Tubeworker is backing Jeremy Corbyn's bid to become leader of the Labour Party, as are all four unions on the Tube. Here, a Tubeworker correspondent relates their experiences of discussing the Corbyn campaign at work.
Having Jeremy Corbyn's campaign for the Labour leadership coincide directly with one of our most intense disputes for years is a bit of a mixed blessing; in many ways the atmosphere at work is more "politicised" than ever, but the scale of the issues at stake does mean it can be difficult to get colleagues to talk about much beyond the dispute itself.
But people are talking about Jeremy Corbyn. I wouldn't say it has "electrified" the atmosphere, but his campaign will soon crop up in any conversation about current affairs or political issues. London Underground mess rooms aren't the Paris Commune or the Petrograd Soviet in 1917, but there is a certain default level of anti-Tory grumbling, of the type you'd probably expect to find in any well-unionised, public sector workplace, but given an extra edge by our comparatively militant culture and the fact that we're perhaps in the Tories' crosshairs more than any other group of workers. Before Corbyn's campaign that grumbling often felt aimless and impotent. Now sentences that might once have just tailed off end with "and that's why we need Jeremy Corbyn to lead the Labour Party!", including from people who aren't necessarily outspoken left-wingers.
The really important conversation is the one that comes after that - what needs to happen if he does; what we should do if he doesn't; the risks associated with putting too much faith in an individual leader; the limitations of Parliamentary politics, etc. But his campaign provides a focus that wasn't there previously. It's given a much more prominent national platform to policies like renationalising the railways, and building more social housing.
The majority union on the job, RMT, was expelled from the Labour Party in 2004 and has been involved in various electoral projects since, none of which have amounted to much. Tubeworker supporters successfully moved policy at RMT's 2015 AGM to commit the union to backing Corbyn's campaign, which has helped raise the profile of the campaign in the workplace. I had a lot of conversations with colleagues which began with them saying, "I got a text off the union telling me to become a Labour supporter and vote for Jeremy Corbyn..." (sometimes followed by "what's that all about then?", but sometimes with "I've seen him on the news, he sounds pretty good!"). It's hugely positive that the other three unions on LU are backing Corbyn too.
A Corbyn-led Labour Party could make a real difference to our struggles at work. It could back our strikes, and help raise the profile of our campaigns for a well-staffed Tube that ensures passenger safety and workers' wellbeing. It could stand with us against the new Tory anti-union laws (a regular topic of conversation since the general election).
Jeremy Corbyn's campaign and his potential victory aren't ends in themselves, but they represent enormous potential opportunities to revive working-class politics, at work, in our communities, and beyond. Those opportunities should be seized with both hands.
