Socialist Resistance

An archive of socialistresistance.org, 2002–2022

How awkward can they get?

Socialist Resistance no18  |  page 7

This is scanned newsprint, not web text. The original PDFs carried no text layer at all, so every word here was read off the page by OCR. Expect dropped opening letters, run-together words and wrong characters. There was no contents page to cut the paper up by, so the articles were found from the size of their headlines: a headline may carry its kicker, and where an article ran beside a boxed panel a few lines of the neighbour can appear. The scanned issue is the authority; this text is here so the words can be found at all.

with the prospect of an intransigent Labour leadership the majority of the trade union leaders have backed down rather than even follow their own stated agenda, lest it develop in a direction they cannot control.

The debacle of the June elections may have lead to some small changes in Labour's presentation Woodley and co have latched on that to claim a victory that does not exist.

"Reclaiming Labour" was always a smoke screen - Blair

as New Labour's

recent National

Policy Forum in

Warwick has shown he is quite prepared to break the formal trade union link if it were ever to threaten his control of the party - in any case an almost frontation the trade union leadership has, in the main, not got the stomach tor a fight.

All this means that the TUC Congress and Labour Party conference will be strange affairs.

Modest attacks on the government over the EU constitution, on the privatisation agenda and over cuts in the civil service, but underlying acceptance of the need for "sensible politics" in advance of a general election. Two trade unions are put up as exceptions within the awkward squad - the RMT and FBU. The real government relation with the trade unions could be seen in their threats to use Group 4 to smash any further action from the firefighters.

The bitterness of their dispute has meant that the FBU leadership has lost control of its membership and been forced to accept a break with Labour. On page 8-9 Linda Smith explains more about how this has played out.

The situation in the RMT is more complicated. Whilst the union leadership have been prepared to back moves to independent political action, particularly in Scotland with the SSP, Bob Crow remains equivocal on the reclaim Labour front, effectively operating in England within the CPB's framework of supporting elements within the left of Labour.

The RMT refusal to allow its branches to support Respect can be presented as cautiousness over taking a step too far with an unknown party with no track record, but represents a deeper reluctance to commit to developing a new political force. As Bob Crow frequently reminds everyone, the RMT did not break with Labour, Labour expelled the RMT.

Then of course there is Mark Serwotka and the PCS. As a union without a political fund currently, the PCS is excluded from developments like the Warwick meeting