POSTAL workers are not surprised at the leak which shows that Royal Mail management, with the support of the Brown government, intends to impose its flexibility, casualisation and privatisation plans onto the Royal Mail through smashing the CWU trade union.
Royal Mail boss, Crozier’s ‘Strategic Overview’ outlines plans to fight strikes and achieve management and government aims ‘with or without union engagement’.
Even the extremely passive CWU general secretary Billy Hayes has had to acknowledge that ‘There is no question the document is genuine; what’s more worrying is that Peter Mandelson seemed to know the document quite well.
‘It does seem like an organised attempt to sideline the union. What we need is an agreement to modernise the company with the consent of the workforce. We want an agreement and we want to negotiate with good faith.’
However, it is now crystal clear that Royal Mail does not want an agreement, do not know what ‘good faith’ is, and have decided to impose what they want by taking on and defeating the union and its members.
They intend to batter the CWU and its membership as a warning to every worker in the UK to make the ‘sacrifices’ the government is demanding, or else!
What the membership of the CWU need in this situation are leaders who are in the fight to win it. Leaders who will organise for victory by organising the whole public sector for the fight.
This means that the CWU must bring forward new leaders that at least match Crozier, Mandelson and Brown as far as determination to win is concerned.
The first task is to transform the two day action into indefinite strike action, and to stop paying the political levy to the Labour party.
The next must be to approach the public sector trade unions whose members are all being threatened by the Brown government with wage freezing, mass sackings and privatisation. Amongst these are the civil servants, the firefighters, the prison officers, the local government workers and the NHS trade unions.
A public sector alliance must be formed to bring these unions forward alongside the CWU to organise a general strike to defeat Royal Mail and the Brown government. Our slogan must be ‘An injury to one, is an injury to all.’
Every worker must know that if the government is allowed to defeat the CWU then the entire public and private sector will be next.
As well, the CWU must organise councils of action in all of the areas to rally all trade unionists, and all workers and youth to support the CWU and prevent attempts by the Royal Mail to mobilise strike breakers to break through picket lines.
There is not the slightest doubt that the working class is stronger than the bankers, the bosses and the ruling class. What the working class requires is leadership.
At the essence of the capitalist crisis are the facts that the bosses have lost their right to rule and that their capitalist system deserves to perish and be deposited in the dustbin of history.
The working class must now organise to defend every job and every gain that the working class has made. This means fighting alongside the postal workers to defeat the Royal Mail and the Brown government.
The Brown government must be brought down and a workers government brought in that will expropriate the bankers and the bosses and bring in a socialist planned economy, where production is planned to satisfy people’s needs.
