Cont'd )
In 1950 the T,.U.C.'s initiative to sustain wage restraint was rejected by Congress: the Union executives which had supported the freeze were rebuked by their National Delegates policies, Already in 1967 the T,U.C. has been led to complain that the Government has actually embarrasse’ it by granting some public service claims in excess of the T.U.C. criteria! © The questionpwhich must be posed at Brighton, therefore, concern the nature of the alternative programme to the Government's policies, Whilst getting the T.U.C. to strengthen its opposition to compulsion, language, the left at Brighton must challenge the profoundly inadequate alternative at present on offer. Some resolutions tabled by Unions for dewate provide opportunities for such a challenge to be expressed, All the incomes policy resolutions are critical to some extent to Government policy. There is not a single one of these pious statements of loyalism so dear to the ears of Lords Carron and Cooper, The T & G resolution stresses the demand for 'minimum wage of £15 a week at current living costs for a normal 40 hour week or less', The N.U.G.M.W. demands equal pay for women as part of any incomes policy, Many resolutions demand the restoration of free collective bargaining, the Boilermakers demanding a complete withdrawl of present Government policy, which is "a negation of democracy", The D.A,.T,.A. resolution draws attention to "the new criminal liability on workers who compel, induce or influence an Employer to improve wages....." The Scottish Motor Men condemn an incomes policy which does not’ control capital snd profits. The question of how profit and capital are to be controlled and curtailed is not faced squarely in any of the incomes policy resolutions, However, two resolutions in another section provide the beginnings of an approach to this problem, The N.U.R. calls for an examination of the question of workers! participation though its resolution is ambiguous and requires scrupulous examination in a debate on the subject. It is disappointing, too, that this is the only resolution on the question so central to an alternative strategy, However, the Post Office Workers resolution on consultation in Public Industries comes close to the sharp edge which this strategy requires. It emphasizes its belief that for industrial democracy to become meaningful to working people, the trade union respresentatives must have access to all the information and data that Management considers it necessary to have before its own decision can be taken. This is an admirable expression of the demand for the opening of the books. The failure of the T,U.C. to get closer than these few approximations to a viable alternative which gives meaning to its radical phrases stems in part from the nature of the T.U.C,. itself, and its leaders' views on how policy is formed and influenced, George Woodcock is fond of saying that he did not think anything important could be decided at Congress and that votes do not matter, It is true, of course, that the rank and file find it difficult to gain access to the rostrum at the T,U.C., but the fact
fOtaE Bs ccewes