from Charles Van Gelderen
Due to confusion over holiday arrangements this article was received too late for last week's issue. However, we feel that the points it makes are so important that they should be published as widely as possible - Editor. By the time this issue of "THE WEEK" reaches its readers, the delegates to the T.U.C. at Brighton will have recorded their votes on the vital resolution from USDAW criticising the Government for "the creation of a pool of unemploe yed workers", It is possible that this resolution will have been defeated. é It is algo possible thet it would have been carried but for the high-handed action of Lord Carron (he used to’be plain Bill Carron in the days before the Pope and the Establishment decided to reward him for his services to capitalism).
In the latter event, Harold Wilson will have little real cause for ee On paper his government will have received a vote of confidence put Lord Carron revealed his own doubt about the workers' faith in the present leadership of the Labour Party when he refused to allow the A.E.U. delegation to freely decide how to vote on this resolution. , His Lordship and his fellow right-wing leaders in the Labour Movement like to strut the stage and pose as the champions of democracy. How often in the past have they condemned the communists who take their orders from the Central Committee (who, in turn, take their orders from Moscow = or Peking)! Some Unions even bar from office good trade unionists who carry a Communist Party card on the grounds that they are not free agents. Now Carron shows us what a shallow thing his devotion to democracy is. As his swan song, before he gives up the presidency of the A.E.U. he cynically provlains "Carron's law". “I support the Government and so will my union", he arrogantly asserts. In the Fascist era, all over Italy one could see the words "The Duce is always right", Carron dons Mussolini's discredited mantle and tries to impose his one-man dictatorship on the A.E.U. By manipulating the Union's consitution he may get away with it, but the bloc vote which he cast on Wednesday will not represent the views of 1,200,000 members of the A.E.U. One can be sure that a majority of them do not support a policy which has created half-a-million unemployed and depressed the living standards of millions more. The "Sunday Times" talks of “Lord Carron's (unshakeable) loyalty." Loyalty to what? To the individuals elevated to take power through the Parliamentary Labour Party? Or to the principles on which the Labour Movement ” ; founded? ; These are the questions which not only the delegates from the A.E.sU. but all the : delegates assembled at Brighton must ask themselves. "The dilemma of this congress is that we all know the Labour Government should be attacked. But how far can the trade unions go without helping to put the Tories back in power?", Lewis Wright of the Weavers is quoted as saying, If trade unionists remember how and why their organisations came into being and why the trade unions founded.and built the Labour Party there would be no difficulty in resolving this dilemma, The Labour Party was created because the organised workers wanted a political party which would pursue policies diametrically opposed to those pursued by the traditional ruling parties. They wanted a party which would put an end
om « «
to capitalism and all it stood for; a party which would once and for all put finish to the recurrent economic crisis with its accompanying unemployment and depressed living standards. They wanted a party which would build a new society based on social justice and not the exploitation of man by man. That is why Clause IV was written into the Constitution of the Labour Party a why organised Labour refused to allow Hugh Gaitskell to tamper with this CLlaUSC.e By fighting for a policy which will safeguard the interests of the working class and compelling the Labour Government to turn to socialist solutions to the problems of Britain the delegates at Brighton will bring no solace to the Tories. Indeed, they will esure that never again will this country have to endure Tory rule. It is Harold Wilson, Lord Carron and those like them who are working so hard to preserve capitalism who are endangering the Labour Government, After all, if we must have capitalism why not have an avowedly capitalist party to run it? Lord Carron's own union can set a lead. They can make sure that His Lordship is replaced in the leadership of the A.E.U. by a president who will respect the will of his members. A vote for Scanlon now becomes a vote against "Carron's Law",