THERE was a powerful Workers Revolutionary Party and Young Socialists lobby of the TUC Conference in Liverpool on Monday morning, where delegate after delegate declared full support for the demand that the TUC must call an immediate General Strike to smash the Strikes Minimum Service Levels Act!
Following the lobby, more than 50 delegates and visitors attended a lunchtime public meeting to discuss the issues.
Workers Revolutionary Party General Secretary Frank Sweeney opened the meeting saying that the lobby of the TUC conference that morning had again ‘shown the contradiction between what union members want and what the leadership is doing.’
He continued: ‘Paul Nowak, secretary of the TUC, showed yesterday in his comments on the new Tory anti-union laws, the most vicious in the world, where he stood, when he said he would appeal to the United Nations’ watchdog to condemn these laws as the way forward.
‘This is going nowhere fast.
‘Nowak has called for the Tory government to “equalise capital gains tax with income tax” and for a better windfall tax on the energy companies. These appeals are a waste of time.
‘All the democratic rights of the working class have been won over many years of struggle and sacrifice.
‘Workers were punished with deportation in the founding years of the trade union movement – there has been nothing but a constant struggle between the working class and the ruling class, whether overt or hidden.
‘The new anti-union laws and Public Order Act are being prepared for a showdown with the working class.
‘For more than one year the RMT union has been demanding a pay increase to keep up with inflation, and job protection to maintain safety on the railways, yet there have not been any negotiations worth talking about.
‘£1 billion has been given to the private energy companies by the government to prevent them coming to an agreement with the union. It is clear that this government wants to smash the RMT.
‘Rachel Reeves, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, has laid down Labour’s fiscal rules. So Labour is to carry on with the Tory programme, which leaves workers at odds with the policies of Labour MPs.
‘We have come here to campaign for the TUC to call a general strike as the only way to get rid of this new legislation which aims to build the framework for a police state.
‘Legal challenges and appeals to the UN, are not enough and leave the working class fighting with its arms tied behind its back.
‘It is clear that a new leadership is needed in the trade unions prepared to stand for bringing down the Tories and nationalising the land, banks and major industries.’
Bill Rogers, chair of the Chingford branch of ASLEF, said: ‘The issue of the day is smashing the anti-union laws. There is a consultation for a code of practice to be decided by the private railway companies, to define “minimum service levels”.
‘There have been eighteen months of strikes in all different unions – many with over 90% votes for strike action, e.g. ASLEF, RMT, CWU and in the NHS.
‘What’s driving it is the cost of living, while at the same time the privatised industries, like energy companies, Telecom and Thames water, are making huge profits.
‘Whereas on the London Overground service, we got 6% last year – which is a pay cut; outside of London Underground there have been no pay rises for four years, while food prices, rents and mortgages have soared.
‘The strikes are about pay, but also conditions and jobs, with 1,000 ticket offices threatened with closure. We do need ticket offices, proper maintenance of the railways and proper wages.
‘Nowak’s appeal to the UN is not going to defend the trade unions in Britain.
‘Only the trade unions and the youth can do this, and isolated action cannot do this. We saw this in the miners strike in 1985. The TUC did not call out other unions in support.
‘The Telegraph newspaper recently called the NHS a “socialist time bomb put in place by Clement Attlee”. The move by the junior doctors and consultants to come out together – that alone should be enough to call a general strike.
‘The crisis in education with schools not being able to open because of aerated concrete with a safe life span of only 30 years, reflects the British economy as a whole.
‘Birmingham city council is bankrupt and paying more in interest to bankers on debts the Tories made them borrow, than it does on its services. Capitalism is rotten.
‘A general strike is needed to bring down the Tories and remove the anti-union laws. A socialist government run by workers is required to renationalise rail, telecoms and all the privatised industries. Join the WRP.’
Andy Hudd, ASLEF executive member, said: ‘I know that if a Labour government were elected, they won’t make one bit of decent change. The problem with the trade unions is they are hanging on to the coat tails of the Labour Party far too long.
‘The Labour Party showed under Blair, they didn’t touch a bit of Thatcher’s anti-union laws. We should get socialists in the unions, who would be the best workers and trade unionists. We’ve got to get in there with socialist principles otherwise we’ve had it.
‘Only 12 trade unions out of 54 are affiliated to the Labour Party but the whole union movement kowtows to them. The TUC policy has changed to just calling for a wealth tax.
‘The Minimum Service Levels law has to be defeated. If there is no right to strike, the unions are finished. The only way to fight is to break it. There should be a general strike.
‘The new bill calls for minimum service levels in five sectors: Transport, fire, borders, health and education. But all workers will be affected. The maximum fine is to be £1 million.
‘There needs to be a call for all trade unions, not just those in those five industries, to get involved. The TUC does not see itself as doing that. It sees itself as an umbrella organisation, not as a leadership organisation. The general secretary is more likely to be sitting with the CBI.
‘They don’t have political discussions in the trade unions any more. They don’t tell them about Marxism and exploitation.’
College Lecturer Chris Anglin, UCU Chair of the College of North East London, said: ‘This is not an episodic struggle by one section, but a huge struggle by a huge range of workers in all sections of society.
‘The health service is under attack, as are the railways, the students, the schools and water provision through privatisation. The conditions are here for a general strike.
‘Jeremy Hunt has made clear that the government aims to drive the economy into recession to control inflation. Quantitative Easing, the printing of paper money, has debased the currency, and their solution is to take it out of the working class.
‘For the lecturers, there has been a 0% pay offer for the last two years. The universities and colleges have casualised a large part of the workforce as half of staff are on zero hours contracts.
‘The UCU is conducting a national vote of college lecturers this time, not a college by college vote.
‘The economic crisis is greater than that of the 2008 financial crash. Imperialism has to go to war against Russia and China. They are bankrupting their own economies and have to crush the working class as they set up a war economy.
‘The European economy is being hit by the sanctions on Russian energy. This is a great time to be a revolutionary socialist.’
- Maureen and Lorraine from the Free Julian Assange Campaign joined the lobby of the TUC on Monday morning.
They told News Line: ‘We gave out lots of leaflets to delegates and there was a very positive response.
‘A lot of people asked us where the campaign is at the moment. All we could say was that the unions really have to step up now.
‘The fear is that Julian could be just extradited any day.
‘A lot of delegates said: “The unions have to take action to protect Julian. Why aren’t we doing more?”
‘We understand that a lot of unions have passed resolutions supporting Julian and demanding his release.
‘They must act on them now. We need action now!’
- The UCU (University College Union) also held a rally outside Congress early on Monday morning, where General Secretary Jo Grady announced: ‘This year, despite the further education sector receiving millions more in funding, the Association of Colleges (AoC) has so far refused to recommend any uplift to pay whatsoever.
‘However, a new report by UCU shows that principals increased their pay by four times the rate recommended by the AoC.
‘It is time for us to demand and win not just better pay, but the respect our members deserve.
‘From Wednesday 6th September we have been holding a ballot for industrial action over pay, workloads and to call for binding national negotiations in Further Education (FE).
‘We are urging our tens of thousands of staff in FE to vote YES. UCU has been successful this year in winning locally in FE in England, but we now need to act collectively.’
Communications Workers Union (CWU) General Secretary Dave Ward told the rally: ‘You can’t have principals at the top earning hundreds of thousands of pounds and lecturers on zero hours contracts and taking home little over £20,000. The CWU fully supports the UCU in this struggle. Get the vote out.’
National Education Union (NEU) General Secretary Daniel Kebede told the rally: ‘It is absolutely shameful that workers in further education have not seen a pay rise for so long. We are right behind our colleagues in FE all the way.’
Chloe Field, National Union of Students (NUS) Vice President, said: ‘Students’ conditions are inextricably linked to staff conditions. We really need to stand up in full solidarity with each other.’
Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union General Secretary Mick Lynch told the UCU rally: ‘The issues are the same in every union in every struggle. We have to fully support our colleagues who are defending education.’
Unison union General Secretary Christina McAnea told the rally: ‘We in Unison support our UCU colleagues. We have got our own strikes in further education, plus most of our members send their children to further education colleges.’
