Socialist Resistance

An archive of socialistresistance.org, 2002–2022

Break now from bankrupt Blair

Socialist Resistance no31  |  page 2

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.

(From front page) ships' view that Labour no longer, in any shape or form, represents the aspirations of working people.

A previous motion in 2004 was amended to the union's leadership's liking to allow it to interperate this mandate as meaning support for the Labour Representation Committee -the latest initiative from those committed to the impossible task of "reclaiming" the Labour Party.

Despite this attitude of the leadership to "English" politics their actions in Scotland and Wales has been more positive - affiliating to the Scottish Socialist Party and calling for a vote for the party in the General Election, as it did for Marek's Forward Wales.

In discussing the implementation of this year's AGM

Blair: exploiting political

weakness of union leaders motion, the union executive have decided that the conference in January would not set up a new political party, although this would be one of the topics of debate.

But the biggest problem about the conference as it is currently structured is its platform.

The first list of speakers, sent to RMT branches in a circular on December 9 were RMT Secretary Bob Crow, Tony Benn, left Labour MP John McDonell (also chair of the RMT Parliamentary group), the Scottish Socialist Party's Colin Fox MSP, Welsh Assembly member John Marek (from Forward Wales) and Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist. As we understand it, Green Party MEP Jean Lambert has subsequently been added.

Socialist Resistance has no problem with any of the speakers participating - but there is obviously a massive omission. There is currently no speaker from Respect. We think it would be a big mistake if this is not rectified before the conference.

Bob Crow told this year's AGM that he was pleased that George Galloway had been elected in Bethnal Green and Bow rather than Oona King. Put your money where your mouth is Bob - and put George on the London As we go to press, the RMT transport workers union members have voted for a 24-hour tube strike on New Year's Eve and another on the January 8. At issue are job cuts which the union claims will lead to lack of safety and increased dangers for passengers. Several thousand protesters took to the streets