Gareth Bromhall, Swansea Socialist Party and Swansea trades council
Saturday 17 February saw steel towns of South Wales take to the streets in defiance of the multinational company Tata that is choosing to decimate them, and the Tory government that is paying them half a billion pounds to do so. Marches took place in Port Talbot and Newport.
Port Talbot
At least 1,929 jobs in the plant in Port Talbot are at risk, but the unions estimate there could be up to 15,000 more, taking into account contractors and those servicing the workforce, including catering, taxi drivers, barbers and the like. The steelworks is literally and figuratively at the heart of town, and without it only devastation will follow.
The square outside Port Talbot civic centre was filled with union delegations and the local community. Hundreds took part in a short march that filled the main shopping street.
Labour
The rally was addressed by Labour Party politicians and union leaders. Local Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock insisted that the promised £3 billion from an incoming Labour UK government is contingent on the support for the Community/GMB unions’ ‘Syndex’ plan for the future of the steelworks.
This in itself would see hundreds of jobs lost, and has been rejected by Unite the Union, whose own ‘Workers Plan’ offers positive steps toward a green transition while maintaining jobs and steel production.
Vaughan Gething, campaigning to be Welsh Labour leader (and thereby Welsh First Minister), attended both this and the Newport marches, keen to be seen to be supporting the unions which have supported his campaign. But he recently ruled out nationalisation in a Senedd (Welsh government) debate.
Tom Hoyles, GMB Wales and South West political officer, finished his speech with a call for unity between the unions involved and the wider community.
Closing speaker Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, got the most support and applause for the union’s fighting stance. While she described Labour’s £3 billion pledge as “a good start”, she said: “They must do more. Tinkering around the edges is not enough. We want a Labour government. But we want one that is going to make real change!”
But it is essential to call for nationalisation, especially to put demands on the Labour Welsh government, and Keir Starmer, who is likely months from being the next prime minister.
Tata Steel and the UK steel industry must be nationalised under democratic workers’ control and management, with compensation only in the case of proven need, to save the jobs and the community from the decimation of industrial decline. A green transition which maintains jobs, terms and conditions can be achieved, as part of a planned wider economy.
Action
On the eve of the marches, both Community and Unite unions announced plans for industrial ballots, and organising to win these ballots is now essential. Warning strikes, 24-hour stoppages, longer-term all-out action, and tactics such as occupation if necessary, must all be on the table.
The eyes of the working class are on the steelworkers in this moment. It’s not just about the jobs on site right now, it’s about the wider effects, the loss of well-paid skilled work, the loss of virgin steel production, vital for infrastructure, and for the next generation of workers in the town. A win will embolden workers in other industries and show the potential power of the organised working class.
Socialist Party members from Swansea, Cardiff and Bristol, including those involved in the trades councils from these cities, took part in the march, as did representatives of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN).
The Socialist Party’s “Nationalisation Not Devastation” placards, featuring a cartoon by the late Alan Hardman, were popular, and hundreds of those in attendance bought of copies of the Socialist. One steelworker, carrying our leaflet, was overhead telling his partner that it was very important. Several steelworkers and local community members signed up to find out about joining the Socialist Party.
300 jobs threatened in Newport
Dave Reid, Wales Socialist Party
Hundreds of steelworkers from Llanwern, their families and Newport workers marched through the city to defend jobs at the steelworks.
Despite minimal publicity, about 200 joined the march. 300 jobs are threatened at Llanwern as part of Tata’s cutback plans, yet another cut to the works. Before the march, a steel flower was planted for every job set to go, a powerful visualisation of the destruction on the horizon. There was a great response to the Socialist Party’s demand for nationalisation, which was studiously avoided by the Labour Party politicians, who merely repeated that the jobs could be saved if a Labour UK government was elected, without explaining what it would do.
