made a 'tactical mistake ployment two years ago, that have allow not registering any political support for militants. But they turn recognition of One thing runs like a thread through by linking pay and pit closure together ed through two rounds of anti-union le­ Thatcherism in these decisions. They are that fact into a rationalisation for head­ on the ballot paper. That explains the gislation while barely lifting a finger to giving expression to a deep felt fear that all this baseless reasoning. They have banging pessimism. They can offer no nothing to offer as a way forward to outcome of the miners' ballot. way out themselves except ever heavier the minority of militants except that We do not think that the miners are campaigns of general semi-marxist pro­ something will turn up somehow to re­ finished as a result of this ballot. But paganda to keep their membership in­ lieve their present woes. Micawber-like we are prepared to look reality in the tact and a perspective of building their they pin their all on the belief that face. Scargill was not able to secure a own organisation in every workplace as something will turn up. vote tacking him in a firm stand agains1 a pre-requisit& of revival "at the end of "One or other of these developments the NCB and the Tories .. The majority the day". In the post leyland and min­ is inevitablll in the not too distant fu­ of the miners did not want to give the ers decision editorial - No Time to ture." go-ahead for a fight. Scargili's campaign Mourn - Socialist Worker's followers are - despite its razamataz and enthusiasm - enjoined not to think too big. They are A mirror opposite of the SWP's un­ was a fatal substitute for building the to seek out argument "with smallish hinged world view has recently made an necessary rank and file based leadership groups of workers" as the first small appearance on the pages of Socialist Or­ in the pits that could have taken the step in reversin!!, the tide of Thatcherism ganiser. Writing in 5.0.107, correspon­ campaign to pit-head meetings and or­ 'dent Bill Peters reviewed the implica­ ganised to give real confidence to rank , Socialis(WorI<Eir's editors are tions of the leyland and NUM decisions. and file miners that they could take on . doubtless worried about the dep(essing For Peters there could be no question of the Tories and win. effects their recipe of gloom and doom of admitting that workers were in anyway Peters, like the SWP, fails to under­ can have on their own members: In case ducking out of a fight. Responsibility stand the very real crisis of leadership thei r readers are trudging desperately to for the leyland vote is placed entirely that exists within the rank and file of throw themselves off the nearest tall at the door of the official leadership."ln the working class itself.
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