* r Notional s
Union members now regularly vote for the most militant option in the hope this will redress the employers' offensive. It is no longer an electoral asset to be a supporter of New Labour - quite the reverse. The importance of these new general secretaries is hard to exaggerate. They are younger, more militant and closer to the rank and file.
They have rejected, to one degree or another, the deadening consensus that has paralysed the trade union movement since the defeats of the |980s. Bob Crow is vilified in the media because he not only represents a new relationship to New Labour, but also a new relationship to the union rank and file.
In the heyday of the pernicious doctrine of social partnership promoted by John Monks (TUC), Sir Ken Jackson and others, those formally to the left of them did not rock the boat. This is no longer the situation.
The defeat of Sir Ken was an earthquake in Amicus: He was Tony Blair's favourite trade union leader and controlled a long established right-wing elecSir Ken was ments to Labour as a protest against privatisation. UNISON, the FBU and the RMT are reassessing their payments.
There was a big response to the Socialist Alliance conference around the question in the spring
These developments pose the Ted for a portical as wel as
industrial alternative. They explain the dynamic behind the Socialist Alliance (SA) and the Scottish Socialist Party. The work of the SA in the unions