15.06.1995

Another stab in the union back

TONY BLAIR made his position on the unions quite clear this week. “There will not be a repeal of basic elements of the legislation in the 1980s,” he told the GMB conference, referring to the Tory anti-trade union laws. “What is required is not to redress power between one side of industry or the other, but a fair framework of law based on the essential rights of the individual at work.” The unions will be kept at arm’s length, not courted like the City.

The unions which founded the Labour Party are now content to be treated like any other pressure group, according to John Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB. “Fairness, not favours” is all we ask.

Blair can afford to be arrogant. To those who believe that the most important task facing the working class is getting the Tories out, he is the answer and his critics are the problem. So much so that John Edmonds could only reply: “The guiding principle for the labour movement in the run up to the next election must be: say something useful or bite your tongue and shut up.”

The Labour Party is, and always has been, a reformist organisation with total loyalty to the British capitalist state. Ken Livingstone has now grasped this reality: “Labour is best led by an ideologist with a firm set of beliefs from either wing of the party ... Blair is the most rightwing leader Labour has ever had.” (The Guardian June 12)

He concludes: “We may therefore find to our surprise that Blair could yet deliver a Labour government of which socialists could be proud if he is prepared to take on the vested interests of the City.”

By which he means: get City speculators to invest more in British industry. This view - that what socialists really need is a dynamic capitalist economy - is at the heart of Labourism and trade unionism alike.

A trade union movement based on the long-term interests of our class would be a very different beast from what we have today. And a genuine revolutionary party will be far removed from those pathetic ‘revolutionary’ tail-enders who pin their hopes on ‘left’ Labourism.

Arthur Lawrence