Action – The Only Language The Government Understands

TUC Congress:

Action – The Only Language The Government Understands

THIS YEAR’S TUC will feature much huffing and puffing by the union
leaders on what to do about New Labour’s assault on workers’ rights and
conditions.

Bill Mullins

The leaders of some of the big Labour-affiliated unions are claiming
that they have got agreement with Blair and Brown on key issues such as
the two-tier workforces in the ex-public sector and changes to workers’
rights, such as not counting bank holidays towards the annual entitlement.

In fact the claim that Labour is listening to the unions is completely
hollow. Union leaders might like to live under an illusion but for their
members the reality is much harsher.

Civil servants face a massive attack on their jobs and conditions.
Brown’s announcement of the sacking of 104,000 civil servants in the
recent public sector spending review was the opening salvo against what
the government considers the last outpost of trade unionism in Britain –
the public sector.

What New Labour have in mind is the dismantling of effective trade
unionism in the public sector, starting with the civil service.

To do this they first have to clear the ground to attempt to isolate
the main civil service union, the PCS.

The PCS have a resolution on the agenda calling for the TUC to oppose
the job cuts. The PCS is leading the way in organising for the first civil
service-wide strike since 1993.

TUC support

This will be a concrete demonstration by civil servants that they are
ready to fight the government plans to wreck the public sector. The least
they can expect from the TUC is to support them and make concrete plans
from the conference for: "before the end of the year, a national day
of protest, including industrial action, a demonstration and lobby of
parliament". (From the PCS resolution to the TUC conference).

The only language that the government understands is action. All the
appeals to be reasonable from the TUC fall on deaf ears. The firefighters
were forced to the brink of national strike action when the government
sabotaged the recent agreement with the employers (see the article in last
week’s paper).

It is clear that the government decided not to fight on two fronts at
once but instead settle with the firefighters so as to take on the PCS.

Labour ministers have long memories of the role of the Militant (the
forerunner of the Socialist Party) in the 1980s and 1990s in battles like
Liverpool and the poll tax. They also understand that we have a leading
role in the PCS, along with other socialists like Mark Serwotka, the PCS
general secretary.

The PCS is the main obstacle to New Labour’s plans to crush all
opposition to their making the public sector ready for mass privatisation.

The so-called awkward squad of trade union leaders is, unfortunately,
lagging behind events particularly on the issue of the unions continuing
to support the Labour Party.

After the much vaunted meeting at Labour’s policy forum (where the
trade unions carry no more weight than a constituency Labour Party) the
union leaders declared that they had forced major concessions from Tony
Blair.

Claim

But this claim was soon dashed by Labour ministers who declared that
"no red lines had been crossed." The CBI later said "they
could live with it". And John Reid, the health minister, immediately
declared that the two-tier pay levels in ex-NHS privatised services would
remain until the unions accept Agenda For Change. (The much-despised pay
proposals that will cut the wages of the lowest-paid NHS ancillary workers
if they go through).

Derek Simpson of Amicus got a rude awakening when he fondly imagined
that his members would rally round Labour after this.

According to The Guardian his appeal to his members calling on them to
support Labour in the June Euro elections was met with a: "flood of
vituperative telephone calls, letters and emails from his members swamping
the union’s headquarters".

Despite the opposition of their own members the union tops are pouring
money into Labour’s election campaign.

The Times reported on 30 August that UNISON has donated £600,000. The
TGWU is expected to do the same in the next few weeks whilst Amicus (no
doubt before the opposition to Derek Simpson’s appeal letter) gave
£500,000 earlier in the summer.

The left union leaders, who were swept to power because the previous
leaderships were seen as "too close to the gaffer", have
enormous authority with the broad mass of trade union members. But this
authority is in danger of being squandered if the left general secretaries
continue to throw their weight behind the Labour Party, which in the minds
of most public sector workers is indistinguishable from the Labour
government.

Attacks

Why, they ask, do you continue to support a party that attacks our
wages and working rights and get nothing in return?

TGWU leader Tony Woodley has put forward a programme that he thinks
would turn back the tide of Blairism and recapture the Labour Party for
the working class.

It includes ending privatisation, re-nationalising the railways, taxing
bank profits to protect pension rights and having the same rights at work
as workers do in Europe.

Every socialist would support the left in the unions’ fighting for this
programme. But we would be forced to say it is unlikely to be put into
practice without an almighty fight with the government and the capitalist
owners of big business.

We would also have to add that without major changes to the Labour
Party conference, it would not even be debated, never mind change the
policies of this pro-capitalist, pro-market Labour government.

By continuing to cling onto the coat tails of a dead Labour Party the
left union leaders are leading their members up a blind alley.

A fighting programme to end privatisation, to defend the public sector
also has to include the political demand for the unions to break with
Labour once and for all and launch a new mass workers’ party.

There is no other way.