Why Councils of Action?
Councils of Action are now more necessary than ever if we are going to fight the Tory Anti-Union laws. With the sell-out of the TUC leadership at Croydon and the more recent Liaison Committee debacle there are no broad-based bodies left to carry on the struggle except the local Councils of Action. Indeed, once the IRB goes through-as now seems likely Councils of Action will be even more necessary than before, not only to fight the law but also to link up and give help to individual smaller struggles which otherwise will be isolated through the collapse of the mase movement built up over the last few months. Of course the fact that this movement has now collapsed is clearly the consequence of the TUC giving in and the inability of the "left" leadership to do anything about it. Thus, Feather is now talking about exchanging the IRB for an Incomes Policy. This, though, has not come out of the blue, indeed it is implicit in paragruph 31 of the TUC's report to the Craydon Congress, which called on the TUC and the Labour Party to work out a "constructive alternative" to the IRB which can mean nothing else except an Incomes Policy. The real alternative of course to the IRB is not some other capitalist technique for exploitation but is Socialism. Given this it can be scen that the role of Councils of Action is not only to centralise the rank and file fight but is also to politicise it, so that workers do not, for instance, fall into the rap of believing that the Labour Party is capable of carrying out socialist policies. Moreover it should be said that such Councils are not independent of or opposed to the present trade unions-they are not an altemative, just the reverse -they are a way of Wing the rank-and-file against the leaderhip of the unions so as to be better able to carry out the fight against the government. How the Council of Action was Formed in The Red Mole has constantly urged the need to construct local Councils of Action. However of the struggle of black people and the need to there has been little coverage of specific examples. As members of the Manchester Council of Action we have written this article so that trade unionists in other areas who are contemplating (we ho pe) building their own Council can learn from our successes and avoid our mistakes.
The first meeting was advartised by leaflets on the demonstration during the one-day strike last December 8th. Though this was the largest of all the anti-union Laws demonstrations in Manchester it only attracted 2,500 workers which shows the general political backwardness of Manchester compured with, say, Liverpool. Nevertheless the very occurrence of such demonstrations over the last few months provided an opportunity for publicity for the Councils of Action which has now been removed.
At the first meeting over 80 trade unionists turned up, about half of them white collar workers. In a resolution passed at the end of the meeting the aims of the Council were declared to be:
1) to group together all rank and file trade unionists in the area commited to active opposition to the Industrial Relations Bill, regardless of their trade-union or political affiliations.
2) to develop links with similar bodies in other localities, and to seek affiliation to the national Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions.
3) to openly oppose any retreats or compromises by any trade-union leadership or the TUC in the tight against the Bill.
4] to work for u General Strike to force The Tories to withdraw their legislation or resign 5) to call on all unions to adopt a policy of total non-cooperation with any aspect of the Industral Kelatons Bul 6)to link the struggle against the Bill The Red Male 15th Ine 1971 Pade A with the fight against productivity deals, "Incomes Policies", attacks on social services, etc.
7) to organise local activity of all kinds, aimed at expanding working-class opposition to the Bill and at further developing practical working-class solidarity.
Looking back on this resolution point 6 was particularly important in that it at least began to make some political link between the IRB and the government's attack on the Social Services-thus showing the struggle to be wider than a purely Trade Union one. Positive Achievements The positive achievements of the Council have boen many, and it will perhaps be easiest just to list them.
1) Our general agitation has not stopped at leafleting the anti-union Murches. Instead on cach successive retreat of the TUC we have produced specific leaflets related to individual industries showing how they are particularly affected by the IRB. In this way we have been a help to workers in, so far, the browery, engineering, building, printing, transport industries and we have also produced a leaflet for the dockers.
2) Our most successful propaganda so far has perhaps been a meeting addressed by Bernadette Devlin specifically on the topic of "Defend the Trade Unions". This attracted over 500 poople-which was 200 more than a Confed meeting on March Ist. Bernadette's speech and the discussion afterwards probably illustrated for the first time in a meaningful way for many trade unionists present, the need to go beyond the defensive struggle against the IRB into an offensive struggle against capitalism as such. At the end of the meeting over 200 people signed forms expressing interest in the Council of Action.
3) We have had meetings with stewards and other militants in the brewing industry about the IRB and as a result of this we are hoping to organise a local brewery workers combine.
4) The Council has also seen the importance hastumer home the connection between the IRB (which aims to shackle the unions) and the Immigration Bill (which will terrorise black workers into becoming scabs). The Council is to participate as an act of solidarity in a demonstration against the Immigrution Bill organised by the Black Unity and Freedom Party in Manchester on June 5th. Moreover such actions are seen as necessary not only to show solidarity with the black community but also because we need to demonstrate to white workers the anit-working class nature of racism.
5) Perhaps the most noteworthy success of the Council to date has been the help it has given to the workers on strike at Fine Tubes in Plymouth. This is important because it shows precisely the sort of rank and file help workers need to give each other in the absence of real assistance from the TU leadership. Moreover it is the sort of help which will be more and more needed once the IRB has gone through, the unions are shackled and struggles become more isolate. Again though this is a case of the Manchester Council helping workers in Plymouth it shows what such Councils should also be doing in their own locality -indeed, it shows the need for Councik of Action in overy district.
The Fine Tubes dispute has All the hallmarks of Roberts-Arundel: It is still going on after ten months, and the basic dispute is over TU rights. It began as a strike for a straight pay increase which the ABF and T&G later declared official after the manage. ment refused to negotiate. The strikers-175 of them-were then sacked, and scab labour was taken on. The scabs were given an immedlate pay increase, and then later the management took back three of the strikers. at a reduced rate and on a written promiso they would not rejoin their union. The unions involved-AEF and T&G-have, predictably, given the strikers little belp.
NO TO 1 Although they are supposed to be the two most militant unions, they have not even declared a national levy to help the Fine Tube strikers (though they "generously" pay for the hire of cars to take the strikers! representatives round the country on fundruising tours!)
In Manchester, we contacted the strikers and arranged for some of them to come up for a few days, and then took them round various factones and sites. In this way £750 was raised. Also, the strikers brought up an official blacklist which was widely publicised in the Manchester area (see below). All this could be repeated by other Council of Action. Moreover, our experience here is that by inviting the strikers up we were even able to pressurise the local AEF officials into helping -which in a small way shows that it is possible, through militant rank-and-file activity, to get concessions from trade union officialdom. (Though we must admit that the T&G officials here were more obstinate and refused to help at all).
Mistakes to Avoid Though we have had quite a lot of successes so far we have also mude some mistakes. We hope that others can learn from these as much as from our successes. Again it is perhaps easiest just to list them.
I) Militants should not he frightened of emphasising right at the beginning that the fight aguinst the Bill is a political fight and that Councils of Action are political bodies. It should be explained that the attack on the trade unions is not a "mistake" o a "wicked plot" by this particular Tory government but NO WITH THE