trade union bill & how to kill it

A Communist Party Pamphlet by Laurence Platt

Foreword by Kevin Halpin

Trade Union Bill & How to Kill it

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Published by the Communist

Party September 2015

Copyright © Communist Party

2015

Author: Laurence Platt

Editor: Graham Stevenson

ISBN 978-1-908315-35-9 RRP £2 A5/£3 A4

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Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it Page 1

Foreword by Kevin Halpin 2

The Tory Trade Union Bill

& How to Kill It

by Laurence Platt

Introduction 4

Why unions still matter 7

2015 Bill: Sajid’s Blunderbuss 9

Campaigning against the Tory assault 15

Build our Union work by Graham Stevenson 19

CP Solidarity Fund 23

Tory Trade Union Bill and how to kill it

Foreword by Kevin Halpin

This pamphlet is a timely reminder of our belief and experience that action

and solidarity do have the power to defeat anti-trade union legislation and

defend our freedoms and democracy.

Of course it’s not going to be easy; it never was - but it’s a fight that must be

waged and which we can win.

We may no longer have as many shop stewards committees because our

industrial base has shrunk, but these types of collective bargaining organisation

still play a key role in many workplaces, and today we have a new weapon -

social media - in our armoury; clearly recognised as such by the Tories who

want to move from writing the questions on our industrial ballot papers to

controlling when we can talk to our work mates and what we may say.

On the other hand, as is rightly pointed out in the pamphlet: ‘Unlike the

early 1970s the leadership of the movement, including the TUC, has made

clear its outright opposition to the Trade Union Bill and has called for the

widest possible protest.’ So thankfully it’s not longer the case that Congress

House will call on the local police to move trade union members lobbying

outside for ‘disturbing the peace’, as happened to me on more than one

occasion.

Over the past 35 years blood-chilling references to the 'bad old days' of the

1970s have been used by new Labour and old Tories to warn of the dangers of

unions that are 'too strong'. But what was the reality? Certainly, unions were

never strong enough (even if they had wanted to be) to sack a single employer,

let alone thousands of people at once; or to sell off or shut down a company

without warning; or to issue a death sentence to a whole local community.

The impression given of the ‘70s is that mass meetings were held every day,

taking instant (‘wild cat’) action at the instigation of a small number of union

agitators. As one who was there, and others will confirm this, I can tell you

that this picture is nonsense. Just as frequently, mass meetings voted against

action. When workers came out, it was usually because they were fed up with

being treated like machines, to be speeded up and driven to the limit, or as

casual labour to be picked up and discarded at will.

So by taking a stand for dignity and some control over the job, as well as for

better wages and conditions, working people gained in confidence; confidence


to defy and win.

KEVIN HALPIN was Industrial

Organiser of the Communist Party

from 1988 to 2010. As founding

chairperson of the rank-and-file

Liaison Committee for the Defence

of Trades Unions (now merged into

the Campaign for Trade Union

Freedom) his role was pivotal in

defending the rights of workers

from both Labour and Conservative

governments.

After his victimisation by Ford after

14 years as an AEU convenor, he

was clearly on the engineering

employers ‘blacklist’ being turned

down for for work by 48

companies in three years, at which

time the manager of the

Dagenham Labour Exchange,

convinceπd he’d never get back

into engineering, suggested he

retrain as a hairdresser. An offer he

refused and finally, thanks to union

colleagues, found work in London’s

ship-repair yards until (under Thatcher’s de-industrialisation) the docks closed when

he went on to London Underground becoming chair and convenor of the joint trades

unions committee.

Flyer produced by the TUC in 1971 for the rally against the Industrial

Relations Bill . Courtesy of TUC Library Collections


Introduction

The 2015 Trade Union Bill marks a further attempt by a Tory government to

make any trade union activity ineffective if not impossible. Throughout the

twentieth century and now into the twenty first, Tory governments have tried

over and over again to restrict Trade Unions’ ability to defend and advance the

interests of their members because they recognise that workers organised in

the workplace, independent of government and employer, are the single

biggest stumbling block to the implementation of their reactionary policies.

Ever since people worked for an employer there have been attempts to

regulate their employment. As far back as the fourteenth century feudal

governments legislated to prevent land workers, artisans and craft workers

demanding higher wages (The 1351 Statute of Labourers). Closer to our own

times, the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800 made it a criminal offence for

workers to join together for political purposes. The 1824 Combination of

Workmen Act repealed the Acts of 1799 and 1800, but this led to a wave of

strikes. Accordingly, the Combinations of Workmen Act 1825 was passed to re

-impose criminal sanctions for picketing and other methods of persuading

workers not to work. The 1834 case of the Tolpuddle Martyrs is now so well-

known as to need no further detail here.

In their modern form anti-union legislation has largely been a feature of the

last three decades of the twentieth century and has been aimed at reducing

the freedom of trade unions to act on behalf of their members. The first of

these was a 1969 failed attempt initiated by Barbara Castle’s In Place of Strife.

But Ted Heath’s ill-fated attempt did make it to the statute books in the form

of the 1971 Industrial Relations Act, steered through Parliament by Robert

Carr as Secretary of State for Employment. Successive pieces of legislation

from the Thatcher government in the 1980s have ensured that postal ballots

have to be organised before industrial action takes place, that sympathetic

(secondary) action in support of workers taking action was outlawed, union

political funds have to be reaffirmed every decade by a ballot of the whole

membership of the union and the ‘closed shop’ has been made illegal. The 1992

Trade Union and Labour Relations Act (Consolidated) placed further

restriction on picketing, limiting a picket to six and confining them to being

close to the workplace where the industrial action is taking place. Failure to


abide by this legislation lays a union open to sequestration of its funds.

We may wish to note in passing that this battery of regulations has and

continues to come from a Tory Party that in all other areas of the economy

are the most steadfast opponents of regulation. A Party that lectures us from

breakfast to dinner time on law and order, yet their anti-trade union

legislation, which has been at the heart of much of their programme in

government over past decades has consistently breached many of the

international treaties that the UK is signed up. Most crucially the ILO

conventions on workplace rights and the UN’s International Covenant on

Economic, Social and Cultural rights! The ILO convention on Freedom of

Association states clearly that:

Article 2

Workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall

have the right to establish and, subject only to the rules of the

organisation concerned, to join organisations of their own

choosing without previous authorisation.

Article 3:

1.Workers' and employers' organisations shall have the right to

draw up their constitutions and rules, to elect their

representatives in full freedom, to organise their administration

and activities and to formulate their programmes.

2.The public authorities shall refrain from any interference

which would restrict this right or impede the lawful exercise

thereof

These articles were included in the ILO Charter in the immediate aftermath

of the Second World War and were designed to ensure that workers

organisations were free from government interference and an essential part of

any democratic society. Since the early 1980’s successive British governments

have arguably been in breach of Articles 2 and 3 and therefore in breach of

their international obligations. The latest Tory assault on trade unions

continues this trend in UK Labour legislation and indeed carries it further than

ever before. If you ignore the law on picketing or any other aspect of the

legislation you stand a good chance of being hit by a policemen and by a Judge


whilst the Tories can blithely ignore their

international obligations without let or

hindrance. One law for you - another for

them!

In 2015 we face the next round of anti-

union legislation from what history will

undoubtedly regard as one of the most

reactionary governments that Britain has

had in over a hundred years. The purpose

of the Bill is to demolish, they hope once

and for all, any meaningful trade unionism

in this country. This represents the latest

in a long line of attempts by the

representatives of the Capitalist Class to

prevent workers from effectively

advancing their terms and conditions at

work and having a real say in the society

within which their work creates much of

the wealth. A poster at the time of the

imposition of Heath’s Industrial Relations

Act said ‘SHUT UP AND KEEP

WORKING (by order)’ and this sums up

the thrust of all the anti-working class

legislation that successive governments

have passed down the centuries,through

the Feudal Court or the Bourgeois

Parliaments. The Trade Union legislation envisaged by the Tory government is

no different in its intent and must be stopped in its tracks!

Pamphlet produced by the TUC in 1971


Why unions still matter

Trade unions give workers a voice in the workplace that would otherwise be

denied them. Unions also go some way to redressing the imbalance of power

between bosses and workers. At its most basic people at work need someone

to speak up for them. That is as true today as it has been throughout the

history of the trade union movement.

But trade unions do much more than that. Over the last fifty years our

unions have been at the forefront in ensuring that the workplace is safe for

workers to be in. The trade unions were the main force in society that

ensured that the Health and Safety at Work Act got onto the statute book.

Unions have led the fight for compensation for workers exposed to asbestos

and now suffering from Mesothelioma, as well as a whole range of other

industrial illnesses. Before the destruction of the mining industry by an equally

right wing government, the National Union of Mineworkers had played a

central role in making British deep mined coal the safest in the world.

Our unions were, and continue to be, a central part of the forces in society

that saw the passage of the legal framework to ensure equal pay and equality

of opportunity for women and black workers and more recently for disabled

workers and Gay, Lesbian and Transgender members.

Without our unions we would not have seen the better pay, better working

conditions and better pensions that have been an important feature of a

working life over the past half century. All of these things did not just happen,

neither were they ‘gifts’ from a benevolent employer or government. They

were negotiated and, when necessary, fought for by workers and their unions,

often in the face of ferocious opposition from employers and the State

throughout the post-war period.

The trade unions have also been able to use the money contributed by

members to their political funds, not only to support the Labour Party which

has given working people a political voice, but also to be able to run campaigns

on many issues that affect the day to day lives of the community as a whole.

It would be wrong to say that the advances to which the trade unions have

so centrally contributed are now complete - there is much that still needs to

be done. . The battle against capitalism and the capitalist class will continue as

long as capitalism survives.


The ability of the trade union movement to continue to fight for is now

under the most direct threat that has been seen for at least a generation. The

proposals contained in the Trade Union Bill will prevent any effective defence

of gains that have been made in the post-war period (much of which has

already been eroded) but will make virtually impossible the fight for any

further advance for working people.


The 2015 Bill: Sajid’s Blunderbuss

Although there are differences of detail, the overall thrust of Sajid Javid’s Bill

has some remarkable similarities with the 1970 Industrial Relations Bill.

Writing at that time, Communist National Industrial Organiser, Bert Ramelson,

pointed out that:

“The Industrial Relations Bill 1970 is the most vicious piece of

politically motivated class legislation since the Combination

Acts of the early 1800s. It has been framed by big business for

big business. The Bill is not only an attack on the trade unions …

It is aimed equally to deprive the British people of some of their

basic inalienable democratic rights such as freedom of speech

and expression, and the right to demonstrate and organise in

support of their views and opinions. The threat to trade

unionists and their rights is also an attack on

other human rights….. the Tories -

henchmen of the boss class - have thought of

most of the circumstances when trade

unions are likely to have to take industrial

action, declared them ‘unfair industrial

practices’ and therefore illegal … the Bill

even deprives the trade unions of the right

to remain voluntary organisations framing

their own rules….’

(Ramelson, Carr’s Bill and How to Kill it: A Class

Analysis, C.P. 1970.)

We are now faced with a Trade Union Bill just as extensive in scope as the

1971 Act and just as likely to provoke a similar mass opposition. This

blunderbuss approach may be the biggest weakness in the Tory strategy to

remove the trade unions form the industrial and political scene in the UK.

Once they become law the provisions contained in the Trade Union Bill will

make industrial action almost impossible. They will:


Impose virtually unachievable targets on Industrial Action Ballots before a

strike can be legally called.

Try and break the financial link between the unions and the Labour Party,

thereby ending our political voice.

Prevent unions and management bodies agreeing to facility time for trade

union reps.

Criminalise picketing during strike action.

Will legalise the ‘right’ of the employer to bring in scab labour to replace

those who are on strike.

Abolish check-off in the public sector.

And finally, in a sinister twist since it impinges on the freedom of the

press, they will insist on the government being notified in advance of

anything a union puts on social media relating to support for members in

dispute with their employer.

Ballots

The regulations covering balloting for industrial action demand that at least

50% of those eligible to vote do so and that in essential services there must be

a 40% vote in favour of all those entitled to vote before that action is deemed

lawful. In other words a no vote is taken as a vote against action

As has already been pointed out by many in the movement if this same rule

was applied to elections to Parliament or to local councils there would hardly

be an MP or councillor in the land but it seems that it is one law for them but

another for us!

At the same time the government has rejected any suggestions from the

TUC to modernise the way in which voting takes place, for example by voting

online through secure websites or properly monitored workplace ballots.

What is also worth pointing out is that once a strike is called the real ballot is

the number of members that actually come out. It is faintly ridiculous to argue,

as the government and sections of the press have, that the turnout is the

result of intimidation of a ‘majority’ by a militant minority! Workers take part

in strike action because of the strength of feeling over the matter at issue -

plain and simple! There are no similar restrictions placed on the ’rights’ of

management to close down whole workplaces and throw hundreds and

sometimes thousands of workers on the scrap heap - as can be seen by the

recent announcement by Tata Steel in Rotherham and the decision to close


the Goodyear factory in Wolverhampton and move production elsewhere in

the EU.

Political funds

The attack on the political funds of the trade unions takes us back to the

1920s when, in the aftermath of the General Strike, similar legislation was

enacted which required union members to ‘opt in’ to the political fund rather

than opt out as is currently the case. The government knows that this will

dramatically undermine the efforts of the movement to campaign on issues

that have an effect on their members. It is well known that some of the funds

go to support Labour candidates at general and local elections. What is less

generally understood is that the political funds also enable the unions to

campaign on issues that have an impact on people’s lives. Recent examples of

this are the unions’ input into campaigns against TTIP and the ‘Bedroom Tax’. It

goes without saying that there are no similar proposals to restrict the ‘rights’

of the bosses to ladle cash into the coffers of the Tory Party or indeed to

prevent employers and their representatives campaigning on whatever issues

they like!

Facility time

Facility time for trade union representatives has, and continues to be, a

positive influence on the workplace. It represents the ability of shop stewards

and safety reps to raise issues with management and resolve them before

matters reach a crisis point. The attempts by the government to abolish this

would make you think that they actually want to provoke industrial action by

workers!

Agency workers

The intention to allow employers to bring in scab labour to break a strike is a

recipe for disorder if ever there was one. The government seem quite ready to

contemplate this in their headlong dash to eliminate effective trade union

action in the UK.

Check-Off

The addition of an attack on check-off was added out of the blue some three

weeks after the original publication of the Bill itself. It is nothing other than an


attempt to weaken any trade union organisation in the public sector. Check-off

arrangements have been freely negotiated between unions and the employer

and have served both well over a number of years and more importantly have

not been the subject of any complaints by employers themselves. If the Tories

get away with this one then it won’t be long before it seeps into the private

sector. Above all the way in which the announcement was made, outside of any

of the Parliamentary processes that are supposed to be followed once a Bill is

published and that the consultation launched by Sajid Javid is a sham.

Picketing, social media and leverage campaign

Amongst the most sinister provisions of the Bill are those that deal with the

conduct of an industrial dispute. Even where it is possible to win a ballot,

further hurdles are thrown in the way of workers acting effectively to win the

dispute. Unions will be

expected to provide the

police with information

about the numbers

attending a picket or

associated protest,

whether or not banners

or placards will be used.

The Police must be

notified in advance of a

nominated person who is in

charge of the picket or protest and

this person must wear an armband

and carry a letter of appointment

from their union, which they

must produce for inspection by

any copper who asks for it! A

complete plan of how the

industrial action will run has to

be provided to the police in advance

of the action taking place. The use of social

media is to be controlled, with the union expected to inform the police in

advance of which media is to be used and what is to be said, when and by


whom; again, a breach of civil liberties.

Needless to say there are no provisions in the Bill which insist that

employers should inform the union of what measures they intend to take to

defeat a strike; much less is there any suggestion that the police inform the

union of the measures that they intend to take to police industrial action.

As with any proposed legislation there is a consultation period and the

published documents associated with this are illuminating.

In 2014 the then Coalition Government commissioned Bruce Carr Q.C. to

conduct a review of trade union action in the conduct of strikes. He

abandoned this, giving his reasons as:

1. Being increasingly concerned about his ability to gather

meaningful evidence from either employers or unions.

2. Suggesting the political environment in the run up to the

General Election made an objective review difficult.

3. And that he had reached the conclusion that it simply will not

be possible for the review to put together a substantial enough

body of evidence from which to provide a sound basis for making

recommendations for change.

At the time, this was a considerable embarrassment to the government but,

being driven by their own class instincts, this has not been allowed to stand in

their way!

And so it is that in the Impact Assessment it is acknowledged that there ‘is

no definitive evidence of the scale of any problem relating to picketing and

intimidation. Evidence from the Carr review indicated that though breaches of

the code (Code of practice on picketing - 1992) do happen this evidence

could not be substantiated.’ It goes on then to state ‘We aim through

consultation to seek further views on the proposed measures and how they

relate to the potential problems’.

This is a bit like saying ‘We’ve decided that you are guilty and the sentence

has been agreed - we’re just waiting for someone to provide us with the

evidence’!

One of the specific forms of effective industrial action that is singled out in

the Tory attack is the leverage tactic that some unions have employed.

Leverage works by putting pressure on the supply chain of an employer with


whom the union is in dispute in order to bring about a speedy and successful

outcome to any industrial action. This is completely within the law and has

proved very effective. This is now characterised as ‘causing fear and

intimidation’ and in a desperate attempt to get over the fact that Carr could

find no evidence to support this ‘fear and intimidation’, Javid is now seeking the

‘evidence’ through the consultation process that the Trade Union Bill has to go

through before it can become an act. It will cause no surprise if this process

comes up with the ‘evidence’ that so far does not exist!

What all this amounts to is a wholesale assault on the freedom of the

working class and its industrial and political organisations, as well as the wider

civil liberties of the population as a whole. It will remove any realistic chance

of people improving their working lives and of having any real say in the

society in which we live. It gives the green light for the bosses to behave in any

high handed way that they feel fit and for us, as the poster from the campaign

against (only politically related) Robert Carr’s Industrial Relations Act put it,

to ‘Shut Up and Keep Working’.


Campaigning against the Tory assault

The blunderbuss approach that the Tories have taken in the Trade Union Bill is

probably its greatest potential weakness. Its wide-ranging provisions are likely

to have an impact on not only the trade union movement but on wider

sections of society as a whole. This is particularly so with regard to the parts

of the Bill which relate to use of social media. It can be nothing other than an

attack on freedom of opinion and expression to demand that trade unions

involved in industrial action have to submit for police approval the details and

content of anything that they intend to put on Facebook or Twitter in support

of striking members. What is not clear is what happens to someone, trade

unionist or not, who puts things on social media in support of striking workers

and is not directly involved in the dispute. It probably won’t be long before the

courts come up with a solution to that! What is being proposed is nothing

other than the silencing of freedom of speech and the expression of opinion

by working people and those that support them. There appears to be no such

restrictions envisaged for the bosses and their supporters in the right wing

press and it unlikely that their political representatives, the Tories, will accept

any legislative attempt to do so.

The last time such an all-encompassing attempt to silence the trade union

movement was attempted, in the 1971 Industrial Relations Act, a combination

of protest and industrial action utterly defeated it. It was precisely its catch all

nature that gave rise to the groundswell of opposition, led by the LCDTU,

which defeated the Act. A very important lesson for us today and the key to

understanding why the 1971 campaign was so effective was the campaign to

take industrial action. Mainly Communist trade union leaders – both rank and

file and full-time officers - arranged prior activity to brief and alert masses of

trade union members in workplace meetings that primed important sections

of the working class to agree to be ready to act. Thus, the surge of walk-outs

against the legislation did not happen spontaneously. Mass one-day stoppages

in 1968 and 1970 laid the basis for this. It would be wrong to imagine that we

have exactly the same circumstances as we had when large numbers of well-

organised workers were in key industrial sectors in both the private and

public sectors and there had been a rise in working class militancy over wages

from the mid-1960s.


However, even in a time where people are far more scattered and isolated

than ever before, there continues to be a willingness amongst workers to take

action to defend themselves against the high-handed actions of management. In

the recent period there has been widespread action in local government and

the civil service, on the railways and in other areas of transport. Such action

has also been occurring in some of the most unlikely of places - at the

National Gallery over the outsourcing of the jobs of some 400 staff and at

Sotheby’s Auction House, where cleaners have been sacked for joining a union.

Perhaps the most instructive has been the recent industrial action in the

construction industry where a sacked shop steward has been reinstated after

a picket was put on at the place where he worked. This picket was supported

by construction workers from all over the country and no doubt social media

played a part in the mobilisation for this - precisely the sort of communication

and rapid response that the Tories will attempt to silence.

Unlike the early 1970s the leadership of the movement, including the TUC,

has made clear its outright opposition to the Trade Union Bill and has called

for the widest possible protest. The task that faces us is to build on this in

order to create a mighty campaign that will stop this vicious anti-working class

legislation in its tracks.

It is probable that the Tories will get the Bill on to the statute book but the

campaign that we build now will be the essential bedrock on which action can

be developed which can make the new law inoperative.

In the immediate future we must work for the maximum support for the

action that has been called for by the TUC and ensure that there is no

backsliding by the leadership. There will be calls for a general strike against the

Bill and when it comes to the Act. Such calls should not be dismissed out of

hand but all must realise that the conditions in which such action could have

any possibility of success must be built. A general strike cannot be pulled like a

rabbit from a magician’s hat.

Full support should be given to the lobby of the Tory Party Conference and

the lobby of Parliament as called for by the TUC. These can be seen as the

building blocks for further action.

At a local level there is every reason why MPs, both Labour and Tory, and

others should be lobbied in their own constituencies. Leave them in no doubt

that the anti-union legislation is unacceptable. Press Labour MPs to actively

work to frustrate and delay the passage of the Bill through Parliament. Make it


clear that it is not acceptable to give vague promises that they will repeal the

Act if they get back into government in 2020. They must be encouraged to

work alongside us from the outset in moves to derail the Bill and, if it gets

onto the statute book, the Act itself.

At a time when more and more workers are taking action to defend their

jobs and their terms and conditions, there is an increasing likelihood that they

will become enmeshed in the provisions of the Act. This is what happened in

1971 when dockers pursuing an industrial dispute aimed at extending the

Dock Labour Scheme to container terminals found themselves on the

receiving end of court action under the Industrial Relations Act and were

thrown in to Pentonville Prison for contempt of court. Mass action and the

threat of a general strike by the TUC general council secured their release

after five days. 1971. We need once again to ensure that if any workers in the

course of taking industrial action are threatened with legal action under the

Act that we are in a position to deliver the same response as was delivered in

support of the Pentonville Five.

Labour unrest in the period 1970-74 was far more massive and

incomparably more successful than its predecessor of 1910-1914. Millions of

workers were involved in campaigns of civil disobedience. Over 200

occupations of factories, offices, workshops and shipyards occurred in two

years alone and many of them attained all or some of their objectives. And the

coal miners’ victories in the two Februaries of 1972 and 1974 gave a finality to

a temporary defeat for capitalism.

As then, mass defiance by workers and their unions must be at the centre of

our response but we must also reach out to the widest sections of our

society and bring them into action, particularly around the threat to the

freedom of expression and opinion. Our ability to do this is the best guarantee

of being able to create the circumstances in which the anti-working class laws

can be defeated.

Our future is at stake! Either we build the movement to defeat this

legislation or we pass under the shadow of the most reactionary laws this

country has seen in many, many decades. At the centre of this will be our

unions but we must also build on the work already done by the Institute of

Employment Rights and the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom alongside the

widest possible mobilisation of public opinion. There is no room for

compromise here; there is nothing in this act that can be seen as providing any


kind of basis for creating a fair and equitable society. It promises nothing but

legal sanctions, fines for both our unions and individual members and the

probability of imprisonment for any attempt to advance our terms and

conditions at the workplace and any moves to have a real say in the affairs of

our country. Full support must be given to all those who find themselves in

conflict with this rotten law.

The power of mass protest.

Just a day after the TUC mass lobby of Parliament on the 2nd of November

the government announced it was withdrawing some of the provisions of the

Trade Union Bill. The proposal to force unions to publish a protest and

picketing plan 14 days in advance of action being taken which included what

unions intended to post on Facebook and Twitter. The Tories have also decided

that they will not pursue with proposals to create a whole new raft of criminal

offences around picketing and make every picket wear an armband or give

their name to the police. Perhaps most importantly the proposal that the

picket organiser must carry a letter of authorisation from his or her union to

show the police or any member of the ‘public’ who requests to see it has been

removed.

These changes to the provisions of the Trade Union Bill have undoubtedly

come about as a result of the growing pressure from trade unions, the wider

community and the fact that at least five Tory MPs have indicated that they

may well rebel over the Bill.

But no one should be fooled - the bulk of the Bill remains intact and indeed

the withdrawal of the provision to make unions publish protest and picketing

plans including their intended use of social media will be more than

compensated for by Theresa May’s ‘Snoopers Charter’ which is also on its way

through Parliament and will give the ‘security’ services virtual carte blanche to

spy on all our internet use including emails and social media!

Still at the centre of this odious piece of class legislation are the new rules

on balloting for industrial action and the scrapping of the laws to outlaw the

use of scab labour in an industrial dispute.

The mass opposition outside parliament has created the circumstances

where the government has withdrawn some of the proposals in the Bill but

most of its most dangerous provisions remain intact and continue to pose a

grave threat to the ability of unions to effectively represent the interests of


their members. The TUC and its affiliates must keep up the pressure, along

with civil liberties campaigners and we must be prepared to take all the

measures necessary to utterly defeat this vicious attempt to silence the voice

of the working class.

This is a fight for freedom and democracy. This legislation must be defeated:

Kill the Bill, Demolish the Act!

The momentum which gathered behind Jeremy Corbyn’s labour leadership

campaign shows what can be achieved when a voice is given to those who

have been abandoned by the neoliberalism of the Tories and New Labour. The

campaign is shifting the terms of the debate and breathing new life into the

case for a genuine socialist alternative to endless austerity. At the heart of this

has been the Morning Star, which as the voice of the resistance and the only

daily paper supporting struggle is now more critical than ever. The Morning

Star is at the centre of the Kill the Bill campaign. It will report and support

the many meetings, marches, rallies and groups that will undoubtedly be es-

tablished in the fight to defeat it.

It does not have the same resources that the capitalist press can rely on.

There are no billionaire oligarchs or non-doms backing the Morning Star. It is

wholly owned and supported by its shareholders from individuals to trade

unions, including Community, CWU, FBU, GMB, NUM, POA, RMT, Ucatt and

Unite. Read it! Donate to it! Get your shareholding now! Better still, get your

trade union branch or other progressive organisation to do the same. This is

a critical time for the movement and your voice and your paper are a vital

tool in the fight in the class war. Don’t be without it.


Build our Trade Union work by Graham Stevenson, CP Trade Union Organiser

One of the bugbears of British capitalism, its state, its security services, and its

propaganda machine has been how Communist have for so long been at heart

of our unified trade union movement. This was especially with the Party’s

leading role in the trade union struggles of the late 1960s and early 1970s. A

prime minister once had a vision – fed to him by MI5 – of a "tightly knit group

of politically motivated men" behind disputes like the seamen's strike of the

1966. Of course, it’s not like that now – we have women, too!

From the National Minority Movement of the 1920s, to the 1926 general

strike, Britain’s Communists have never been found lacking. As the task of

leading the great unemployed struggles of 1929-39 faded, the National

Unemployed Workers Movement leader, Wal Hannington, became national

organiser of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. The Party’s legendary

general secretary, Harry Pollitt, called for a `Turn to Industry’ and a new wave

of union organisation began, with Communists at the forefront and regularly

awarded the TUC Tolpuddle medal for astounding number of workers

recruited. Tom Mann, a heroic leader of an older generation was a Communist,

as were up and coming miners’ leaders, Arthur Horner and Abe Moffatt.

During the Second World War, and for a generation after it, Communist shop

stewards became almost the norm. The reason so many known Communists

were elected by their workmates was because of their integrity and

incorruptibility.

As the cold war faded, Bert Ramelson, the Party’s infamous national

industrial organiser from the mid-1960s, stood at the heart of the modern

idea of a broad left. The alliance between Communists and other lefts was so

strong that Ramelson was able to once comment that he had only to "float an

idea early in the year and it will be official Labour Party policy by the autumn."

A full quarter of the delegates to the 1973 TUC congress were reputed to be

Party members.

The sharp decline in union membership during the 1980s was initially mainly

due to the high levels of unemployment. A highpoint of 12% of the working

population was hit in 1983. Sectors like coal, steel, and manufacturing were hit

particularly hard. Until recently, a big exception was the public sector, which


saw an expansion and strengthening of trade union organisation. But the

working class also suffered a series of major defeats. Proceeding cautiously at

first, Thatcher aimed at a strategy of isolating and then defeating key groups of

workers and slowly introducing anti trade union legislation.

Join the Communist Party or Young Communists

The Communist Party’s Aims and Constitution make clear that we are mainly

focused on achieving a socialist Britain: “in which the means of production,

distribution and exchange will be socially owned and utilised in a planned way for the

benefit of all. This necessitates a revolutionary transformation of society, ending the

existing capitalist system of exploitation and replacing it with a socialist society in

which each will contribute according to ability and receive according to work done.

Socialist society creates the conditions for advance to a fully communist form of

society in which each will receive according to need.”

The Communist Party punches well above its weight but, with more

members, we could achieve more. Having read this pamphlet, will you consider

joining our Party? Since our last Congress, the Communist Party has been

working hard to take its work amongst trades unionists to the level of activity

the present Tory offensive calls for. The development of more and better

advisory groups to the executive in specific industries has been steady in

building our Trade Union Advisory Network. Especially in promoting our

bulletin Unity!, with Anita Halpin as editor-in-chief, at union conferences and

events.

We plan a special Solidarity Fund to help young Party and YCL activists

become better involved. A more organic involvement of Young Communist

League members in our work is increasingly evident and there are exciting

new possibilities for unionisation in the fast food sector. We have even held a

weekend school for Young Workers in our trade union cadre development

programme. We hope to developing educational resources, such as podcasts,

even short films, tutors’ notes, all of which could be used to reach out to a

new generation of potential activists.

Retired Members

The Party is looking to see how our members can be better co-ordinated in

their activity in the many Retired Members Associations and other pension’s

campaigns groups. Volunteers with a particular knowledge of pensions’ matters,


especially workplace pensions, are already forthcoming but more would be

welcome to be involved in this and suggestions of names would be appreciated

to.

The nature of work today is fragmented and sections of the movement aren’t

really interested in organising out of the way and difficult to service individuals

or groups. Let’s get all who can join into a union! And, while we are at it, let’s

recruit, organise, and train a whole new generation of activists who we can be

proud of in building a new and more vigorous profile for Communist trade

union work.

Needs of the Hour

New international briefings in the Communist Party series, Needs of the Hour,

are now available to view and download online.

For TTIP, see:

http://issuu.com/communist_party/docs/international_bulletin_ttip_may_201

For Ukraine, see:

http://issuu.com/communist_party/docs/international_bulletin_ukraine_may_

We are now developing others for domestic policy and would positively

welcome suggestions and drafts for trade union briefings on:

The economy and the way forward

Pay, prices, and profits

The fight back in the workplace and community

Co-ordinating industrial action, including solidarity acts

Building national and international conglomerate co-ordination in all

industries

Linking each strand of the economy into a new alternative economic and

political strategy

To offer help or if you have any queries about the Communist Party’s trade

union policy and work, please email: [email protected]

http://issuu.com/communist_party/docs/international_bulletin_ttip_may_201

http://issuu.com/communist_party/docs/international_bulletin_ukraine_may_

mailto:[email protected]


Younger Member Development

Solidarity Fund

Whether you are a member of ours or not, you can help the Communist

Party in its campaign to renovate involvement and activity of younger people

in the trade union movement. Young Worker Students do not have to be

members of the Party or YCL to be eligible for CP Trade Union Training.

We have just held our first ever successful Young Workers' Residential

Weekend School. Most of those attending were in low wage and unstable jobs.

The event focused on training to become involved in union branch activity, or

how to organise a workplace, to get involved in committee and conference

work. We aim to hold more of these events. Can you help fund our next

school?

We have set up a special Solidarity Fund to help younger trades unionist get

better involved, for example by funding their attendance as part of our Unity!

bulletin distribution team at union conferences. That way, militant younger

trades unionists can get to go to the many fringe meetings, mix with veterans,

and even sit in as visitors at their union conference and learn the ropes.

Give what you can to our Solidarity Fund on a regular basis by completing

the form overleaf. It doesn't matter how little or how much - everything given

this way by you will be ear-marked purely for the foregoing use.

Make a few quid a week contribution to help train young

comrades by signing up to our Solidarity Fund.

Or make a one off donation - £100 will get a young activist to their

union conference and put them up whilst they give out copies of our

trade union bulletin, Unity!


Please pay: Unity Trust Bank plc, Nine Brindleyplace, 4 Oozells Sq, Birmingham

B1 2HB. Sort code 086001 Account Number 20092959

£ each week/month until further notice

and debit my account number

Bank sort code

Starting on (date)

Signature

To: The Manager (Your bank name and address)

Postcode

Please fill in and return to CP, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd, Croydon CR0 1BD

Bankers Order Form

Name

Address

Postcode

New pamphlets from

the Communist Party

From each according to their means ISBN 978-1-908315-08-3

by CP Economics Commission

This hard hitting discussion pamphlet deals with the

essential tax reforms which should be featured in a

left progressive programme, including: radical

proposals to tackle tax evasion; restoring fair rates

of corporation tax; introducing an innovative

alternative to existing property and council taxes

with one based on the actual value of land; and the

introduction of an annual wealth tax aimed at the

super-rich.

EU withdrawal - the people’s answer to

austerity ISBN 978-1-908315-33-5

by John Foster

CP international secretary puts the case that the

social gains won since the Second World War are

being wiped out across Europe by the EU and that

EU withdrawal is the answer to austerity, racism and

xenophobia.

The New Scramble for Africa ISBN 978-1-908315-07-6

by CP International Commission

This pamphlet presents a detailed look at the

accelerating impact of imperialist countries across

the African continent as they seek to control natural

resources and dominate markets. It also examines

contemporary political developments & movements

of resistance in Southern and Central Africa.

All pamphlets available in A5 (£2) or A4-large

print format (£3) + £1 p&p.

Send orders (Cheques/PO payable to “CP”)

to: CP Shop, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd

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thinkglobally readrevolutionary

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Online at

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Printed & published by the Communist Party

ISBN 978-1-908315-35-9

Morning Star incorporating the Daily Worker - for peace and socialism

daily paper of the left

trade union bill & how to kill it

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