THE RMT announced yesterday that the ‘RMT joins the whole nation in paying its respects to Queen Elizabeth’ and that ‘the planned railway strike action on 15th and 17th September is suspended.’
ASLEF announced that ‘We express our deepest condolences to her family, friends and the country.’
It added that in the light of the sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth 11, ‘ASLEF has decided to postpone its industrial action on Thursday 15 September. We express our deepest condolences to her family, friends and the country.’
The CWU had already cancelled its strike due to begin yesterday morning. In the afternoon the TUC General Council decided to postpone its Congress, due to start on Monday September 12th, to a date that is currently unknown.
What in fact has happened is that the established trade union leadership has abandoned the working class to its fate at the hands of a crisis ridden capitalism that wants to drive the working class back to the ‘dark ages’.
However, while it is possible to betray the working class it is impossible to postpone the class struggle. It has to be fought out, and won, or all of the basic gains and rights of the working class will be destroyed.
The TUC leaders must be made to resign and be replaced by a leadership that is prepared to fight to win as far as the living standards and the rights of the working class are concerned, by carrying out a socialist revolution.
History has many lessons for the working class.
We now have Charles III. Charles I was separated from his head by the House of Commons, at a time when it was determined to put an end to feudal restraints that were holding back the developing capitalist order.
Parliament and its forces were led by Oliver Cromwell.
Matters reached such a state between King Charles I and Parliament, that Cromwell declared that he would as soon discharge his pistol on the King as on any private man and that he urged those who were not prepared to do this not to join his forces.
In fact to break the feudal order, Charles I was put in the dock and then decapitated.
Cromwell was clear about what he was fighting for.
He opposed universal suffrage on the basis that the propertyless majority might seize the property of the minority, the property owners and bring in common ownership.
After Cromwell’s death, Charles II was brought back to England, but was not up to the task of developing the capitalist order and was replaced and driven out by William of Orange, who continued to develop the bourgeois order.
Now we have Charles III on the throne with UK capitalism on the rocks, at the end of its road and facing one disaster after another.
This is why the capitalists have discovered the saintly qualities of Elizabeth II, and the TUC has called a truce to assist Charles III onto the throne, without a calamity.
The TUC is attempting to suppress and then betray the class struggle of the working class, which is determined to defend the jobs and the lives of its children.
A TUC Congress just as Charles is about to sit on the throne, would be a huge embarrassment and a danger for Charles III and the bosses, who are terrified that the masses will force the TUC to call a general strike that would bring them down and create the conditions for the working class to take the power, abolish the ruling class and its monarchy and nationalise the banks and the major industries to bring in socialism.
This is why the trade union leaders are stopping strikes, postponing congresses, and instead are honouring the memory of Elizabeth II.
The working class must rapidly teach the TUC that the working class is the boss and reinstate the Congress to its original date.
The Congress must meet and call a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a nationalised and planned economy that will be able to satisfy the requirements of the working class and the middle class. This is the way forward. The TUC must meet on September 12th and call a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in socialism!
