WeeklyWorker

13.09.2006

Good riddance, Blair No Brown coronation

McDonnell's campaign should be strengthened with some key demands, says Peter Manson

As Tony Blair attempted to recover from a week that saw him tottering on the brink, trade union delegates preferred to listen in mostly sullen silence at the Trade Union Congress rather than put in the knife.

It was, of course, gratifying that one union - Bob Crow's RMT - walked out just as Blair was beginning his speech. Some RMT delegates shouted at him to go as they walked out, while Aslef and PCSU members held up placards and banners in protest at the brutal occupation of Iraq and murderous war in Afghanistan.

It was equally pleasing that a number of delegates, when Blair was explaining how a large chunk of the world's population unfortunately believed "the threat is George Bush and not islamist terrorism", shouted: "Yes", and others called, "Troops out". Likewise comments about improvements in education and the NHS prompted shouts of "rubbish".

But the truth is that only a tiny minority joined in the protests - a good section of congress applauded him throughout his speech - and the prime minister actually managed to strengthen his precarious position through what most commentators agreed was an astute performance at the TUC.

Blair might have kept in place the anti-union laws and relentlessly pressed ahead with the Thatcherite programme of privatisation, but he knows how to appeal to the union bureaucrats - for all their opposition to those key New Labour policies. He told them that the "brutal truth" was that government is a "hard and difficult business", but it was a "darn sight better than wasting our time in opposition".

In other words, New Labour is hardly union-friendly - the days of beer and sandwiches at 10 Downing Street have long since gone - but think of how much worse the Tory alternative would be. Overwhelmingly the union tops agree, which is why they, for the most part, also want a "stable and orderly transition" from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown.

The problem is, they, like the majority of Labour MPs and councillors, recognise that Blair has gone from being a tremendous asset to an unambiguous liability. While Blair has his heart set on completing 10 years as premier next May, that would be too late for the 2007 Scottish, Welsh and local elections, when another batch of Labour MSPs, AMs and councillors are likely to be booted out.

For that reason most Labour grandees and union leaders want that "stable and orderly transition" to take place sooner rather than later. In the words of Brendan Barber: "It can only be a new leadership that can authoritatively articulate the new vision to inspire and re-energise the government's supporters."

In fact Barber and the majority of union leaders are determined to back Gordon Brown as Blair's replacement despite the fact that the chancellor has made it absolutely clear that there is virtually no political difference between the two - Brown is actually the architect of many of the anti-working class policies for which Blair claims credit and made a point of fully endorsing his Brighton speech.

So the last thing Barber and most of the other top bureaucrats - of right or left - want is a bloody coup or unruly rebellion. That is why the majority of union delegates declined the opportunity to deliver what would probably have been a fatal blow - for example, by drowning his speech in heckles, boos and slow handclaps, walking out en masse or even simply withdrawing the invitation to address congress.

The TUC is prepared to pass resolutions opposing further privatisations and Blair's full-frontal assault on workers' pensions, but without a mass movement driving it to act, it will not go further.

Paradoxically such a move would not have been to the liking of the anti-Blairite Labour left. John McDonnell - the only MP to have officially announced his candidacy in the leadership election (in which the unions will have a third of the votes) - is planning on having the best part of a year to build up momentum for his campaign.

Of course, if Blair were driven out by a movement on the streets, then a candidate like McDonnell would be well placed to take advantage. But a negotiated handover to Brown, conducted behind closed doors - while the working class, including union members, remain inert and disillusioned - would leave Brown with the whip hand.

In the absence of such a movement from below right now, comrade McDonnell must rely on pressure for change building up amongst the union rank and file over a period of time, forcing the bureaucrats to commit to him, or at least compelling those unions not obliged to consult their members to conduct a ballot to decide which Labour candidate to back.

We in the CPGB welcome and critically support his intervention, while fully recognising its reformist limitations. We aim to strengthen his campaign by calling on comrade McDonnell to base it on two key sets of programmatic demands relating to how we are exploited and how we are ruled.

Comrade McDonnell's five vague pledges promise to bring some slight relief to millions of workers (see p8). But we should raise our sights much higher. Workers should not be content with, at worse, a marginal attenuation of the current neoliberal attacks or, at best, a relative amelioration of their conditions as wage-slaves.

We need to hammer home the idea that the only way workers can escape from their life of alienating, exploited drudgery is by taking matters into their own hands. There can be no deliverance from on high.

That means, firstly, that when formulating demands connected to our daily conditions, our starting point must not be what capitalism can afford and the appearance of offering a little more than mainstream politicians. It must be what we need to live a full and decent life in the here and now. So it is totally inadequate to call for an unspecified "increase" or improvement in pensions, the NHS, student conditions, etc.

Our demands must include:

l A minimum wage to reflect the value of unskilled labour-power (currently around £300 per week), with this amount also paid to adults not in work (pensioners, students, claimants).

l The absolute right to join a union and take strike and other industrial action.

l Healthcare free to all on the basis of need.

l Free, 24-hour crèches and full equality for women in all spheres.

However, the McDonnell campaign would be lifted to a quantitatively higher level if it also aimed to challenge our condition not only as wage-slaves, but as subjects of the crown.

We should call for:

l Abolition of the monarchy, second chamber, privy council and the secret state.

l Replacement of the standing army with a people's militia.

l Self-determination for Scotland and Wales in a federal republic; and an independent, federal Ireland.

l Accountability and recallability of all elected representatives.

A campaign based on such lines would represent a real alternative and serve to rejuvenate and renew the whole labour and workers' movement.