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The British TUC (Trades Union Congress) Congress opens up today. NUJ
General Secretary and TUC  General Council member Jeremy Dear spoke to
Socialist Appeal about the tasks and perspectives for the trade union movement

The forthcoming elections in
AMICUS to elect the 48 lay member executive for the newly formed union of
730,000 members will be the beginning of a new era for workers in a whole range
of industries. For many on the left over the years, the prospect of electing a
leftwing executive committee to the former AEEU could only be a wild dream from
which they would have expected to wake up at any minute. Yet the prospect is now
very real.

We live in an epoch of sudden and sharp turns. On Thursday night, as Tony Blair
slept aboard a Boeing 777 bound from Washington to Tokyo, he was rocked by the
news of the death of Dr David Kelly. In a single instant the whole situation was
transformed. The magnitude of these events signifies the
inevitability of resignations at the highest level, so the Prime Minister is
frantically looking around for friends prepared to fall upon their swords in
order to protect their Lord and Master.

This is the leaflet distributed by Socialist Appeal supporters at last
Saturday’s (July 5) Socialist Campaign Group Conference in London. A full report will follow in the next few days.
You can also download
this leaflet in PDF format.

We have reported in many articles the inexorable shift to the left that has
been taking place in the British trade unions. Last year’s move to the left in
the AEEU (engineering workers) general secretary elections has probably been the
most striking episode in this general process. Equally significant was the
change in the TGWU (transport workers) where again the left took the position of
general secretary. The latest development among the civil servants is another
striking example of how deep the process is.

The MSF and AEEU held their conferences last
week as part of the process of fusion into one union, Amicus. A steady move to
the left is taking place. The next step is the battle of the left to win the
executive, after last year’s victory that saw the candidate of the left, Derek
Simpson, elected to the position of General Secretary of the AEEU.

The victory of Tony Woodley as general
secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers’ Union, Britain’s third
biggest union, is a further confirmation of the continuing swing to the left in
the British trade unions. It is also a clear indication of the discontent within
the union rank and file with right wing trade union leaders and the policies of
the Blair government.

This weekend the AMICUS conferences (of the MSF and AEEU, the two unions that have merged to form
Amicus) start in Blackpool. This
document analyses the present situation in the union and also looks at its
history and how the left managed to win the position of General Secretary of the
AEEU – a good insight into the state of the British trade unions as
they steadily shift to the left. It also looks at the tasks ahead for the left
in the union.

A process of radicalisation is taking place among the British engineering
workers (or metal workers). This is reflected in the main union of the sector,
Amicus. The old rightwing lost the position of General Secretary recently. Now
the left of the union is preparing to take a majority on the union’s national
executive committee.