WHAT HAPPENED TO THE 'LEFTS' PROMISES? THE TUC SELLS OUT HOSPITAL WORKERS

WITH THOUSANDS of hospital workers still bitterly hol their strike struggle against the Tory government's pay union leaders have completely abandoned the battlefield in of the fight.

Prime responsibility for this capitulation to the Tories rests with the TUC General Council and particularly with the Communist Party which has consistently provided Hugh Scanlon and Jack Jones with a 'left' cover while these gentlemen avoided • carrying out TUC policy.

Their do-nothing tactics virtually invited the Tory government to move in and destroy the hospital workers' resistance, just as the postmen were defeated two years ago through the TUC's inactivity.

So what did the March 5 special TUC Congress decision to co-ordinate action in support of those unions in struggle against the Phase Two laws mean?

It meant nothing but a piece of mongering which Jones, Scanlon, and pleased to be able to forget about as were out of that spotlight.

And what use were all the fine words of Hugh Scanion, who said that if the gasworkers and hospital workers were allowed to go down to defeat, it would mean the end of trade unionism as we know it? They were of no use except to allow Scanlon to continue the pretence of being a 'left'.

Totally implicated in this refusal of the TUC leaders to carry out Congress policy and come to the aid of the hospital workers are the leaders of the hospital workers themselves.

Alan Fisher, general secretary Union Public Employees (NUPE), the largest union involved, and colleague of Scanlon and Jones on TUC leading committees, has all along defended Feather's do-nothing tactics.

In nearly seven weeks of hospital strikes and six weeks since the special Congress decision, the TUC has 'co-ordinated' not one single piece of industrial action, either for the hospital workers or for any other sections in struggle.

CIRCULAR

Half a dozen top-level meetings were held with the alleged purpose of implementing the March 5 policy.

All that resulted was a circular to trades councils asking them to organize demonstrations in support of the hospital workers and new appeals were sent to Health Minister Sir Keith Joseph and Prime Minister Edward Heath to look sympathetically on the hospital workers' 'special case'.

Throughout this farce, Fisher said he was completely satisfied with what the TUC was doing.

The final tearing up of the March 5 policy was proposed by eagerly adopted by reather, Fisher himself and was Jones, and Scanlon.

This was to appeal yet again for special treatment and pledge the TUC to persuade all other left phraseFeather were soon as they Fi ca workers not to make a precedent any favour shown to the hospital workers.

This was tantamount accepting Phase Two on behalf of the whole trade union movement and completely in violation of the special Congress decision.

After announcing the capitulation to the Tories on Sunday, Fisher said how pleased he was with the 'intervention and support they had had from the TUC on such a unique scale'.

The hospital workers have been forced to go cap in hand to the corporatist Pay Board by their own union leaders' miserable surrender.

CONTEMPT

The Pay Board will treat their pleas with the arrogant contempt of a ruling class which has just kicked reformist union bureaucrats into submission.

Bernard Dix, NUPE research officer, tried to cover the rotten sell-out with the following nonsense:

'Going to the Pay Board will allow us to expose the Tories' pretensions of being in favour of the lower paid. We will be saying to the Tory government: put is" money where your mouth The Pay joking. ding out in laws, their strike widens the middle ATNEYS ORTLAKE BREWERY What is involved here is a wholesale retreat by the trade union bureaucracy which now puts the working class into a most perilous position.

The Tory government will now be emboldened into even more vicious attacks - on the workers' standard of living and democratic rights.

CRIMINAL

The Tories' intention is to introduce a fully-fledged corporate state into Britain. The silence of the Communist Party on the union 'lefto, acts of the trade , who are opening the way for this development, is criminal.

The latest outburst from Jack Jones completes the picture:

'We think it is now time to beat the drum and make clear to the world that our British engineering and design is second to none and British workers are still among the best in the world.

'Contrary to the black image CIRCULATION 01-622 7029 Brewery pay that some of our newspapers have given, over 95 per cent of British workers never take part in a strike, and are now playing their full part in increasing Britain's growth rate.

'We are standing four square with management in building a better Britain.

This is the language of nationalistic class collaboration which will speed the establishment of the corporate state in Britain.

CONGRESS

It will be a breeding ground for the most reactionary politics of trade war, followed by a shooting war, which the capitalist class will not hesitate to introduce to save its rotting Jones, Scanlon, Feather and Fisher must be exposed. The special Congress must be recalled to make them account for their behaviour.

NEWS DESK 01-720 FITTERS from the Watney Mann brewery at Mortlake yesterday joined men from Whitechapel and Isleworth in a solld strike claiming that the company is breaking a pay-and-productivity agreement.

This brings the tolal number of brewery workers on strike in London to around 600. Senior shop stewards from the three breweries involved are to meet the company this morning to press their case.

The dispute centres on an agreement signed in the middle of last year covering the phasing out of guaranteed overtime and shift overlaps, and the ending of compensation pay for the change over to shift work.

The agreement was that a working party would be set up to negotiate shift pay. Discussions on extra holidays were also promised.

But the company, the strikers Borking party and quetty forgot about more holidays. When a £2.40 across-the-board payment was agreed on the shifts issue, Watney's referred it to the Pay Board.

Although the dispute appears to be a hangover from the brewerles' 1971.1972 pay negotiations, the strikers fear the Pay Board reference means they will be able to claim no increase this year.

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PAGE 2 Workers April 17. 1979 GHER