More than 1,033 delegates representing just under nine million workers assembled as the hundred and first Trade Union Congress started its proceedings.
This congress followed hard on the heels of the special conference at Croydon. At that conference it was agreed to reject completely the attempts of the Labour Government to legislate penal clauses against the Trade Unions. But at the same time in adopting the policy "Programme for Action" the TUC agreed to police the trade unions and curb the rights of workers to strike. The shadow of these events hung over the entire conference at Portsmouth.
[On] the first day Wilson addressed the conference for forty-five minutes. He started off as if there had been no conflict between the Labour Government and the unions over anti-trade union legislation. He said, "Because we are socialists we are concerned about the individual and the effect on the individual must be the test of our socialist movement. As democratic socialists we are concerned to strengthen the basic political and constitutional liberties which our people have won by the extension of economic democracy." He went on to talk about the necessity to restrict wage increases; in particular equal pay for women must be delayed. He said, "The elimination of injustice in our wages system means not only a fair deal for women at work. That is why we have now decided to make a reality of a policy on which congress has repeatedly pressed and which the government accept - the policy of equal pay for equal work. But it will be clear to every delegate present that progress on this must be based on restraint in incomes policy generally."
He then stressed the need for the TUC to carry out disciplinary action against unofficial strikers. His speech was met with an extremely cool reception by the delegates.
The reaction to Wilson's speech was the result of a number of factors. Part of the hostility was caused by his attempt to introduce anti-trade union legislation. But his talk about inflation and incomes policy was seen as referring to the white paper to be introduced at the end of the year. This threatens to bring in a wage freeze and legislation limiting women's demand for equal pay, by phasing it over a number of years.
The reaction of the delegates can be more easily understood if it is borne in mind that the conference took place against a background of growing unemployment and an assault on the standard of living of working people by the government. [On] August 20 the Sunday Times read: "Partly through [the] activities of the government agencies like the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation but also the harsh facts of Britain's present economic situation, redundancy is sweeping the nation".
Unemployment is hitting railways, mining, steel, agriculture, docks, and plants like English Electric, GEC. In fact unemployment is now nearly [illegible]. The economic review from the National Institute states through 1970 unemployment will leap 10,000 a month rising to 750,000.
The Wilson government is pushing policies of rationalisation which are leading to mergers and closures, giving rise to unemployment. It is pushing productivity deals which are leading to greater exploitation of the individual worker Sunday Times, Sep 10: "Indeed the productivity per man year has leapt from an average of about 2,599 in the early 1960s to nearly [illegible] since 1966." This is the basis of the growing conflict between the mass of workers, above all those in the trade unions, and Harold Wilson's government.
In other words, the coolness of the delegates to Wilson and some of the discussions such as incomes policy, represented indirectly the growing class antagonisms taking place nationally. Railwaymen's Union leader Sidney Green spelled it out: "The biggest worry of trade unionists is the way in which output and employment have been adversely affected by the methods which the government has adapted to get the balance of payments right".
GROWING MILITANCY OF WOMEN WORKERS
The next day, in contrast to Wilson's speech, the Congress called on the government to act immediately on the principle of equal pay for equal work. Women delegates spoke militantly for equal pay now. Shirley Envicknap, speaking for the Greater London Council Staff Association said that of the 8,750,000 women workers in Britain only about 11% were on equal pay. Large sections of women workers took home less than £6 after deductions - "Nothing less than slave labour".
It is important to note that TUC membership rose by over 100,000 in the last year and a large section of this was made up by women workers. The facts speak for themselves: although there are over eight million women workers, 55% of them take home £10 or less; by contrast under [90%] of fully employed male workers earn less than £15 a week.
GROWING GULF BETWEEN LAB. GOVERNMENT AND TRADE UNIONS
The Labour Government and the General Council of the TUC received a slap in the face when the delegates voted by a majority of 445,000 to abolish the Prices and Incomes Board as well as legislation [on] wage restraint. The vote represented partly a vote against anti-trade union legislation by way of a wage freeze, but even more so the action illustrated the growing gulf between trade unions and the Labour Government.
This vote reflected in a distorted way much of the frustration and hostility building up in the working class generally. The recent Ford workers' demand for a 35% increase - £10 a week - must be seen to have some connection with Scanlon's speech.
What must be recognised when drawing up a balance sheet of the TUC Conference is the dual character of the leadership of the Trade Union Congress, its coolness to Wilson who threatens the independence of the trade unions from the state, but its willingness to strike blows at the rank-and-file's right to strike, which means lessening the worker's ability to defend his working conditions, thereby leaving the working class exposed to the offensive of the bosses and in particular the Wilson Government.
In response to the Labour Government's offensive and the General Council's proposed strike-breaking activities, revolutionary socialists and trade union militants must attempt to set up united front committees around a principled programme. Two conferences that socialists should participate in are to take place. On October 18 a national meeting will take place of the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions, and later at the end of October there is a London workers Control Conference.
These committees should be built to develop the concept of the political strike along the pattern that gave rise to the May 1st strike. The political strike should be utilised against any attempt by the Labour Government to introduce wage freeze legislation. The committees should be used to promote support for industrial action for women's equal pay now. Committees should be prepared to come to the defence of any group of workers under attack by Wilson's government or the TUC General Council. These committees should be utilised to promote the demand for workers' control in opposition to productivity deals, unemployment, and closures.
DANGERS POSED FOR WORKING CLASS BY TUC CONFERENCE
The Trade Union Congress, while rejecting the Government's white paper, "In Place of Strife", have accepted [the essence] of that policy in their own proposals, "Programme for Action", [namely] that the working class involved in unofficial strikes are responsible for [many] of the economic problems facing the country. They have given the General Council special powers to take disciplinary action against unions in unofficial strikes. They are taking over the role of policing the trade unions and if they are successful they will seriously weaken the democratic rights of workers to determine policies in their own unions. Scanlon and Jones went along with the General Council, and it must be said that the authority that they have built up in the eyes of workers in passing many of the left resolutions at Portsmouth will put them in a much more effective position in giving the General Council a left cover when it moves in against workers' rights.