as a leit. was Hugh The despite munist Left in the organised Communist and Lord of flying.
committee workers' by the when of container terms. activities.
had lost day the ports. The ville 5, policy JACK JONES scabbing on the dock strike was not the only instance of the trade union leadership acting against the militancy of the membership. Throughout the massive struggles of that year the positions of the leadership were in marked contrast to the actions of the class.
No army ever went into battle with a more reluctant leadership.
Scanlon, president of the engineering union who obtainene incontes deny one 43 the incomes policy of the Labour government — refused to initiate national action over the 1971 engineering claim.
claim was 30 plants in Manchester being occupied. The ComParty dominated AUEW, which had Scanlon's against the old right wing leadership, refused to campaign against Scanion's position.
This defeat undermined the position of the lett and laid the basis for a resurgence of the right. taking Scanion with it.
There was a similarly level of militancy in the building industry in pursuit of the national claim: £30 for 35 hours. and file organisation led by the Party was responsible for the development of the strike and the energetic use pickets. But its paper, Building Workers' Charter, failed to appear at all during the strike.
After 14 weeks. the building union, UCATT, out the strike. More than that, two pickets, Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson, were later jailed for five years and three years respectively for alleged intimidation during the strike, no mass mobilisations released them irom prison.
UCATI refused to detend the pickets because the union could not be seen to endorse 'criminal' By using the criminal law instead of the industrial relations law, the Tories succeeded in regaining some of the ground they on the picketing issue with the Pentonville 5.
The most glaring example of the role of the trade union leaders was the deal they cooked up with On the very TUC called a one day general strike to free the Pentonthe trade union leaders agreed to a voluntary incomes La Labour ment in return for the repeal of
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