(Un)Employment Bill: Prior Over one million workers downed tools on May 14th against the Tory government. In what was the biggest protest yet against Thatcher's attempt to drag Britain back to the thirties, over 130 rallies and demonstrations took place up and down the country from Glasgow to London.
More than half of Britain's coalmines were shut aitogether. Liverpool docks came to a standstill. About 250,000 workers in Scotland stayed away, closing down every shipyard except one. 50.000 NUPE members- bearing the brunt of the governments cuts programme - stopped work in the London area.
In what was a clear slap in the face for the Express, attempting to use the courts to prevent NATSOPA members from striking ing, all the print unions came out.
CAMPAIGN This mass protest took place in the teeth of an hysterical anti-union campaign whipped up by the Tories in the preceding weeks. Papers such as the Sun or indulged in the crudest witch-hunt of union leaders and prominantly featured the smallest examples of groups of workers willing to 'defy the TUC call'.
Happy enough dealing with Callaghan's verbal 'fireworks' in the Hue:: Commens the Tores were clearly driven to a frenzy oi fear at the thought of mass action on the streets. Parliamentary opposition is one thing, millions of workers taking direct action- to defend jobs and living standards -is another.
They no doubt remembered the fate of the previous Tory government which was unceremoniously tossed out of office by the determined action of the miners.
'FLOP' The campaign of lies from Fleet Street continued after the Day of Action. The TUC's call and production of steel to a standstill.
It is the ability of workers at the grass roots to take this type of initiative that the Employment Bill or, more aptly named, Unemployment Bill - now being ramroded through Parliament is designed to crush.
For the Tories, being able to destroy the ability of rank and file trade unionists to defend their living standards and jobs is central to pushing home the offensive they have undertaken. The Bill aims to do this in a number of ways.
RIGHT TO PICKET A central thrust of the Bill is an attemptto curb 'secondary picketing' which was used so successfully during the miners' strike in 1974. Under Prior's Bill, workers will only be able to picket outside their place of work - picketing of suppliers or other depots being made illegal. Mail was widely declared a flop' because —millions of trade unionists reported to work as normal.
Papers like the Sun or Express used this to show that the majority of British workers supported the government's policies and were hostile to the TUC action. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Of course, the Tory propaganda barrage did have a marginal effect on some layers who still have not felt the effects of Thatcher's cuts proposes that 'illegal' pickets be taken to court and sued for damages by companies who can prove business has been affected.
SOLIDARITY ACTION It is not just secondary picketing, however, that the Tories want to eliminate. Under the Bill, they such as that by the miners for the steelworkers this year or the mass the Grunwick picket line a few years ago.
CLOSED SHOP Another major plank in the Tory armoury is to launch an attack clause for religious objectors is of 'conscience' or other 'deeply held personal convictions.
OF OPERATIVE PRINTERS REAL AND or plant closures. • despite the mass turn-out and ineffective.
ACTION In order to give the Bill bite, Prior equally hit out at 'solidarity' action support given by trade unionists on SECRET BALLOTS upon the closed shop. The 'get out' going to be drastically widened to include objections on the grounds the bosses.
involved.
itself.
But in the main, far from being hostile to the TUC call, the mass protest wasn't bigger simply because the TUC action appeared irresolute The Day of Action, after all, was not called as the start of a serious campaign to mobilise the labour movement against the Tories. On the contrary, it was raised last February as an alternative to the MATERNITY LEAVE The Bill not only attempts to attack union rights but will doubly affect oppressed strata such as women workers. At present, all women are guarenteed maternity leave and the automatic right to reemployment afterwards.
The new provisions mean that they will have to give much longer written notice if they want their jobs back and, even then, they will not be guarenteed them.
Other provisions in the Bill include extending balloting provisions for the creation of closed shops and for strike action. All in the name of democracy, of course. The real aim of this is not to further but to erode the democracy of mass meetings by 'isolating' union mem bers and thus opening the up to the propaganda of the mass media and mass feeling for a general strike building up around the steelworkers dispute As the Financial Times put it: 'Early this year, however, when the steel strike was underway and the Wales TUC was being particularly militant, the TUC in London came to see the day of action as an alternative to a general strike; something that would allow the labour movement to let off steam without going too far.
How right they were! Having issued the call to get themselves off the hook in February, the TUC then did everything possible to downplay it. Refusing to turn it into a one day strike - despite calls from unions such as the NUR - they declared it was purely a 'voluntary' affair. Little publicity was issued to counteract the Tory campaign. No campaign was und ertaken to explain the issues LIMITATIONS How seriously the TUC itself took the call can be measured by Len Murray's speech on the day Replying to press attacks that it was a 'flop', he declared that the action was not a strike against the government. It was merely a symbolic act to stimulate debate and make the Tories 'reconsider' their policies.
It was this weak-kneed leadership which determined the response of many rank and file members. Hatred of the Tories is undoubtedly deeper than ever before But, as the steelworkers strike showed, workers know that this is a serious government and that only a serious and determined camp. aign can stop them.
Why bother - many of them thought - to support an action which the TUC doesn't even think serious enough to call a strike over? Port Talbot is a good example. Steelworkers there took part in a 3 month strike with the Tories (many voting against a return to work). Yet almost none of the workforce responded to the Day of Action.
Of course many of the proposals in • the Prior Bill are not new. They can be traced back through Heath's ill-fated Industrial Relations Act to Wilson's In Place of Strife which was thrown out, after mass action, in the late sixties.
One thing, however, is new about • Prior's Bill which shows that the Tories have learned from the "mis fortunes" of previous governments. The main thrust of this Bill is towards curbing rank-and-file militancy. This explains the emphasis on the picketing provisions.
This also explains why the TUC have not taken such direct action against the Bill as they did with its predecessors.
CONCORDAT The main thrust of the TUC, after all, has been to try to persuade the Tories to allow them to keep pickets in line with the provisions
June 80 the fight!
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