Marxism and trade unionism

The lessons about union officialdom

The strike wave is reviving. Why did it sag in early 2023? One big lesson is about the role of union officialdom. After almost 35 years of low strike levels, a strike wave started in June 2022, with workers striving to match wages to prices, especially of food and energy, rising much faster than at any time since the early 1990s. Unemployment was and is low, with bosses hiring anew for post-lockdown expansion, so workers have also sought to reverse the decline since 2008 in real median weekly wages, especially in public services. On the rail, on the Tube, and in Royal Mail, workers have also...

The working-class struggle and union officialdom

A strike wave started in June 2022 as workers strove to match wages to prices, especially of food and energy, rising much faster than at any time since the early 1990s. With unemployment low as bosses hired anew for post-lockdown expansion, workers also sought to reverse the decline in real median weekly wages from economic crash and then austerity since 2008. Public-service wages had declined particularly, being only 1% higher than private-sector wages (for comparable qualifications, age, etc.) in 2022 where they were 7% higher in 2011. On the rail, on the Tube, and in Royal Mail especially...

“How I became a socialist”

Ruth Cashman, who is standing for election to the Momentum National Co-ordinating Group (London region), describes how early-life experiences and reading books made her a socialist, and what socialism means to her. The first of three articles. Part two discusses militant trade unionism in local government. Because my parents were socialist trade unionists — they met on an anti-fascist demo — we always talked about politics at home. We’d talk about the anti-apartheid struggles or Section 28 and many other things. If someone had asked me if I was a socialist when I was six, I would have said,...

What is the “social strike”?

Recent strikes by “gig economy” workers (e.g. Deliveroo) are profoundly significant. They explode the myth, peddled by some on both left and right, that so-called precarious workers can’t organise, and that the proliferation of those types of work is in the process of rendering labour organising historically redundant. Some on the radical left confer a particular significance on these sort of strikes and have coupled them with the notion of “the social strike”. This idea, for instance by the group Plan C, has been put forward as a way to overcome the current weakness of organised labour as a...

Further debate on the "social strike" and workplace organisation

Cautiously Pessimistic's[1] thoughtful reply to my critique of Plan C's "social strike perspective" is very welcome. Many of its themes were telegraphed in an exchanged of comments between me and Cautiously on the AWL website, under my original article (click the link above and scroll to the bottom). I'll try to focus here on issues I haven't already responded to. Their response, and mine, substantially move away from discussion of the “social strike” issue, into a more general discussion of perspectives and strategies. Although the focus is now rather wider, I think the debate is worth...

On the "social strike": a response to Plan C

For a response to this article by the anarchist blogger "Cautiously Pessimistic", click here . For a further response from Daniel Randall, click here . Plan C comrades have told us they also plan a collective response, which we will link to once it is published. Recent strikes by Deliveroo and UberEats drivers are profoundly significant. They explode the myth, peddled by some on both left and right, that workers in the so-called "gig economy" can't organise, and that the proliferation of those types of work is in the process of rendering labour organising historically redundant. Some on the...

Ellen Meiskins Wood (1942-2016): a Marxist who put class centre

Ellen Meiksins Wood, who has died aged 73, was a noted intellectual figure on the international left who influenced several generations of thinkers and activists. Born in New York as Ellen Meiksins one year after her parents, Latvian Jews active in the Bund, arrived as political refugees, Wood studied in California before establishing herself as an academic in Canada, based at York University in Toronto. Her writings were thought-provoking and luminous. She first came to a wide left audience with The Retreat from Class: A New “True” Socialism (1986). This was a collection of her interventions...

The old new

Unlike many who emphasise the novelty of any given period, and insist that some innovative new approach must be adopted, John Cunningham (“It is not ‘business as usual for the left”, Solidarity 366, 3 June 2015) at least has the honesty to admit that he doesn’t know what that new approach is. “I take no pleasure from the comments I make here”, John says, “as I have no alternative to offer.” Honest, but nevertheless frustrating. If John believe socialists must undertake a “radical rethink of just about everything”, it’s no good just saying so. He has a responsibility to at least make some broad...

Marxism at Work: What are Trade Unions?

In the day to day functioning of capitalist society, workers are exploited. On an individual basis workers are weak and cannot fight back against the bosses so we have formed trades unions – organisations where workers combine together to fight for better conditions.

Workers have common interests...

The July crisis 1972: general strike against the Tories?

Following on from an account of the events leading to the jailing of the Pentonville Five in July 1972, and of the working-class movement that freed them, a second article assesses the role of the left and draws out the lessons.

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