THE General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Frances O’Grady, is to step down after nine inglorious years at the helm of the trade unions, during which time she was pleased to work as closely as possible with the Cameron, May and Johnson Tory governments, and treat the mass of workers with contempt.
She also served on capitalist state bodies, including the Low Pay and the High Pay Commissions, and has been a member of the Court of the Bank of England since 2019.
During the EU referendum she opposed the movement of workers to quit the EU and instead gave full support to the Cameron wing of the Tory Party.
She remained a consistent opponent of the socialist policy of nationalisation, and at the start of the pandemic helped the Tory government draw up its furlough scheme plan instead of demanding the nationalisation of the capitalist economy.
During the pandemic she worked closely with the government on furloughing, which saw workers receive guaranteed levels of income while the capitalist state ran up vast multi-billion debts. This led to sections of the economy being shut down, never to reopen, except on a fire and rehire basis.
She consistently opposed the nationalisation of bankrupt industries, and helped the Tories pile up vast debts that the working class will be forced to pay in the period ahead immediately after her resignation.
She is leaving the movement at a time when the vast indebtedness of British capitalism is revealing itself in savage wage cuts, as prices rise at a fantastic rate with much worse to come.
O’Grady said she will leave her post at the end of the year, with a replacement to be elected at the TUC’s annual meeting in September.
The TUC has called a massive demonstration to Parliament on 18th of June, at a time when inflation will be letting rip and savagely cutting wages, pensions and all benefits for tens of millions of workers.
Workers must now insist that they will not wait till the annual meeting of the TUC for the election of a new general secretary.
There must be an immediate recall conference of the TUC to elect a new leader, and decide on a policy that the mass march and lobby of parliament on June 18th will tell the government that it must implement at once . If not, the TUC will immediately call a general strike to bring the Johnson government down and bring in a workers’ government that will nationalise the banks and the major industries under workers’ management to bring in a socialist planned economy.
There is not the slightest doubt that UK capitalism, as the running dog of the US, is heading into its greatest ever crisis, where its policies are leading to massive international inflation and to a war with Russia and/or China.
The whole of the capitalist world has now been plunged into a massive crisis.
In France, the fascist movement stands on the brink of of office under Marine le Pen. There is no doubt that the French workers will not stand for it, and that France is heading for a socialist revolution.
In Greece, millions of workers are taking to the streets to fight for their jobs, their wages, and socialism.
In the US, the economic crisis is setting the scene for the US to try to turn the war in the Ukraine into a war with Russia to impose regime change there, so as to grab Russia’s oil and gas.
In the UK, the same policy is causing huge and rampant inflation.
The issue of the hour therefore, is the working class building sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in every country to organise and lead to the victory of the world socialist revolution. In Britain, this means rapidly building up the WRP and Young Socialists.
By June 18th, the working class must see to it that a new TUC general secretary is elected, and that when the TUC marches on parliament on June 18th millions of workers will tell the Johnson government that its time is up, and that it must make way for a workers’ government at once, and that this government will carry out socialist policies and bring in a planned socialist economy for the benefit of all.