05.12.2002

Put lefts to test

The bourgeois media has highlighted the accession to power of the 'awkward squad', a group of recently elected leftwing union general secretaries - Mick Rix and Bob Crow of the rail unions, Aslef and RMT respectively; Andy Gilchrist of the FBU; Mark Serwotka of the civil servants union, PCSU; Dave Prentis of the local government and health workers, Unison; Billy Hayes of the postal workers, CWU; and Derek Simpson of the engineering and general union, Amicus. These are the new class warriors, who Tony Blair must take on and defeat if he is to save capitalism, the hack journalists would have us believe. This group does not represent a new phenomenon. It is essentially a historical continuation of the left wing of the British labour bureaucracy. Blair, nevertheless, is worried about its growth, to the extent that he has, with a spectacular lack of success, sought to interfere in union elections and in the anti-democratic manoeuvring of the right wing which has accompanied those elections. Blair's concern has increased, as these leaders have made links with the tiny organised left wing within the parliamentary Labour Party, the Socialist Campaign Group. Launched at a rally in London on July 20, entitled 'After New Labour', the emboldened SCG has embarked upon a national tour, the latest event within which took place in Manchester on November 30. Attended by about 200, of which at least a third were FBU members, the Manchester gathering was opened by SCG chair John McDonnell MP, who, in his first sentence made it clear that this was not a project aimed at creating a new working class party. Rather, it was the beginning of a struggle to reclaim the Labour Party from the clique that took it over in the "coup" after the death of its former leader, John Smith. Outlining the raft of policies that differentiated New Labour from "real Labour" - such as war or peace, privatisation, pension provision, employment rights and relations with the trade unions - he emphasised that the series of rallies was aimed at clarifying a new programme and saying, "Come back to the Labour Party". These opening remarks were endorsed, on behalf of the event's hosts, the Manchester Central Constituency Labour Party, by councillor Kath Fry, who painted a graphic picture of the party's disintegration. Manchester CLP is one of only a few which still meets and campaigns, she told us. Thousands of party members have resigned and Labour voters are in deep disillusionment as a result of the betrayals since the 1997 general election victory. There is a lack of confidence in politics itself. Alternative socialist parties have failed, with working class electors preferring not to vote, or to vote for the far right, rather than support them. There is no viable alternative but to stay in a mainstream, electable party and fight to win as many improvements as possible. By that latter observation, councillor Fry encapsulated the basic flaw of the left reformist approach. The elevation above all else of the electoral and parliamentary process and the consequent need to remain electable means that a symbiotic relationship with, and indeed, subservience to, a respectable right wing must be maintained. Turning to introduce the three union general secretaries who would address the rally and giving the apologies of Dave Prentis and John Edmonds (they were attending a Labour Party policy forum deliberately timed to clash with the SCG event), comrade McDonnell stated that New Labour is provoking hostility with the unions in order to break the union-party link. Blair's current move within this campaign was to try to isolate and defeat the FBU, a tactic which dovetailed with his desire to destroy this essential public service. To rapturous applause, Andy Gilchrist rose to speak. Attacking the press's personalisation of its strike coverage, he stressed that the campaign is being led and run, and would be won, by the membership of the union. He expressed thanks to "the general secretaries and John Monks and to MPs such as John [McDonnell] and Alan [Simpson] for their fantastic support". Offering to reciprocate, he promised that, when he had the time, he would be pleased to add his voice to the campaign to replace New Labour with real Labour. Real Labour needs to be linked to the trade unions and we need to have a debate about the nature of that link, he continued. Underlining the weakness identified by Kath Fry, he worried that, if the link were to be broken, "we would have to find thousands of new foot soldiers to be MPs and councillors". Turning his attention to Blair's declaration of intent to defeat the FBU, brother Gilchrist attacked the former's readiness to spend £1 billion to kill thousands of innocent men, women and children in Iraq, whilst refusing to spend a tiny fraction of that amount on paying the firefighters a living wage and maintaining a decent fire service. The government had finally, through the blurtings of John Prescott, revealed what all its talk about "modernisation" of the fire service meant: ie, 10,000 job cuts, a number equivalent to the entire strength of the fire service of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A "real Labour" government would look at "real modernisation", he said, which would mean a vastly improved, not a drastically cut, fire service. "It is in the interests of every working person that we win - and win we will," he concluded. Three days later, we saw the cancellation of yet another in the series of FBU strikes. The speeches of the two other general secretaries, Mark Serwotka and Bob Crow, were largely turned over to expressions of support for the firefighters and declarations of the similarity of the issues that are being faced by their members and the services they provide. Referring to the unions' relationship with Labour, brother Crow explained that the link he wanted was with MPs such as comrades McDonnell and Simpson, not with rightwing renegades like the ex-RMT member, John Prescott. This is why the RMT had reviewed the allocation of its financial support for MPs and constituency Labour Parties. Ridiculing Blair's assertion that paying the firefighters' claim would lead to economic collapse, he cited the vast sums of public money which were being showered upon the privatised railway civil engineering companies, such as Jarvis. The west coast main line modernisation, originally estimated to cost £2 billion was now going to cost £10 billion, in a bonanza for these privateers, he revealed. Brother Crow ended, however, with a clear expression of his own impotency: "I would love to call out the entire membership of the RMT in support of the FBU, but I am prevented by law from doing so," he declared. This event thus illustrated that the organisational and political weaknesses in our class extends into the left bureaucracy. Nevertheless, the shift to the left that is taking place within the ranks of the trade unions is a significant development that must be engaged with. The lefts must be put to the test, as part of the process of demonstrating to the working class the need for rank and file power and control within our unions and the need for a Communist Party with a revolutionary programme, designed to break not only with New Labour, but with Labourism as a whole. Derek Hunter