Unity

From Unity, 5 April 2008

A left-wing programme to unite the British labour movement

by Anita Halpin

At the time of writing, it has just been announced that two thousand jobs will go at Northern Rock. That’s one-third of the work force, predominantly in the north-east of England. The Northern Rock debacle has epitomised how New Labour—whether under Blair or Brown—continues to pursue a big-business agenda.
     The billions pumped into the failing bank would be more than enough to meet the targets of ending child poverty by 2010. At the end of the day the bank was “nationalised,” yet all the “good” mortgages—sufficient to fund the ongoing business—have been allowed to be exported to offshore tax havens. So isn’t it time we returned to our core demand for the control of the export of capital, balanced by import controls, to sustain a domestic economy?
     “Since its election to office, the New Labour government has pursued policies to maximise profits for big business, falsely arguing that this approach would also bring prosperity to working people and their families.”
     This is the opening sentence of the domestic motion drawn up by the Executive Committee for the fiftieth congress of the National Union of Journalists at the end of May.* The title of the motion, “For a left-wing programme to mobilise and unite the labour movement,” indicates our firm belief in the role that trades unions need to play if we are ever to win the Labour Party back to policies that favour working people.
     So, the key question—and the one most often asked—is whether in fact the unions can reclaim the party they founded. We accept that “the credibility of this perspective has been weakened by the disaffiliation of some left-led trade unions and the loss of 200,000 Labour Party members since 1997,” when the Tories lost the general election. But nevertheless, as much now as a hundred years ago, “the labour movement needs a mass party capable of winning general elections and forming a government.”
     Moreover, to continue in office, any such government must deliver policies that meet the aspirations and needs of their core constituencies. New Labour’s credibility to deliver took another drastic knock when they reneged on all the major Warwick proposals, including mandatory pay audits, support for the rights of agency workers, and no privatisation of the Post Office.
     Even more recently, the cynical way New Labour exploits trade union loyalty was blatant last September when the “big four” unions were conned into relinquishing the last vestiges of Labour Party conference democracy. The most shameful part of this sorry episode was the way the plight of the Remploy workers was used in what was blatant emotional blackmail.
     In our view it is therefore essential to insist upon an immediate return to a resolutions-based Labour conference this year. We continue to see the Labour Representation Committee as having a role to play, both nationally and in local communities, with past and current Labour Party members taking part alongside both Labour Party affiliated unions and non-affiliated unions.
     What I find most upsetting is that too many of the TUC-affiliated unions—both the large general unions and the small specialist unions—have never really recovered their confidence after Thatcher’s anti-union policies undermined the unions. (All the more reason to press for a Trade Union Freedom Bill as the first step in the campaign to repeal all anti-trade union laws.)
     Of course there are unions taking on the government—unions like the PCS, the POA, and the NUJ and our sister unions at the BBC, as well as teachers and transport workers, nurses and midwives. However, the unions lack a campaigning leadership at TUC level; at least that is my view after seeing how the General Council all too often draws back from supporting possible co-ordinated joint actions among all unions. It may be a truism, but the greater the unity, the greater the strength.
     Achieving such unity is an essential part of raising the morale of trade union members and achieving what we describe as “reclaiming” the working class to supporting a left-wing political alternative to Brown and his cronies.
     Our second congress motion, “Imperialism and the threat to humanity’s future,” reminds us how the “end of the Soviet Union in 1991 removed what had been the principal barrier to capitalism’s global dominance” and goes on to say that we are now seeing “massive accumulation of capital, the search for new areas for high-profit investment and the drive to further intensify the rate of exploitation” and, of course, marked inter-imperialist rivalries.
     But we are also seeing a revival in Cold War propaganda and anti-communism. No more so now than in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, which is the real reason for the misreporting of recent events in Tibet.
     Together we have successfully fought off anti-communist propositions in the European Parliament, and in our motion we express our solidarity with communist parties and their youth sections facing bans and proscriptions, most notably in the Czech Republic and Hungary.
     Our immediate priorities will be very much the same as those of the CPI, so we reiterate our call for the British government to implement the Good Friday Agreement in full and without conditions that then effectively perpetuate sectarian divisions.
     We continue to warn of the dangers of the EU Reform Treaty and the neo-liberal nature of the EU and its institutions. Our March executive meeting stressed that, while the recent vote in Westminster opposing a referendum was a set-back, the fight must go on, especially within those unions which still rely on a mythical “social Europe” rather than having confidence in their real power, when properly harnessed, at home.
     We oppose Trident replacement and call for the ending of our government’s collaboration with the US on maintaining and developing any nuclear weapons capacity and refuse to host Star Wars sites.
     In the Middle East we demand the end of British military collaboration with the US in Iraq and Afghanistan and oppose any military assaults on Iran. We call for the just settlement of Palestinian demands, in line with UN resolutions, and resolve to make solidarity with the peoples of Palestine a top priority.
     We express our solidarity with Venezuela and Bolivia and our support for socialist Cuba and are already committed to publicise and celebrate the achievements in the fiftieth anniversary year of the Cuban revolution.

*Copies of the congress motions, price £1, are available from the CPB, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD, England. See www.communist-party.org.uk for details of other CPB pamphlets and reprints of Marxist classics.

■ Anita Halpin is a member of the Executive Council of the National Union of Journalists and of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress and is chairperson of the Communist Party of Britain.

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