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Published by Cordinal Enterpri Printed by East End Offent (TUI, London E2 Challenge SUBSCRIBE NOW , P.O. Box 50, London N1 Sheridan member of the TUC's General reported to have said: 'Chapple up Moss Evans' nose.' Of such irritants, we are to mass media, bureaucratic made.
The Electricians' Union leader, removed poses Committee last week by bearer for the right wing, and hence the unseating has hallmarks of dictatorship in the making.
No one who has any love for democracy in the labour movement should shed any tears over Frank Chapple TUC's 12-strong cabinet'.
Abolish Under his leadership, EETPU has election of full-time officials, who are now appointed by the executive. These officials can stand for election to the executive, and the union's rules these candidates in particular. restricting ly advantageous positions.
Decisions of the union's two-yearly conferences are no longer binding ecutive, which last year overturned a motion unanimously passed by deals members to obtain private medicine.
Branches left-wing activities, the Right to Work march, can be suspended, as happened il Cardift But it was not defence of internal union which prompted leadership to dump The General Council is hardly a bastion for upholding the principle of accountability of the labour movement leadership.
I wo issues have led to the noose tightening TUC's most vociferous rightwing ideologue:
Action, and the Isle of Grain The TUC did little to build the 14 May Day When It should campaigning up and down the 'country for a one-day all-out "strike against to bust anonymous is .... noW Council purges the Is a Danne all the the removal of the 'inner the abolished the canvassing the exthe Isle of Grain the conference b for EETPU policies, which support such as to join Shame' publicly democrac the Chapple. 1979 Congress of Grain power bonus U1 the co-thinkers in the the Day of electricians' of Action. flict with the laggers' have been the General and Workers!
Thatcher's its general secretary was on holiday in Madeira.
But Chapple took advantage of Fleet Street's columns should the media's 'Day of strike-breaking campaign, and that meant he wa ingers to the General Cour puttin two at this time? cil, which had taken its cue from a motion passed at the the TUC cher to talk The 27 laggers at the Isl talks merely station conWine well strike last year to defend their have been described by Chapple as ban- ment.
Along with his right-wing Fear leadership of the Engineering Union, the leader has mounted a scabbing operation on the site, and this has brought him into direct conunion union Municipal rises Both'the EETPU and the AUEW now face expulsion ths. The reason £50 a week.
are members The Central ( from the rank and file.
on the Grain site.
Chapple, In Milford Haven, for two Members of union, are excluded.
depended on to win the battle. It was David Basnett, GMWU, who from the TUC over the issue. This should certainly be supported by socialists, but why La majority of the General Council be concern ed to uphold a fundamental principle of trades unionism The trade union leadership is in a quandary. While pleads with Thatto them, such provide an excuse for not building the on thing that can defend workin class interests - mass action bring down the governBehind this lack of action lies a fear of the alternative to Thatcherism. Since the postwar boom years, leadership has based rises a refore pae and reforms eepening Crisis of the lat Is put paid to such oppor Grain construction site in Kent have been on strike for 14 monIs that they refuse to accept a wage cut of The militancy of the laggers, who General and Municipal Workers' Union, ensured that they received high bonus rates on the power station construction site Electricity Generating Board wanted standard bonuses, to put a stop to on-site bargaining and cut costs.
and electriciar leaders were happy to go along with this, because it put negotiating power into the hands of full-time officials and removed it These leaders set about defeating the laggers with a vengeance. AUEW general secretary Terry Duffy, John Baldwin of the AUEW's construction section, and electricians' leader Frank Chapple organised the training of scab laggers and installed them in a letter to Len Murray, lescribed this overturning of a basic tene of trade unionism as 'a matter of principle the EETPU and the AUEW have signed deals to provide lagpetrochemical sites. the GMWU, the laggers' This is the background to the dispute over which the engineering and electricians' unions now face expulsion from the TUC. The expulsion should be carried out, but this doesn't mean that the TUC can be leader of the agreed that should not be raised at the Trades Union Congress last month, because the debate might have been somewhat unseemly.
To support the laggers, send messages and donations to: Isle of Grain Strike Fund, 112 Whitebarn Lane, Dagenham, Essex.
tunities. their support for the Callaghan wing of the Labour Party shows, the TUC leaders still cling 'respectability' of an incomes policy and open compliance with big. business.
But they sense the dangers. For the first time in post-war years trade union membership is falling financinions bleming sharp financial problems unemployment at 2m and ris ing, the credibility of the TUC is at stake Moss Evans is at pains to say that there is not a purge of the right-wing union bureaucrats. There ought to be but if that is to succeed the TUC man and me inteRPO rank and file in the the right-wing strongholds for the AUDW. and "other members of these unions to turf out their leaders.
And it needs to adopt the policies which can confront Thatcherism head on.
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ELECTRICIANS' leader Frank Chapple: he describes the striking laggers as 'bandits' During october Onto Sue into or of it only for
really gets batteve the Haven
The picket line they're determined Milford TERRY DUFFY, Engineering Union general secretary: he helped to organise scabbing on