Workers' Liberty

When they finally started to push back the militant trade unionism of
the 1970s, the Tory governments of the 80s tried to screw down the
lid by bringing in laws that fundamentally undermined trade unions'
right to organise and take action. Meanwhile, a wave of
privatisations and bankruptcies swept the British industrial
landscape. Whole sectors of the economy (coal-mines, machine-tools,
docks, newspaper printing, textiles, railways) were shattered and
whole communities destroyed.

The AWL wants unions to campaign for the repeal of all anti-union
laws. But we must also make our union leaders understand that to win
repeal we will have to confront the laws - break them where and when
we're strong enough, and keep breaking them until they're
unenforceable.

We also campaign for a Workers' Charter of positive trade union rights.
Workers' Liberty initiated the first rank and file conference for
union rights after the Blair government came into office in 1997. The
committee formed from that conference then merged into the United
Campaign for the Repeal of the Anti-Union laws, a coalition of
activists from all the major unions.