A defeat for the whole working class. That is the real result of the right wing's victory in two key elections for the Executive of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers.
The comparatively unknown Terry Duffy eclipsed Bob Wright, the present representative for the Midlands and North-West, by 45,569 votes to 20,685. Jimmy Reid was also defeated by right-winger Gavin Laird for the Scottish seat, by 24,838 votes to 12,115. A similar voting pattern was repeated in elections for national organisers, district secretaries and divisional organisers.
The results mean that the decisive body of the second largest union in Britain, the Executive Committee, is now firmly in the hands of the right wing - who openly support the £6 limit and the present wage-cutting and jobs-slashing policies of the Wilson Government. Although not the policy making body of the AUEW, the EC carries on the day-to-day running of the Union - having the power, for example, to make strikes official and decide policy on issues not covered by debates at the National Conference and the National Committee.
Shattering
For those on the Labour left and in the Communist Party who hope to change the present policies of the trade union leadership and Labour Government through the use of the block vote of "progressive" unions at annual conferences, this is a shattering blow.
However, militants should not be demoralised by this defeat. ing in the ballot was not a vote for the £6 limit, as Terry Duffy claimed. It was a vote of disillusionment with the failed policies of the Communist Party-dominated Broad Left.
Scanlon and the other 'lefts" on the EC came to power in the wake of struggles against the incomes policies and In Place of Strife proposals of the 1964-70 Labour Govern ment, with which the right wing was firmly identified. This struggle was waged through the strengthening and proliferation of shop stewards organisation, and on the basis of factory by factory struggles. a period of deeper capitalist crisis this form of struggle is no longer adequate.
Class-wide
The need today is for class-wide policies and class-wide action, but the Broad Left in the AUEW has refused to face up to this fact for fear of losing the 'support' of Scanlon and the rest of the 'left' bureaucracy. In place of political answers, the blame for the impasse of the Broad Left has been attributed solely to a vicious witch-hunt in the capitalist press and the introduction of postal balloting. In place of campaigning among the mass of AUEW the £6 limit, for automatic increases in wages to protect them against inflation, and for industrial action against unemployment, the Broad Left has resorted to bureaucratic manoeuvres to defend their position.
CLOUD OVER CPThe spectre of declining membership and dwindling sales of the Morning The votBut in vote at the National Committee in favour of postal balloting, and the attempt to exclude the Banbury members from voting in the recent elections, have simply been grist to the mill of the right wing and the press. The right wing have been of democracy in the union - one of the main planks of the Broad Conway, the old right-wing leaders members for a new pay claim to smash of the AUEW in the 1960s.
militants must organise in the localities and nationally - both inside But the attempt to reverse the Executive allowed to pose as the true defenders Left's campaign against Carron and Reverse To reverse the defeat in the AUEW legislated at Westminster. Pressumably this Jimmy Reid of UCS fame failed to win the Scottish seat on the AUEW and outside the Broad Left structures - around new policies which can take the Union forward and influence the whole working class. This requires an open fight against the E6 limit (Birmingham AUEW) ber demonstration, despite a resolution passed at the last National Conference to organise industrial action against unemployment. Support for the Balfour Darwin and Personna occupations was only belatedly forthcoming - and only as a result of action by the workers themselves.
To reverse the defeat in the AUEW, more will be needed than