[page 4]
As previously pointed out in Scottish. Socialist the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement is to hold a Scottish Conference in Stirling on the 25th June.
The conference has been sponsored by the Central Federation of Trades Councils and by Stirling & District Trades Council. Individual sponsorship has come from stewards and officers of APEX, AUEW, CPSA, EIS, NALGO, NUPE and the TGWU. In addition support has come from inside the National Union of Students. Amongst political organisations officers of the Kelvingrove Constituency Labour Party, the Stirling branch of the Socialist Workers Party together with the Scottish Socialist League are backing the conference.
The conference speakers will include Alan Thornett of the organising committee of the CDLM, Rowland Sheret of Stirling Trades Council, John Wyles who chairs Stirling & District Labour Party as well as representatives of the Port Talbot, Laird Portch, Grunwicks and Trust House Forte strikes. Needless to say, ample time will be made for other contributions from the
Clearly a major part of the business of the conference will be assessing the results of the struggles of the last few weeks. Time will also be given to a discussion on the problems of democracy in individual unions.
The programme of the CDLM has already been published in Scottish Socialist. This programme was adopted at the National
Conference of the CDLM in Birmingham on March 27th 1977. It covers wage controls, public spending cuts, unemployment, the opening of employer's books, women's rights, racialism, and the problem of bureaucracy inside the labour movement. In other words it is a fairly comprehensive summary of the struggles of worker militants and the demands that come from them.
However, the CDLM is new to Scotland. Instant agreement with its programme will not be achieved even among trade unionists who are highly politically conscious. Moreover, there may be specifically Scottish contributions to be made to the programme — on the multinationals, on oil, and on devolution. For this reason the organising committee has not made agreement with the CDLM programme a precondition of attendance at the conference. They see the main need now as to gather together militants prepared to fight under the main headings of the programme.
The politics of trade unionism are in any case somewhat different in Scotland. Whereas in England the Communist Party organises through the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions to put pressure on the trade union bureaucrats in Scotland they do not have this option they are the bureaucrats. Far left militants in Scotland are not fighting for political clarity inside an opposition dominated by reformists - they are the opposition.
That opposition has taken two forms. The Rank and File movement organised by
the International Socialists (now the Socialist Workers Party), and the loose current associated with motion 17 from the 1975 STUC. The SWP has now turned most of its attention to party building and Rank and File is becoming increasingly less viable as a consequence. While Rank and File should not be written off - to the contrary both it and the SWP are energetic trade union campaigners — it is not likely that a debate producing the clear programme that is needed can come from there.
The aim at this stage has to be to give organisational and political coherence to the "motion 17" current. On June 25th there will be a resolution on activities and it is proposed that a Scottish Organising Committee is elected. It is hoped that this will take us across the first bridge on the road to a socialist opposition - joint action and co-ordination among militants.
This does not mean that the need for a detailed programme can be ignored. And in fact, it is proposed to have a further conference in the autumn to discuss the detailed points of the CDLM programme. In the meantime Scottish Socialist, and hopefully other journals of the left opens its pages to a discussion of that programme.
JANICE MILLS For further information about the CDLM conference contact The Organising Secretary, 18 Carrington Street, Glasgow G4. Tel: 041-332 8728.