BY PETE CLIFFORD AND PAUL DAVIES
LONDON - The Communist League in the United Kingdom held
its Sixth Congress here June 26-27. Twenty voting delegates
discussed and adopted political and organizational reports,
as well as electing a new Central Committee. Fraternal
delegates from the Communist League in Canada and Sweden, as
well as the Socialist Workers Party in the United States,
were seated, as was a representative of supporters of the
communist movement in Iceland. Representatives of the Young
Socialists in Iceland, Sweden, and the United States also
attended.
Prior to the congress, members of the Communist League had centered their discussions on "A sea change in working-class politics," the opening chapter of the new Pathfinder title Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium by Jack Barnes, as well as the preface to that book. Both documents discuss the challenge for communists and other fighting workers and farmers to respond to the openings in politics today. In addition League members discussed the preface to the new edition of El rostro cambiante de la política en Estados Unidos the Spanish translation of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions by Barnes. The preface, focuses on the fight for a politically homogenous international communist movement. The delegates at the congress voted to adopt all three.
Reaching towards workers resistance
In the opening report to the congress, Communist League
leader Tony Hunt explained, "We are at the beginning of a
process of change in the working class.... It's a profound
shift in the mood and attitudes of workers, and there is an
increase in workers' resistance." He challenged the
conclusions of a report published by the Trades Union
Congress a few weeks earlier that claimed the number of
strikes in 1998 was the lowest since 1891. "The TUC
misleaders are now calling for more `partnership deals,' "
Hunt said, "because they say the bosses have `nothing to
fear' from the union."
He pointed to the experience of a Militant sales team the previous week to Felixstowe docks, east of London. After a 87 percent vote for strike action by these 1,800 dockers, there was a "combative spirit, the first move toward action in nine years." Although their action was called off, this was not likely to be the end of the story, Hunt noted.
"Responding to this change is more than seeing the need for more sales and discussions with workers," he continued. "It poses the opportunity to be part of these fights, working and fighting together with others."
Hunt pointed to the continued significance of the fight for union rights by 278 members of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) workers who were sacked after a one-day strike at LSG Skychefs at Heathrow airport. These workers led and dominated the 3,000-strong May Day march in the London this year. Two days later 400 people took part in a rally at the Skychefs picket line. Several League members accompanied workmates to join this action. The company has recently agreed to talk with the strikers, but as yet refuses to reemploy them. After initially pulling back from reaching out for solidarity during these talks, the strikers are now organizing to step up the pressure again.
Two delegates at the CL congress who recently started work at the airports described how the Skychefs strike is part of a broader picture in the industry. Aer Lingus workers at Heathrow, for example, are also discussing how to respond to an attack on their jobs and conditions as the company prepares to sell its operation there to Swissair. At the Manchester airport there have been a number of wildcat actions in recent weeks.
At Heathrow, Skychefs strikers are now taking other jobs at the airport while continuing to sustain their 24-hour picket. "This poses an opportunity to work alongside these fighters" to build support and solidarity, explained one delegate. Steps like this can significantly strengthen the union fractions that the League organizes in the TGWU; Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT); and Amalgamated Engineers and Electricians Union (AEEU), Hunt explained.
Delegates at the Congress pointed to other examples of the new openings for communist work in the trade unions. Paul Galloway from Manchester, a member of the AEEU at a tractor plant, reported that 60 of his workmates had signed a protest letter in the last week, after their former workmate Antonis Partsasis had received a court summons from Wigan Borough Council. Partsasis was charged under undemocratic street trading laws for promoting the Militant and Pathfinder books on a Communist League stall in February. Some workers signed the protest letter to register support for his political activity, and others simply to show their support for free speech.
Other delegates pointed to the impact the progress of the nationalist struggle in Ireland is having on the confidence of workers who are Irish living in Britain. Among a delegation of 27 from London to join nationalist fighters defending the Garvaghy Road July 3-4 were several Irish workers. In the previous years, few would have taken this step, fearing both possible state repression and also isolation from their workmates.
The Communist League has to respond to fights where they break out, Hunt said in his summary. He pointed to the importance of recent teams to the Yorkshire coalfields, which could only be done with two branches reaching outwards, as part of a national organization. The team in Yorkshire had higher sales than previous teams to coal miners, indicating how despite the blows these workers had suffered after the 1984-85 strike, their experience of using union power was likely to become important as more fights open up. Deepening contact with this layer of workers means that both branches of the League have to do work in the coalfields.
In the week following the congress, three League members formed a five-day team to Scotland, a few days after the opening of the first Scottish parliament to meet in nearly 300 years. As well as discussing the national question, they went to meet with shipyard workers who are discussing how to respond to redundancy (layoff) threats and also seek commercial orders for Pathfinder books. Hunt explained it is through working with fighters in other parts of the United Kingdom that League members will be able to become part of the resistance and begin changing the work that they do in the union fractions in the cities where the branches are based.
Imperialist occupation of Yugoslavia
A special report was given to the congress by Anne Howie,
who had participated in the three-week Militant reporting
team to the Balkans during the height of the bombing. Howie
explained that the agreement being implemented in Yugoslavia
"registers a major blow to the Yugoslav federation and to the
fight for self-determination of the Kosovar Albanians."
Nevertheless, she argued, this blow has not resolved the
situation and imperialism's quagmire has deepened.
She pointed out the Blair government isn't stronger today coming out of the war. "There is no wave of nationalism, no boost to the ability to drive through attacks against workers here, or in Ireland. Think about what [former prime minister Margaret] Thatcher was able to do after the Malvinas war" against Argentina in 1982. Thatcher "came out of that and won the election and took on the miners. This isn't the same." Howie explained that imperialism has not accomplished its goals in Yugoslavia and that as union resistance continues in the United Kingdom, discussions among working people on the military occupation of Yugoslavia remain wide open.
Several delegates reported on their experiences in the last three weeks on teams in South Wales and Yorkshire meeting working farmers. The impact of the deflationary crisis of world capitalism on these producers has been ruinous; one Scottish paper reported that the average annual income of dairy farmers there was L 47 ($70). Delegates reported that farmers wanted to talk not just about the devastation they face, but were keen to hear how farmers in other countries are resisting the impact of the capitalist crisis. At the same time, the actions organized by farmers in Britain in recent months remained in a nationalist framework, targeting the produce of farmers in other countries rather than the capitalist class in the UK, and as yet there were no attempts by farmers organizations or trade unions to build links in their struggles.
Building the Young Socialists
The second day of the congress spent some time addressing
the error that the League had made by not building and
recruiting to chapters of the Young Socialists over the last
period. In doing this, the League had followed a different
course than its co-thinkers in communist leagues around the
world. Many delegates joined this discussion, pointing to how
this had to be reversed to take full advantage of the
openings today - to not wait for young people to join the CL,
but work to win revolutionary-minded young fighters to the
YS. Delegates pointed to how recent teams in the Yorkshire
coalfield and to meet dockers at Felixstowe had been stronger
through youth being a part of them. "If we don't build the
Young Socialists, we won't build the Communist League," Hunt
said, summarizing the discussion. "If we take young people to
the new lines of working-class resistance and fight to build
chapters of the YS we can build the League through this."
Midway through the congress a Militant Labour Forum was held titled, "Forty years of the Cuban revolution: workers and farmers can follow its example in the UK." Mary-Alice Waters, the editor of New International magazine, shared the platform with Communist League leader Pete Clifford and Young Socialists leader Samantha Kern. Clifford described the openings for communists in the United Kingdom. Kern spoke about the strengthening of the YS as a communist youth organization, and described the summer schools and other activities young socialists and socialist workers are organizing across the United States.
This opening to the program was "the best possible context for talking about 40 years of the Cuban revolution," Waters said. She had participated in the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial team reporting the 40th anniversary celebrations of Cuba's agrarian reform. She said this was "not about something 40 years ago, it was about today and advancing the socialist revolution today in Cuba and around the world." She explained "the Cuban revolution is not about something long ago or far away, but it's about advancing the struggles of workers, farmers, and youth here in the UK and internationally. Its about us acting in such a way that we push forward the development of a real class-struggle vanguard from the strikers at Skychefs, to the Garvaghy Road, to the farmers in Yorkshire and Wales." Waters went on to describe how in this way fighters in Cuba, like participants at the congress, were starting not only with their own reality but with the world reality.
Among the participants at the forum were nearly a dozen supporters of the communist movement who, in response to the openings discussed at the congress, have over recent months extended the time they have contributed to different tasks. Many have been involved in aiding the reprint project of Pathfinder books, others have taken on staffing the Pathfinder bookshop in London. At the forum the speakers encouraged these supporters to join with other fighters in attending the Active Workers Conference to be held August 5-7 in Oberlin, Ohio. Some L 750 was donated at the forum towards a special party-building fund of L 3,000 launched by the League.
Pete Clifford and Paul Davies are members of the TGWU.