British perspectives 2022 (continued)
All of this is leading the serious capitalist commentators to fear that Britain is going to see major social explosions in the coming months. ‘Is Britain heading for the summer of discontent?’, ‘are we on the cusp of 1970s strike chaos?’, ‘workers’ power on the rise’ are just a few of the recent headlines. Johnson, already badly wounded by Partygate, is very ill-equipped to withstand these coming storms. Attempts to whip up the Tories base via populist anti-asylum seeker policies like the ludicrous Rwandan scheme will not successfully shore up his support. According to a recent ComRes poll only 6% of voters consider him honest or trustworthy, while only 10% say he understands ordinary people. Particularly if the Tories do very badly in the local elections, Johnson’s party could ditch him over the summer. However, they are deeply divided and no faction has an obvious leadership candidate. Sunak now seems out of the running. Firstly, as chancellor he is seen as even more responsible than Johnson for plunging living standards. Secondly the revelations about his wife’s ‘non-dom’ status (probably leaked by the Johnson camp) have done even more than Partygate to drive home that the Tories operate on the basis of ‘one rule for us and another for the rest of you’.
Another factor which may leave the Tories hesitating to wield the knife against Johnson for a while longer is the failure of Starmer to make a decisive breakthrough in opinion polls, leading some backbenchers to hope against hope that Johnson could scrape a victory in the next general election. The ComRes poll quoted above, for example, showed that despite the disdain Johnson is held in, when asked ‘who would make the better prime minister?’ Starmer came out only one point ahead of him. There is currently a deeply ingrained, and accurate, mood among big sections of the working class that none of the establishment politicians represent their interests. Nonetheless, as we have previously pointed out, in the run up to the next general election millions of workers can still decide to vote Labour as the ‘lesser evil’, meaning a Labour election victory remains possible. While some workers would be consciously ‘holding their noses’ and voting to stop the Tories others will hope against hope that Starmer’s New Labour would defend their interests. Those hopes would, however, be shattered by Starmer’s trenchant defence of the interests of British capitalism were he to become prime minister.
It is absolutely clear, however, that there will be stormy struggles between now and the next general election, which will offer opportunities for steps towards a new mass party of the working class. Capitalist commenters discussing prospects for a ‘summer of discontent’ in the coming months tend to comfort themselves with statistics showing the weakening of the trade unions since the 1970s. Then around 80% of workers were covered by collective bargaining. Now the figure is closer to 20%. Increasingly the commentators dimly realise, however, that social explosions are inevitable, whether or not they are organised and led by the trade union movement. Right now the predominant mood appears to be one of sullen anger, with working class people feeling enraged but impotent. At some stage, however, that anger will find an expression in one form or another. If the national trade union leaders fail to act, ‘yellow vest’ type movements could be posed. New outbreaks of social struggles on other issues including BLM, combatting climate change, and opposition to violence against women are also likely.
However, the smaller size of the trade union movement compared to the post-war upswing does not mean it cannot play a central role in the struggles to come. With over six million members, the trade unions potentially have enormous power. At the time of the 1926 general strike – the most important moment in the history of the British working class so far – less than a third of workers were members of trade unions, a broadly similar level to today. The recent RMT strikes on London Underground, which brought the capital to a halt, give a glimpse of the huge potential power of the working class in this era. We have to fight for the workers’ movement to put itself at the head of the battles ahead. The national TUC demo on 18 June has the potential to act as a launch pad for a major struggle against inflation austerity; including national coordinated strike action. Energetically built for, around a fighting programme, this demonstration could draw in wider layers of the working-class that are not currently part of the trade union movement. The left-led trade unions should give a lead in building for the demonstration, and preparing the ground for national strike action on pay, including a discussion on refusing to allow the obstacles created by the anti-trade union laws from preventing effective action.
The potential for a mass trade union-led struggle against inflation austerity is already being indicated by the rash of local strikes are developing as workers fight to combat the decimation of their living standards. In 2022 the TUC has registered the highest number of industrial disputes (300) in the last five years. More significant than that are the protracted and determined character of many of them. A number of strikes have won significant concessions. Unite claims 35 wins in recent months, and the GMB has recorded six. Strikes that have won victories include hospital staff, bin workers, warehouse workers, and more. The level of strike action is still at a relatively low level by historical standards. Nonetheless, the process we predicted – of a certain increase in class consciousness and confidence among some layers of the working class as a result of the pandemic and its consequences, combined with post-pandemic austerity making action a necessity – is beginning to develop.
This is not to suggest that every struggle has resulted in victory. The increasingly determined character of local strikes on the one side reflects the increasingly brutal and determined character of the employers’ attacks on the other. The P&O bosses were so vicious that even the Tory government was forced to pay lip service to opposing their actions, whilst in reality having being tipped off by them about what was coming. The RMT and Nautilus responded to the attack with a series of demonstrations, and are continuing to protest. However, mass blockades of the ports, preferably backing up occupations of the ships –demanding reinstatement of the workforce and nationalisation of P&O – would have been required to inflict a decisive defeat on the company.
The P&O experience is an indication of the kind of militant action which will often be required to inflict defeats on the employers in the next period. The repressive measures included in the Police and Crime Bill, including those designed to make occupations harder, are one indication that the capitalists are preparing for a period of intensified class conflict. While individual strike victories will continue, it is going to require a major escalation of national struggle in order to successfully combat the brutal driving down of living standards which is already under way. As we have described previously, this comes on top of a sustained period of pay restraint since 2008. We can play an important role as a lever in fighting to cohere the workers currently becoming involved in action, often for the first time, into a force which can build broad left organisations which fight consistently to transform the unions into democratic and fighting organisations. Our leading role in the National Shop Stewards Network, which we have to build on, is a major asset to this work. The vital first step, however, is to continue to develop our party trade union caucuses.
Industrial issues cannot, however, be separated from the need for a political alternative. Like Johnson, Starmer has cynically used the war in Ukraine to further strengthen his position, and to push the left within the Labour Party into an even more abject retreat than previously. Prior to the war it was as clear as day that Corbyn would not be allowed to sit as a Labour MP again, and would have to stand outside of Labour if he wished to contest his seat in the general election. Now, however, an extra charge has been added to his list of crimes. According to Starmer, Corbyn would have to disavow the Stop the War Coalition and stop criticising NATO, “unshakeable” support for which he says is now a “very clear requisite” for being a Labour MP.
In reality, the Stop the War statement which Jeremy Corbyn signed, initially alongside eleven left Labour MPs, is extremely weak. It praises the French and German government’s role in the crisis, and calls on ‘Russia and Ukraine’ to ’reach a diplomatic settlement of the tensions between them’ without any indication that the interests of the Russian and Ukrainian working classes are diametrically opposed to those of the capitalist gangsters – the oligarchs – on all sides. Unfortunately, this fits with the mistaken approach of the leadership of the Stop the War Coalition, including Jeremy Corbyn, who tend to look not towards the mass mobilisation of the working-class against wars, and the need for socialism, but instead towards solutions based on capitalist ‘diplomacy’ and ‘international law’. Yet both are part of the framework of global capitalism, and cannot play an independent role from the major capitalist powers.
Nonetheless, it is to Corbyn’s credit that he has not taken his name from the Stop the War statement under Starmer’s pressue, unlike the eleven MP who, when threatened with having the Labour whip withdrawn, rapidly retreated and removed their names. John McDonnell then went further and withdrew from speaking at a Stop the War rally saying that, “My response is that people are dying on the streets of Ukrainian cities. This is not the time to be distracted by political arguments here. Now is the time to unite.” This was a shameful capitulation. The worst possible thing that the workers’ movement could do – both for the working class of the Ukraine and of Britain – is to ‘unite’ behind , which means uncritically support, the capitalist class, including the wing of it in the leadership of the Labour Party.
The 22% vote for Melenchon in the first round of the recent presidential elections in France, despite the weaknesses of him and his electoral formation – France Insoumise – is an indication of the potential mass electoral support for a force to the left of the major parties not just in France, but also here in Britain. While there are many differences between the two countries, the rage against the elites and the big sections of the working class who look to the left are the same in both countries.
Here, however, at this stage that mood has found no expression. The Labour lefts like McDonnell, who have spent five years retreating under the assault of the pro-capitalist right, bear a large part of the responsibility for this. Even after years of retreating, if the eleven had refused to remove their names from the Stop the War petition and had the Labour whip withdrawn, they could have then used their block in parliament to organise on a fighting programme on issues relating to the war – like the right to asylum for Ukrainians and others fleeing wars, but also on domestic issues – demanding nationalisation of P&O and the energy companies for starters.
Despite the vacuum left by retreats of the Labour left, however, important – if small – steps have taken place on the question of political representation since the British Perspectives statement we agreed in January. As we predicted, they have been centred on the trade unions and, especially on Unite. In particular, the ongoing Coventry bin strike has posed the issue sharply. The vicious anti-union character of the Labour council, which has spent far more hiring scab labour than it would have cost to meet the workers’ demands, has led Unite general secretary Sharon Graham to declare that Coventry Unite-member Labour councillors were suspended from the union, and that Midlands Labour candidates would receive no money to fund their election campaigns in May. Starmer’s response has been not only to back up Coventry council but to raise the stakes, declaring that Labour is under “new management”. Building solidarity with the strike continues to therefore be particularly important. Starmer would undoubtedly like to give the new left general secretary of Unite a bloody nose, the workers’ movement needs to do all it can to ensure that it is the council that receives one. Broader political lessons are also being learnt from strike. For many of the Coventry bin workers, the need for the trade union movement to found its own party is now extremely clear. They are not going to be the last group of workers in this period to take part in bitter struggles which make this conclusion extremely clear. Our party, acting together with others in the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, can play a vital role acting as a lever to speed up this process.
In conclusion, the pandemic shook up every part of society, including the outlook of the working class and young people, accelerating the developing anti-capitalist consciousness among many. The war in Ukraine may appear to have given the capitalist establishment some momentary ground to stand on, but its lasting impact will be to increase the mood that capitalism means instability, war, environmental crisis and the impoverishment of the working class. Mass struggle, and growing opportunities to increase support for a socialist programme, will be the most important features of the coming period.
