29.10.2009
Post workers and students unite
Building solidarity in Manchester. Chris Brandler reports
Students in Manchester have established a campaign in solidarity with postal workers. It involves comrades from the Socialist Workers Party, Communist Students, the Alliance for Workers Liberty and Anarchist Federation, as well as non-aligned leftwing individuals.
We sent delegations to picket lines last week and will be heading back again this week. Leftwing students are determined that there will be no repeat of Liverpool 2007, when Royal Mail recruited students as casual workers to undermine a strike. Non-unionised casual workers are being used to clear the backlog of mail during the current dispute with the Communication Workers Union - this is most obvious in Dartford and Yorkshire at the moment. The CWU is taking legal action against the use of casual labour during an official strike period, but this alone cannot be relied on.
On October 27 a dozen students helped out for over four hours at a solidarity stall, where we collected money for the postal workers strike fund, and tried to raise awareness and support for their action. In the evening we held our first solidarity meeting at the students union, over 40 people attending. Bruce Davenport spoke on behalf of the CWU. He explained the current situation in Royal Mail and the basis of the current dispute.
Bruce has been working for the Royal Mail for 30 years and seen the value of his pension decrease, despite fulfilling his side of the bargain by paying his contribution every single week. He said that tens of thousands of postal workers are now expected to work more years for a smaller pension. Comrade Davenport said that the support of the students and other trade unionists has been a great help in building confidence in the face of a media campaign against the postal workers and their union.
The train drivers union, Aslef, was represented by Peter Grant, who spoke about how railworkers have managed to fight privatisation and how Aslef and the RMT are now in the strongest position of all of the unions in the UK today. Comrade Grant also highlighted the recent revelation that trade unionists, socialists, ecological activists and all those who are against the current order are now considered domestic extremists. Not since the 1984-85 miners strike has he seen such a clear step towards a police state, which poses a massive threat to our movement and organisations. He said that Aslef is firmly behind the CWU and will offer as much support as possible.
He also spoke of the organisation of illegal sorting offices and the use of casual labour during the dispute. He said that the clever people in Royal Mail planning were attempting to open a scab operation in an ex-mining town in Yorkshire - No-one there would ever scab on us. For the CWU to continue backing the Labour Party was like paying your own executioner and he would be interested in suggestions from the left on who else his union could back.
Peter Grant summed up by saying that the Labour Party had ceased to be a party for the interests of the working class and what was needed was a new working class party that was intent on sweeping away the capitalist system in its entirety.
The third and final speaker was Geoff Brown, secretary of Manchester Trades Council and a member of the SWP. He said that the left needs to relearn how to build solidarity. We have not done a good job of it since the miners strike. Our movement is like a boxer who has been lying down for six months - except we have been lying down for 25 years. He encouraged students and young workers to take up the issue of pensions - even though retirement seems a long way off for many, defending the pension rights for current workers is vital if we are retain them in the future.
There was a wide-ranging discussion that covered topics such as privatisation, bullying, the lessons of the miners strike and warnings about the CWU bureaucracy possibly selling out the postal workers. In closing comrade Brown urged the creation of solidarity committees on campus and in local communities.
We managed to raise £50 for the postal workers strike fund and we are now getting ready to go down to upcoming picket lines. It is an important step forward that the left has united around the strike here and I am sure this is being replicated around the country.
This unity in action has not only built confidence amongst comrades, but has given us a glimpse of the strength that our movement would have if we were united on a serious political basis, which for me means a single Marxist student organisation and a single Communist Party.
If you wish to be involved you can join our Facebook group or email mcrsolidarity@googlemail.com