Alex Smith, Socialist Party member visiting Hungary
Record-breaking crowds packed the streets of Budapest for the city’s 30th Pride event on 28 June after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán attempted to ban the event and threatened legal repercussions for those who attended. Hundreds of thousands turned up in a massive show of defiance, highlighting, the growing determination among increasing layers of Hungarian workers to resist Orbán’s reactionary, pro-big business government.
In the run-up to Pride, Budapest’s opposition-aligned mayor called for a ten-minute public transport slowdown as a gesture of opposition to Orbán’s austerity policies. However, such a brief stoppage could only ever be symbolic and was unlikely to force Orbán and his big business backers into retreat. Orbán and the majority of the Hungarian capitalist class who stand behind him routinely exploit culture war issues to divide their most feared common opponent: the Hungarian working class.
The path forward was demonstrated in 2016 by Budapest’s taxi drivers. Rather than staging symbolic ten-minute stoppages, they carried out sustained strikes against Uber and similar operators. In response, Orbán’s government was forced into a sharp U-turn, rushing through legislation that effectively pushed Uber out of the country at that stage. What drove this reversal was the Hungarian capitalist class’s fear of a repeat of the powerful 1990 ‘taxi blockade’, where four days of nationwide strikes and blockades hit big business where it hurts: in their pockets. The big business-backed government of the day was forced into a humiliating climbdown on fuel price hikes it had imposed on workers.
Similarly, in 2022, a nationwide teachers’ strike, while not achieving its full demands, still won significantly more than the government’s initial offer before the strike began – a fact not lost on Hungarian workers. One reason the teachers didn’t secure their full demands was Orbán’s use of laws akin to the UK’s Minimum Service Levels (MSL) legislation, to outlaw all-out strikes in key sectors.
The UK’s MSL laws were rendered unenforceable in the face of train drivers’ union Aslef’s refusal to comply and defiant strike threats. But in Hungary, Orbán’s pro-big business government calculated that it could get away with imposing harsh strike restrictions on teachers.
9% of Hungarian workers are trade union members. Nevertheless, the trade unions remain among the country’s largest voluntary organisations. They must be strengthened further – and crucially, they need their own independent political representation. A trade union-backed party that directly fights for the interests of Hungary’s working class is essential. The same applies in the UK.
Mass workers’ parties, linking the fight for LGBTQ+ rights with the broader struggle against austerity and for an economy run to meet people’s needs – not big business profits – are a necessary step forward in both Hungary and the UK.
