Alex Gordon, President, RMT and TUSC candidate, GLA elections, photo Paul Mattsson
Alex Gordon, President of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), explains why a vote for TUSC is important.
“As we prepare to celebrate International Workers’ Day on 1 May, my union RMT is preparing to defend jobs and safety across the railway industry.
On 3 May we have the opportunity to vote for candidates who share RMT’s values of demanding an alternative to privatisation, liberalisation and a race to the bottom in workers’ pay and conditions.
TUSC candidates include RMT members Daren Ireland in Liverpool Central, Mick Tosh, Portsmouth Copnor, Paul Reilly, Nuneaton and Bedworth Camp Hill, and David Goodwin, Rugby Hillmorton.
In addition I am standing as a candidate for TUSC on the London-wide list for the Greater London Assembly alongside RMT’s London Transport Regional Organiser, Steve Hedley.
All TUSC candidates are standing on a manifesto of total opposition to cuts, privatisation and the outsourcing regime supported by all the three main political parties and also by the Green Party where they are in office.
No one voted for austerity. No one voted for NHS privatisation. No one voted for tax breaks for millionaires and benefit cuts for disabled people.
Most working class people in Britain today want a radically different society than the only one they are offered by the Labour Party and the Con-Dems.
We want to give our families a future where they can rely on quality free healthcare from cradle to grave and with access to the highest levels of education for all.
On Thursday 3 May you have a chance to put down your marker to say you want the alternative to start in your town or city.
I hope that you will consider doing so by voting for a Trade Unionist and Socialist candidate to build a mass political opposition to the attacks on working class people and communities and to fight for a better future.”
Transport union RMT members working for Tubelines in London Underground (LU) are to strike for 72 hours from 4pm on 24 April.
Around 1,000 workers voted by 4:1 to strike because they are not included in LU’s pension scheme and they do not receive the same travel concessions as other LU workers.
The union has been calling for these measures to be granted since the takeover of Tubelines by LU after the failure of the tube privatisation project. Tubelines is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London.
