We produce here an interview with two militants in the UPW. Such a defeat as has been suffered could isolate the militants and they therefore remain anonymous However, conditions ane also favourable for doing long term work within the UPW, and the basis is there for a rank and file movement against the leadership. Anybody interested in more details should write to The Red Mole.
-What would the men have accepted and how prepared were they to carry on?
Peter: We can only speak for the London rank and file ut present, and mainly the overseas exchanges who we represent. The strike Iseder. ship in the exchanges felt there would be a sill-out, and two weeks before this meeting between Jackson and Carr we decided to push down our members throats that there would be a sell-out and that they should vote not to.
Our branch did vote to stay out, but unfortunately we were defeated by the majority. If the rest of the branch leaderships in the country had prepared their members for this, there would have been a massive vote not to return to work. But they didn't keep their members informed of the possibility of a betrayal, and Just talked all the time of 15% and three quid, -We've heard that branch meetings were rigged by the bureaucracy, and that they created deliberate confusions so people couldn't get there and vote. Could you tell us more about Dave: In some London branches, the lay officers said the meeting was on Sunday, when the militants found it was in fact the day before. They had been held on the Saturday with no discumion as to the executive's about-turn, and the militants tum up the next day to find it's all over. Take Mount Pleasant, for instance. where they voted not to go back a day before that Thursday meeting, but when the ballot was taken on the Saturday at a rump meeting, they voted overwhelmingly to go backto work. How Peter: And there's another important factor. Aft the Thursday Hyde Park meeting when Jackson advised going back to work after a ballot, the first step taken to sway the ballot was to cut off the hardship fund at once, and this affected the most the sort of men and women who'd stayed at home and not been. really involved in the strike. -On the Thursday morning, the reaction to Jackson's announcement was fantastic confus ion. There were definite sections who knew what it was all about and fought against it. Could you explain the reaction to the UPW Peter: Yes, it was unfortunately an unorganised reaction. By this time there were four London branches forming a rank, and file movement. But we tailed in one thing on this strike-we did not organise from the beginning I felt that if we could have got together people involved, particularly in London, Liverpool and Manchester; we could have put the case to the rank and file from the start, Instead of three weaks later. The Hyde Park marches could have been up 10 70,000, and people would have been informed -of course, you got militant feelings, people saying they aren't going back to work, but they didn't realise what this sell out meant.
-Was the leadership policy to limit the strike purely to the economic sphere deliberate, or merely due to their political limitations? Dave: Well, at Wren House we certainly thought it essential to extend the strike. What must be realised is that Lord Hall was sacked because he was prepared to concede this wage claim, and this was a political decision by the government. which the UPW executive refused to recognise when they insisted the strike was only between them and the P.O. Their actions were certainlo For any T.U. lesdership to continue in an isolated fashion in an economic struggle is absolute nonsense-they should have mapped out a strategy generally for the entire move ment. A concrete strategy is now needed even Peter: On the Monday prior to sell-out, Jackson met Feather. The TUC had decided that the UPW should go back, and Feather told Jackson that no more money would be forthcoming. The only revolt on the E.C. was from the right who wanted to retum to work immediately. -What effect will the strike have on the rank Peter: Well, already the strike has educated large numbers of people-particularly noticeable was the way people were rapidly demystified as to the role the press plays in strikes. Men who've thought of themselves as civil servants for years realise what they're up against for the first time. In the telecommunications side of the industry. where there was a scab problem, people ware polarised into very firm positions. We used to have branch meetings of 50 people if we were lucky, the other night 300 people turned up to the branch. What is more, it is now possible to put a political line in meetings. Now we can explain to the members the economics of what the department earns in their exchanges and put -What were the key turning points in the Dave: The key turning point of the strike was the Feb. 21st demonstration when Jackson marched to Trafalgar Square with the UPW. He said previously that he would have to change the quality of the strike. Earlier he had been convinced that the strike was against the P.O only, but now he knew it was against the government. Jackson and the E.C. Were now hurled into a whirlpool with the campaign against the industrial Relations Bill, with the engineers and transport workers on the streets. Feather and the TUC didn't want this. The problem for them now was how to sell us out. The government was not prepared to give anything more than 8%, and Jackson couldn't accept less than 15%. This is why they came up. with a court of inquiry. The rank and file, on the other hand, knaw from this point on that they had to get the engineers out -if you notice, it was only after this that the engineers came out on a one day solidarity strike, due to pressure from the rank and file. It was obvious to every member that the P.O, and the government were digging in and that it was necessary to extend it to the engineers and railmen whose pay claim was coming up. But Jackson decided to confine the strike to his own sphere.
Peter: There were other significant occasions. At the White City, the day before the strike, Jackson had said he was willing to settle for a "reasonable offer". On the 10th day of the strike, he said 13% would be a "reasonable offer". Again, COPOU (Council of Post Office Unions) never met once during the strike. No. approach was made to the Managerial Staffs Association to undertake no more than their narmal duties, Jackson sent the editor of the Post (official joumal of the UPW) to France to discuss international cooperation with the representatives of telecommunication unions in France. We have been told nothing of the outcome of the meeting. Scanion and Junes offered monetary aid. There was no financial reason why Jackson should have refused large interest-frea sums. We could have paid them back very quickly with a levy of 10/- a week pe: member after a successful strike. But Scanion and Jones didn't instruct their members to take action-food and oil deliveries to exchanges, for example, or blacking of parcels on On returning to work, we find that manage ment have used this period to bring in new in.
plant with the men out, the management are taking the opportunity of laying now assembly line tracks that the unions have fought against for years. In the overseas telephone exchanges, the management have extended subscriber dialling services to the States without any reference to the union, who would have fought for more overtime staff to cope with this extra work. At Mount Pleasant Sorting Office, they'vẹ cut the labour force by one-third. There were aboug 400 resignations from Mount Pleasant during the strike, and these man aren't being taken back on. The P.O. have got redundancies -Don't you think that this was one of the aims of the P.O.7-that if a strike in one sector of capitalism is to be beaten decisively in order to inflict a political defeat on the working class as a whole, that that sector must be given somePeter: Yes. In the first week of the strike people were saying that Ryland called the strike, not Jackson, since the P.O, were going to have to fight the UPW on redundancies. The P.O. have been very quick to use the strike to salve their labour problems and streamline —In the future, how do you think it will be possible to maintain the militancy build-up?
Dave: The next turning point will come at the next AGM when 26 members of the executive come up for re-election. If the rank and file still feels the same way then as it does now, the union will be tumed over. Then there are the Five permanent poses tor ine-te benera Secretary, three assistant secretaries and the Editor. Each year our branch puts forward resolutions at conference that they should be elected for three years only. Up till now Jackson has swung conference by talking about the need for a permanent place to work from, etc. But if the postmen, who are the largest section, vote for this resolution, than Jackson will have to seek re-election after another Peter: The rank and file has learnt a lot about the leadership during this strike. When management, on the raturn to work, took away three days holiday pay, there were strikes and sit ins in Liverpool, Preston, Croydon, and parts of LORION Peter: There hasn't been a scabbing problam in the postal section, but rather on the tele communications side. No question of victimisa GO OF sooos, It sere strikers veno are vietimised In our exchange, there was a walkout by canteen staff after a supervisor took it out on a striker. They aren't scared of coming out for a day or an hour now after six weeks out Strikers, as you know, were threatened with three days loss of holiday pay, whereas scabs weren't affected. Also on overtime, which works on a points system here, some scabs will not have overtime points awarded against them when they've been working night and day keeping the lines open, and this has caused animosity. There's a tense atmosphere with people being sent to Coventry and non cooperation with —Is there a basis for a rank and file movement Peter: There are some moves to ensure the right delegates go to conference-usually it's careerists who go to conference and vote for the E.C. on everything. Each branch in London is putting forward amendments for conferencs, especially for the procedures on elections. Communication is key. We must get into contact with our colleagues up and down the country. The feeling is that in the main industrial centres, we have the basis for a rank and file movement. This strike showed one thing-all grades were involved, we all went into the streets together and we'll be voting at conference together. In London we are having meetings between telecommunicat ons workers and our postal cor leagues, which are against union rules But we haven't heard a word from the E.C. that these meetings will be banned. So while they are playing it cool, we have the opportunity to speak to these people, and given time and organisation, we could have a rank and file movement er enterence. -Why don't vou want wur names nuhliched? first be referred to the E.C. We have got people banned from the union on similar things, such as Ron Black who was got rid of for putting in the branch bulletin a letter sent to him from the E.C.! The union is so bureaucratic that if they knew we had given this interview, we -In fact the Court of Inquiry will look into the relationship between the union and its members. Is it possible that they will tum this on its head like they've done with the Race Relations Bill when the only people arrested are black? Dave: Of course, this strike was about a wage claim. The relation between the union and its members must be sean to by the members, not -How do the militants see the Commission of Inquiry? Crumbs to soften the blow? Dave: It's just a differant name for arbitration. It will probably concede 9.5% 10%, but it was set up to get a retur to work-we have no illusions about that.
Peter: The terms of reference of this inquiry are not only over wages ano incremental scHies. We feel that whatever increases we get, there will be even more concessions to management on redundancies and part-time labour, ete. The findings will be binding, and whatever else came out of it, they will split up the overseas exchanges and spread them around the country. and they look into the hours we work and the night-duty we do. This inquiry is one of the worst things that could have happened, I don't think we've got 200,000 members at the moment. After the inquiry and increased redundancies, we'll be lucky to have 100,000. This inquiry and strike has definitely defeated a union halved its membership. Forwhat? a This is the danger of a court of inquiry or arbitration or whatever they call it. We'd have done better settling for 9% rather than going to this inquiry. I don't see why we should aven get Dave: I'1I say why I think 9%%, The Civil Service Union has just got this amount, and at least the government and the P.O. still need a corrupt union like the UPW and will not go all out to disgrace it completely. When Jackson can when his hypnotic effect on the membership is being whittled away.
Peter: One point is sure. This inquiry will go along with and push for the selling of the telecommunications section to private industry. It was on the cards before the strike, and the failure of the strike has strengthened the arm of the government to sell this part of industry off.
And that leaves Jackson with.. what? 100,000 postal workers fif that) and you haven't got a credible union then.
Interviewed by our industria/ staff.
Union Buildings.
Speakers: Abasingh Bandara Organised by the Revolutionary Action Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Ceylon issue which is due to technical reasons.
revolutionary art: TATUN TOWER The Hayward Gallery, is currently running an exhibition of Russian Ravolutionary Art. As readers of the Mole are probably aware, the revolutionary impulse of this work is still so strong that Russian bureaucrats have felt it necessary to censor the exhibition, removing all the work of Malevich and many other items from Lissitsky, Tatlin and other brilliant Soviet artists who, one way or another, were victims of Stalinism. The Arts Council tamely colluded at this bureaucratic repression. However, there are still many fascinating exhibits to see in the exhibition-partly because the Soviet Government did not have control over all the works in the exhibition, partly because the Soviet Embassy officials who censored the exhibition were clearly so stupid that they didn't understand the art they were looking at.
One of the most interesting and controversial works of the period is Tatlin's "Monument for the Third International", a model of which has been rebuilt by the organisers of the exhibition. This gigantic steel construction was meant to be the operative centre of the Third International and not just a monument as its title implies Tatlin executed the design in 1919 when there was clearly no hope of employing the Soviet Republic's extremely scarce supplies of steal for such a project instead of for badly needed armaments. The following two excerpts give some idea of the project and the controversy it aroused the must is taken trom David mine 5 recentiy published book "1919: Red Mirage". Mitchell's account of the Soviet revolutionary art is a bit like the book as a whole, exuberant but unreliable. One is grateful to have a book written with such gusto about so many fascinating events but disconcerted by the blithe disregard for original sources. The book contains passages of great interest on many of the events of that amazing year, including the Hungarian Soviet Republic, the Munich Soviet, the battles of the Wobblies, the General Strike in Belfast, Liverpool and Glasgow. But the book is marred by inaccuracies we are told that Trotsky did not join the Bolsheviks until October 1917) and vulgarities (such as the account of the Latvian revolution drawn from absurdly unreliable sources). The passage we pablish on Tatlin gives some idea of what the artist was driving at; though it does not point out that the reason the different levels were designed to revolve at different speeds was to symbolise the different pace of history in the base and in the superstructure. The other extract is from Trotsky who well understood the artist's intention but refused to belief that it was either aesthetically or practically anoropriate for the headouarters building of the Third International. However, although Trotsky had his own very strong views on most artistic questions, he never sought to impose them on the artist by administrative dictat as was soon to become the rule under Stalin. The lesson for us today is clear. All attempts to interfere with or suppress the freedom of the artist should be unhesitatingly condemned. But equally revolutionaries should give the artist's work its due by taking it seriously and not simply praising it because of the repression to which it is subject. Clearly it is the duty of Marxists to encourage all that is BELFAST: Alan Morris, cio Fied Mole. BIRMINGHAM: Val Graham, 72 Cambridge Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham 14. BRISTOL: Dave Prior, 7 Ravenswood Road, hooland, bristol b CANTERBURY: Brian Grogan, Elliott College.
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CHELMSFORD: John Jones, c/o Red Mole. COLCHESTER: Ken Browne, Flat 7, Room 10, Bertrand Russell Tower, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex.
COVENTRY: John Presland, 27 Paynes Lane, Coventry, Warwicks.
EDINBURGH: Brian Gilmore, 17 Hillside St., Edinburgh.
GLASGOW: Roland O'Brien, 38 Pendeen Road, really revolutionary in art because only such art can assist and enrich the revolution. Trotsky was later to expound his ideas on this subject very eloquently in the Surrealist Manifesto which he wrote with Andre Breton and Diego Rivers.
Tatlin's Monument to the Third International "Tatlin... was commissioned to design a monu ment to the Third International. Straying far beyond his brief, he obliged superbly. His was to be a working monument, housing and inspiring as well as commemorating. It was to be a world beating constructivist triumph-a leaning tower twice the height of the Empire State building in New York, with a special iron framework based on asymmetrical axes and cradling a glass cylinder, a glass cone and a glass cube. The various components would move continually at varying tempi. The cylinder intended for lectures, conferences and congresses would make one revolution a year, the cone filled with executive offices would complete one revolution a month: the cube surmounting the whole structure was to execute one full revolution a day lenough to satisfy even Zinorie) and to contain an information centre to end all information centres. This would constantly transmit news bulletins, proclamations and manifestoes by telegraph, telephone, radio and loudspeaker. A vast exterior screen, floodlit at night, would rivet the attention of the people. A special projector would flash words upon the sky in cloudy weather. In Tatlin's Leaning Tower ingenious machinery would cethrone the tiresome body, glorify and liberate the mind... Least of all must you stand or sit in this building. You must be mechanically propelled up and down, carried along willy nilly. Before you will flash the firm, laconic phrases of the announcer agitator. Further on the latest news, decree, decision, the latest invention, will be announced. Creation, only creation.** (David Mitchell: 1919: Red Mirage. pp. 158-9).
Trotsky on Tatlin
"As soon as a surplus will come after the most urgent and acute needs of life are covered, the Soviet state will take up the problem of gigantic constructions that will suitably express the monumental spirit of our epoch, Tatlin is undoubtedly right in discarding from his project national styles, allegorical sculpture, modelled monograms, flourishes and tails, and attempting to subordinate the entire design to a correct constructive use of material. This has been the way that machines, bridges and covered markets have been built, for a long time. But Tatlin has still to prove that he is right in what seems to be his own personal invention, a rotating cube, a pyramid and a cylinder all of glass. For good or bed, circumstances are going to give him plenty of time to find arguments for his side.
De Maupassant hated the Eiffel Tower, in which no one is forced to imitate him. But it is undoubtedly true that the Eiffel Tower makes a dual impression; one is attracted by the technical simplicity of its form, and, at the same time, repelled by its aimlessness. It is an extremely rational utilisation of material for the purpose of making a high structure. But what is it for? It is not a building, but an exercise. At present, as everyone knows, the Eiffel Tower serves os a radio station, This gives RED CIRCLES/RED MOLE CONTACTS HULL: Malcolm Bail, Students Union, Hull Uni IPSWICH: Kevin Barter, 2 Camarthon Close.
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NORTHWECT, TAni Canena a даем фо The Tatlin Tower it a meaning, and makes it aesthetically more unified. But if the tower had been built from the very beginning as a radio station, it probably would have attained a higher rationa lity of form, and so thorefore a higher perfaction of art From this point of view Tatin's project for a monument appears much less satisfactory. The purpose of the main building is to make glass headquarters for the meetings of the World Council of People's Commissars, for the Com munist International, ete. But the props and piles which are to support the glass cylinder and the pyramid-and they are there for no other purpose-re so cumbersome and heavy that they look like unremoved scaffolding. One cannot think what they are for. They say: they are there to support the rotating cylinder in which the meetings will take place. But one answers: Meetings are not necesserily hald in a cylinder and the cylinder dous not necessarily have to rotate. I remember seeing once when a child, a wooden temple built in a beer bottle. This fired my imagination, but I did not ask myself at that time what it was for. Tatlin proceeds by a reverse method, he wants to construct a beer bottle for the World Council of People's Commissars which would sit in a spiral concrete temple. But for the moment, I cannot refrain from the question; What is it for? To be more exact: we would probably accept the cylinder and its rotating, if it were combined with a EALING: Will Rich, & Burlington Gans, W4.
(994 6862 weekendst HAMMERSMITH: Eddy Arnavoudian, 20 Thorny Hedge Rd, Gunnersbury, W4. LOUGHBOROUGH: Ann Block, 4 Russell St..
cougnoorough.
MANCHESTER: Steve Cohen, 43 Brantingham Road, Whalley Range, Manchester 16. NORWICH: John Harris, c/o lan Douglas, 1 Cow Hill, Norwich.
NOTTINGHAM: Nick Beeton, 25 Henry Road.
West Bridgford, Nottingham.
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POTTERIES: Jason Hill, Flat 37, The Haw thorns, Keele, Newcastle, Stafts.
READING: Lawrie White, 24 Ramsbury Drive.
Earley, Reading. Barks.
ST. ALBANS/HATFIELD: Chris Pailthorpe, simplicity and lightness of construction, that is, if the arrangements for its rotating did not depreis the aim."
*Thera is no doubt that, in the future-and the farther we go, the more true it will be such monumental tasks as the planning of city gar dens, of model houses, of railroads, and of ports, will interest vitally not only engineering architects, participators in competitions, but the large popular masses as well. The Imperceptible, ant-like piling up of quarters and streets, brick by brick, from generation to generation will give way to titanic constructions of cityvillages, with map and compass in hand. Around this compass will be formed true peoples' parties, the parties of the future for special technology and construction, which will agitate passionately, hold meetings and vote. In this struggle, architecture will again be filled with the spirit of mass feelings and moods, only on a much higher plane, and mankind will educate itself plasticaily, it will become accustorned to look at the world as submissive clay for sulpting the most perfect forms of life. The wall between art and industry will corne down. The great style of the future will be formative, not ornamental. Here the Futurists are right. But it would be wrong to look at this as a liquidating of art, as a voluntary giving way to technique." (Leon Trotsky: Literature and Revolution, Ann Arbor edition, pp. 246 8, 249).
STIRLING: Donald MacDonald, 6 Tarduff Placa Stoneywood, Denny, Stirlingshire. SURREY CHERTSEY: Joe Xavier, Engineering Dept., Botley's Park Hospital, Chertsey (719 2247)
GUILDFORD: John Masen, House No. 43, Third Court, University of Surrey, Guildford. (71281x.97)
KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES: Robin Bonner, 33 Effingham Road, Long Ditton, Surbiton. (398 0310)
SUTTON: Patrick Smith, 56 St. James's Rd.
Sutton (642 2534)
WEST LOTHIAN: Anne MacLellan, 5 Victoria Place, Bo'ness, West Lothian.
YORK: Phil Hearse, Goodricke College, Heslington, York MERCHANT NAVY lat sea): Peter Turner,
-What was the effect of the action inside
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mobilise thousands in Hyde Park and have them singing "Jackson for King" just a week before th. sellout, they're not going to throw away a man like that. Of course, now the process has begun