Labour Party policy is to renationalise Royal Mail. At their conference in 2022, as the strike wave was just starting, delegates passed a motion proposed by the Communications Workers Union (CWU) unanimously.
Royal Mail’s ownership is being transferred from one set of bosses, eager to strip off any profitable bits and attack postal workers’ pay and conditions, to another – the ‘Czech sphinx’ Daniel Kretinsky. What a perfect time for a new Labour government to pledge to take back our postal service and run it for need, not for profit, as soon as they get into power.
Let’s open Labour’s ‘change’ manifesto to check: “Labour will ensure that any proposed takeover is robustly scrutinised and appropriate guarantees are forthcoming that protect the interests of the workforce and customers.”
Ah…
Unions affiliated to the Labour Party give millions in donations, which means they’re able to pass motions like the CWU did in 2022. But if agreed-on policy ends up on the cutting-room floor when the manifesto gets written, what political representation are workers getting out of it?
We need a new mass workers’ party – one with the unions at its centre. With workers having a real democratic say on what it fights for. So it can put front and centre: workers’ rights, nationalising mail, transport, the banks and more, funding our services and taking the wealth and resources off the bosses and putting them in our hands.
