01.06.1995

Neither fit for the job

THE TGWU leadership election is being contested by two rightwingers: Bill Morris, the present general secretary, and Jack Dromey, Tony Blair’s choice.

Whoever wins, in theory, will have to carry out the policy dictated to them by the ‘lay delegates’. So does it matter who wins? More pertinently, why don’t the leftwing lay delegates stand a candidate of their own instead of tolerating leaders they do not respect?

In previous times Morris would have been viewed by the left as a typical bureaucrat, but Blair’s rightwing drive has dragged the lesser-of-two evils ‘left’ behind him.

Some, like H E Cartey in a letter to the New Worker (May 26), actually think that Morris “remains a staunch socialist” because he has spoken for clause four and the minimum wage (as he is obliged to do under his union’s constitution). Privately he would be as happy as Dromey to support Blair.

Militant (May 26) writes, “Despite criticisms we have of his leadership, Bill Morris is arguing for a £4 an hour minimum wage.” A policy for continuing poverty, if ever there was one. Still ‘owt’ is better than ‘nowt’ for Militant - and enough to buy its vote. Most on the left follow the same line.

The reason rightwingers can ride roughshod over militants is of course the high level of unemployment. Capitalism cannot sustain full employment, in which a vigorous trade union movement can flourish. Blair’s New Labour is fully committed to that system, but so too was the old ‘socialist’ Labour of Ramsey Macdonald and James Callaghan that most trade unionists still look to for the answer.

Reformist policies aim only to manage capitalism’s production cycle, which causes unemployment. Only the working class can produce for need, not profit, and break out of the cycle. Both Morris and Dromey will sacrifice ordinary people to remain respectable in the eyes of the bosses.

The working class desperately needs to build an alternative leadership to protect its interests. Only a communist party can provide that leadership.

Arthur Lawrence