New Mandarins of British Labor:
MARQUAND, DAVID
By David Marquand New Mandarins Of British Labor London JUNE 29, 1961, may well he remembered as a turning point in the postwar history of the British labor movement. Without a doubt, it...
...If the unions are not to be outflanked by social change they must organize the new white-collar workers...
...Why did the 99 per cent majority of non-Communists allow themselves to be represented and led by the 1 per cent of party members...
...Morever, the old-style working class, including both craftsmen and unskilled workers, is dwindling...
...As the New Statesman (which has been in the forefront of the battle against the Communist bosses of the ETU) put it: "None of this apparatus has been touched by the judgment which laid it bare, except the key post of general secretary...
...In reaching this decision, Justice Winn dissected the power structure of the ETU with masterly precision...
...First, the case must go to the Court of Appeal, so that even the legal situation is not yet crystal clear...
...The new whitecollar workers spawned by industrial change are quick to absorb the attitudes and prejudices of the old white-collar class...
...As Justice Winn was careful to point out, Communism is not a crime in Britain...
...Rank-and-file apathy may not produce labor racketeers in Britain, but it does enable an organized and determined minority to wield influence out of all proportion to its numbers...
...Manipulation of the union machinery is not the whole answer...
...In Britain, there are no Jimmy Hoffas: Far from being a path to wealth, union leadership is scandalously underpaid...
...Traditionally, the English lower middle class is the most snobbish in the country, and the most bitterly opposed to the traditional forms of trade union activity...
...It will, therefore, be used to the limit to embarrass and to continue the fight against anyone who challenges the effective Communist control of the ETU...
...The tradeunion movement is not as strong as it looks...
...They would have been cut off from their working-class playmates at the age of 11, sent through a so-called "grammar school" and then through a university on public funds...
...Before 1944, this country's educational system was perhaps the most undemocratic in the world...
...Working-class children were effectively denied a chance for an education by the poverty of their parents...
...How is it that a tiny minority of Communists should have been able, for so long, to dominate a great and powerful trade union...
...In the last analysis, the union machine could not have been used so successfully for so long if the majority of the union members had not turned a blind eye to what was happening...
...In the long run, the greatest potential danger to the British labor movement is the educational provisions of the welfare state...
...The leaders of British trade unionism can be forgiven for feeling the same way about the constitutions of their own unions and for feeling piqned when some whippersnapper journalist from outside tells them that they are wrong...
...But, Byrne charged, he had been prevented from taking office by a conspiracy on the part of his opponent in the election, Frank Haxell, and several Communist accomplices...
...No one has suggested that Haxell and his accomplices in the ETU were out to line their own pockets...
...For a Tory majority in Parliament to interfere with the internal workings of the trade unions would be a hazardous, and possibly a suicidal, step...
...Byrne is confronted by an entrenched Communist machine, wily, ruthless and experienced...
...Indeed, another embarrasing question raised by the ETU case is precisely this: Is reform to come from outside, by legislation, or from within the trade-union movement itself...
...Anything that could be made to look like a deliberate attack on the unions might turn the new Conservative working-class voter back to his traditional Labor allegiance...
...The trade-union movement, which can plausibly be regarded as the greatest collective achievement of the working people of this country, has grown stiff with age and success...
...Only 1 per cent of the union members were Communists...
...In 1951, and probably still in 1959, he said, an organized committee existed which had power "to move men in and out of elected positions like pawns...
...On that day, Justice Winn of the High Court pronounced his judgment on the case of John Byrne vs...
...IT IS hard to see how this situation can be changed...
...Even this is not the whole story...
...In no organization in the world, after all, do the holders of power willingly change the system which has brought them to the top...
...They had a perverted, but sincerely held, idea of the interests of their members...
...To judge by the determined rear-guard action put up by the Communist machine since the decision, this is an understatement...
...But it is evident that the sort of easygoing tolerance which allowed Haxell and his friends to treat the ETU as the private empire of the Communist party is one of the things that will have to be changed...
...Men like Bevin and Arthur Henderson were least as able intellectually as the average university graduate...
...However, even the Mandarins of British labor will have to change their ways sooner or later, if they are to keep their power intact...
...But today, Henderson and Bevin would be university graduates...
...In Parliamentary elections, the British Communist party is of negligible importance...
...Each constituent union in the TUC has its own vested interest in the present situation...
...Without a doubt, it was a turning point in the unsavory recent history of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU...
...So far, no one can speak with any assurance...
...A year ago, when the Labor party was prostrate and divided, the Conservatives seemed sure of another term in office whatever they did...
...The Labor party has again become an effective political force, with a chance of winning the next election...
...The legal issues were simple...
...The president of the union is a Communist, as are a majority of the executives, most of the key staff at the central office and most of the divisional officers of the union...
...It is far from evident how this is to be done...
...But the real reason for the influence of the Communist party in the British labor movement is not that the Communists are more ruthless than their opponents: It is that the average union member is apathetic while the Communist minority is not...
...The Mandarins of ancient China were convinced that the system that produced Mandarins was the best in the world...
...The explanation is only too obvious...
...It is equally clear that the case has raised a number of questions about the internal structure and future course of British labor as a whole...
...On the Monday after the judgment he himself said, "We shall be fighting for years yet...
...Second, Byrne is only in office, not in power...
...Hugh Gaitskell's smashing victory over the unilateralist Left-wing has transformed the political situation...
...The union officials, once thought of as part of the collective "we" of the working-class movement seem to be becoming another "they...
...But even so, the Judge thought, "not only was the union managed and controlled by the Communist party, but so managed as to secure the ideals of the party...
...David Marquand, a new contributor to these pages, writes for the Manchester Guardian and other journab...
...The Trades Union Congress (TUC, roughly the British equivalent of the AFL-CIO) is a federation of autonomous bodies, jealous of their independence and liable to explosions of wrath at the merest hint of outside interference...
...In fact, it is becoming increasingly unpopular—unjustly perhaps, but that does not change the fact...
...and no responsible person suggests that it should be made a crime...
...five Communist officials of the ETU...
...Indeed, one sometimes suspects that the patron saint of British trade unionism is not Karl Marx or even Ernest Bevin, but John C. Calhoun, the Southern apostle of states' rights...
...So long as "they" deliver the goods in wage negotiations (which the ETU leadership certainly does), the average union member seems little concerned with the way "they" handle what is theoretically his union...
...The obstacles to reform from the outside are considerable...
...This is not to deny that reforms are needed...
...It is clear, then, that we have not heard the last of the ETU...
...On present form, at least, they would be unable to take up a labor career even if they wanted to...
...In the United States, the apathy of rank-and-file union members has produced picturesque social privateers like Jimmy HofEa...
...Byrne alleged that in an election to the general secretaryship of the union held in December 1959, he had obtained a majority of the votes...
...Yet, although the ETU is an extreme case, Communists are influential in other unions as well—· notably in the giant Amalgamated Engineering Union and in certain geographical districts of the National Union of Mineworkers...
...If the unions are to play their proper part in British society, they must somehow remedy this situation...
...If they are to become cooperative members of the trade-union movement as a whole, the existing unions will need a facelifting...
...The Conservative party has won three general elections in a row because it has managed to convince millions of working-class voters that it is no longer the party of the rich and powerful alone, but of the whole nation...
...The judge found for the plaintiff, ordering that Haxell be removed from the office of general secretary and that Byrne be instated in his place...
...On the surface, the High Court ruling ended a battle which had been going on for several years between the Communist hierarchy of the union and a non-Communist opposition...
...In reality, the battle has hardly begun...
...The chance of reform from within seems even worse...
...This meant that the unions could draw on a vast pool of untapped talent within the working class itself...
...It seems likely, then, that the Government will tread extremely warily, letting sleeping dogs lie until they actually rise up and bite...
...Electionrigging could be made more difficult by simplifying the election procedure, and the redress of injustices could be made easier...
Vol. 44 • August 1961 • No. 30
