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Alongside the declassified files from 1996-97 that were opened by the @UkNatArchives this week, there was another Cabinet file from 1973 that was also declassified: CAB 301/661 - Request for Briefing on Industrial Subversion
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C17325679
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C17325679
In October 1973, Douglas Hurd, Edward Heath's Private Secretary, wrote to Sir John Hunt, Secretary of the Cabinet, inquiring whether a list existed of potentially subversive organisations existed that could be passed along to industry.
Hurd wrote that he'd been in discussion with Mr Powell, Chairman of Massey Ferguson, which made tractors at several factories in the UK. Powell was worried about industrial action at this factories and sought a list of organisations that could be screened for during recruitment.
Massey Fegurson had been the site of several industrial disputes in the early 1970s and 1973 saw industrial action around the proposed introduction of Measured Day Work at its Coventry plant. See this report from the WRP's Workers' Press from April 1973.
There was also a long-running dispute in 1973 at the Perkins Engines factory in Peterborough, which was controlled by Massey Ferguson. Parity in pay was sought by the workers between the Peterborough and Coventry factories.
Although the dispute had been somewhat resolved by the time of Hurd's letter in October 1973, he wrote that Powell anticipated further action in the new year, with Perkins 'now an obvious target'. Powell sought a list of organisations that could be screened for to prevent this.
Hunt wrote to James Waddell, another senior civil servant, asking whether a list was possible, forwarding this inquiry to the head of MI5 during the 1970s, Michael Hanley.
At this time, the Heath government was facing significant industrial militancy across the country. As @jack_saundrs has shown, the automotive industry in the Midlands was a particular sector and region for industrial action. https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526133397/
We don't have Hanley's correspondence as part of the file, but there were reservations about providing such a list. Waddell replied that a list could open up the government to legal problems and suggested a list that was held by the Economic League.
The Economic League was a right-wing organisation that compiled a list of left-wing workers to be blacklisted from worksites during the 1960s and 1970s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_League_(United_Kingdom)
Robert Armstrong, who was, alongside Hurd, one of Heath's most senior secretaries, replied that the PM was unhappy with the default position given by Waddell/Hunt and thought that Powell was 'too serious a person to be dismissed with a reference to the Economic League'.
Hunt replied that he actually agreed with Heath and suggested that someone like Waddell could brief Powell on 'trouble-making organisations'.
Hunt wrote to Waddell asking if he could provide Powell with an oral briefing, but also suggested Conrad Heron, who was the Permanent Secretary at the Department of Employment.
The final documents in the declassified file indicate that Heron agreed to provide a briefing on subversive organisations to Powell.
In the post-Heath years, Heron would become involved in Lord Carrington's Authority of Government Policy Group, as indicated from this file from the Margaret Thatcher Archives. https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111392
This declassified file is small but indicates that the Heath government sought to work with industry to combat the trade unions and 'subversive' activists in the workplace in the early 1970s, bringing in both the security and civil services.
I will be writing this up as an article during the week. Subscribe to my Patreon to read it when it’s available! https://twitter.com/evanishistory/status/1296806966006706176
