Conference delegate
215 items of discussion, 89 delegates and five days, bringing together first-time and returning delegates, reps and members of all backgrounds – the annual conference of train drivers’ union Aslef in Birmingham was both a melting pot and battleground of ideas.
Aslef is a small union which punches well above its weight when it fights for its members, as it organises train drivers up and down the country.
One thread that ran through the debates was the future of the rail industry under the Labour government’s Great British Railways (GBR). This is not full rail nationalisation under democratic workers’ control and management – which our union must continue to fight for. But the renationalisation of train operating companies as their contracts expire does raise questions about what the future looks like for our members after more than 30 years of privatisation.
There was serious discussion over ‘harmonisation’ and our ‘dignity for drivers’ campaign – our union must fight to ensure pay and conditions in different companies are harmonised up not down, and that we fight for improvements in pay, hours and facilities.
The words ‘socialism’ and ‘working class’ recurred throughout the conference. But the elephant in the room was the Labour government and its austerity policies.
That is, until the political motions, with several concerning our affiliation to the Labour Party. After three hours of debate over two days, a majority of conference voted to keep the affiliation going, with several contributions reflecting that this was not with enthusiasm, but out of concern about the rise of Reform and seeing no current viable political alternative. This debate was timetabled to take place before the contribution by a guest speaker from the striking Birmingham bin workers.
Arguments were made for disaffiliation – and not only on the conference floor. The general secretary Dave Calfe argued in favour of maintaining affiliation, while saying that the Labour Party “needs to be put on notice and something needs to change”.
But the president, Andy Hudd, argued in favour of disaffiliation, stating that the party has abandoned all socialist principles, and that we as a union and movement need to look at a new independent political strategy, to review our potential support for other political parties that reflect our principles and attitudes more accurately.
This reflects the anger, frustration and disappointment growing among a significant layer of our membership regarding political representation.
Conference delegate Kris O’Sullivan spoke in the debate:
“This is not a debate about should we be political – this is a debate about what kind of politics do we want to be a part of, to help build.
“The rot didn’t start with Starmer – we have heard the same arguments for years, pointing to the bare minimum crumbs, and told ‘this isn’t the right time to debate these issues’.
“An acid test should be the record of the Labour Party as an employer. Please comrades, tell me when it is the right time to blacklist, to use fire and rehire, to bus in scabs, to cut wages, to attack reps, to use High Court injunctions, to use the police to break up and intimidate picket lines? I’ve seen that with my own eyes against the bin workers here in my home city – and when the bin reps are here on Thursday, can someone please ask them how much ‘influence’ they felt they had being affiliated to the Labour Party?
“We can engage in political work, inside or outside of any party structure.
“But we could have the freedom and flexibility to support only the best of our Labour allies, and also to engage and work alongside other genuine supporters. The second biggest financial supporter of Corbyn during his Labour leadership campaign was the RMT union – they had control over where their resources went, not disappearing into the campaign pockets of the worst right-wingers.
“That could lay the groundwork for a situation of building a new workers’ party like our forerunners did – all would be options and choices opened to us.
“This is not a purity test, this is having some working-class self-respect. I don’t believe it’s an accident that it wasn’t a West Midlands Labour MP that opened this conference up, as would have been the normal tradition. I asked Jess Phillips MP, when she passed our Snow Hill picket line, if she could join us, and she told me she can’t speak to us.
“Over 100 years ago our forerunners made the decision to help found the Labour Party. They rejected the arguments of ‘lesser evilism’. They were also accused of splitting the vote, letting the worse lot in, ‘this isn’t the right time!’ This is the right time. Reject the dead end of lesser evilism like our founders did, to pick up that torch and fight for a political strategy that we deserve.”
