and the General Council are the head of the movement and therefore we exThis how Sean Geraghty summed up the Tasks the 114th Congress taking Place Brighton this week. The Street leader's cecinciall s words were backed up by a MORI poll published on Monday.
Asked support for the health workers' strike action su percent oI trade unionists supported sympathetic strike action.
And that's without any systematic preperation by UNION mobilise their membership for the Z2 September day of national strike action with the health unions.
The bosses have evidently been taken by surprise by the scale of the backing the General .101 Council's call for strike action on the 22 September.
Photo: G M COOKSON 'Confront the Tories' says Scargill 'I don't think the troops are unwillBut the TUC leaders are tremendous their DIeSSUIC membership for an effective response to the lores That pressure has been the high by Arthur Scargill who has that if backing the low paid and defending the trade union movement Micals confronting the Tories anti-union laws Support The support which Scargill's argument enjoys in the ranks of the labour movement has been bro. ven by the veritable queue of general secretaries now presenting themselves for But the militancy cannot conceal facing decisive tests at this week's congress.
Trade union membership has declined to 11,006,000, a loss of over a million members in the last But the proportion of workers organised by remained the same percent. This shows us that Thatcher has failed in the main project laid out in the policies on which she was accolo once the cracking of the organisea resistance or tne trade union movement.
•But the union movment cannot continue to sustain Ine type oI sel backs which the Tories the last few months.
Decisions At its last Congress the TUC took a number of left decisions on issues such as fighting unemployment, privatisation of nationalismonsane COOT dination of the struggles of use buone seclor umon But again despite opi nion poll evidence that 4! percent of trade unionists want to see the TUC pursue its campaign against Tebbit's anti-union laws activity been minimal. The same applies CLIC campaign unemployment, confronted with a real Issue jobs on the railways the TUC leaders engaged in the most shameful act - betrayal of ASLEF's strike.
systematic mobilisation oe the trade union movemen: for the one day strike on 2: September is vital for the whole future of the of thi type can begin to put the the detensive providing fidence in the ability of the unions to defend their members. Failure achieve mass backle wi give the Tories the oppor tunity to put the bool in 22 September can start force the Tories from office. This is leadership fears above anything else. They know that dismissing the Tories in such a way would open the way for the election of Labour : government which would be com pelled to make massive concessions to lne working class.
would also courage the rapid development of a left wing in the unions and the Labour Party which would threaten their present domination of the labour
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pect them to give us a lead. ing. This is the time we have to show the Tories that we're prepared to fight back and not just knuckle under.'