ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the operative meaning of the labels that is helpful to keep in mind the relationship that exists between structure and labour market conditions on one hand, and leadership stands on political questions on the other hand. Ever since Ernest Bevin amalgamated several dock and transport societies to form the T & General Workers’ Union in early 1920s, the outstanding structural feature of this union has been the authority of its General Secretary. To head off statutory control, Cousins had already in 1966 startled some traditionalists by calling for greater power for the General Council to vet wage claims voluntarily. He also later led the 1967 Congress move to reject the Government’s statutory plan and to approve instead the Trades Union Congress’s voluntary plan. In 1966, J. L. Jones, soon to become General Secretary, developed what he called a ‘Socialist approach’ to wages. This was widely hailed in left-wing press as alternative to the Government’s wage control scheme.
