Workers' Liberty

The CWU has announced the suspension of its industrial action against Royal Mail until 4 September, so that it can take part in talks with management. For the joint CWU-Royal Mail statement, see here.

The fact that Royal Mail has been forced to the negotiating table is a small victory, and a sign of the impact that the postal workers' industrial action (not just the official action, but also the wildcat strikes in Oxford, Scotland and elsewhere) has had. That is no reason to call off the strikes, however. Much better to negotiate from a position of strength, and for the membership to maintain its mobilisation.

Everything that we know about Royal Mail management, and everything we have learnt about their intentions (for instance their leaked plans to slash pensions), suggests that they will remain intransigent. It will be harder to restart the dispute after almost a month of industrial inaction. While having to negotiate is a slight retreat for them, the Royal Mail hierarchy must be relieved at the union's decision. Not only have they managed to get the pressure off, but they will use the time to regroup, strategise and prepare for the next round.

Moreover, it is hardly out of the realms of possibility that Billy Hayes and Dave Ward will use this opportunity to push for acceptance of a bad deal, one which falls well short of most postal workers' aspirations to put management on the defensive and begin to turn the tide of attacks on pay, conditions and the service. Minor concessions on starting times and so on are not a substitute for victories on issues like pay, jobs, workload and pensions, not to mention bigger questions about the way the industry is run.

A retreat by the CWU, in addition, will make cross-public sector action against Brown's pay limit, already stymied by the bureaucracies of other unions, much harder to win.

So what now?

● CWU activists should get prepared now to restart the action. While the suspension is a mistake, it will still be possible to regain the offensive in September. With people returning to work after holidays, businesses gearing up for pre-Christmas commercial activity, and postal workers not having lost money from strikes in August, it will be possible to hit Royal Mail harder than ever.

Meanwhile, postal workers can continue and extend the effective work-to-rule that developed in many places during the strike - starting and finishing strictly on time, refusing to use their own cars for deliveries and weighing post bags to ensure they are within health and safety limits. Such action not only highlights the character of Royal Mail's fewer-jobs, more-work plans for the industry, but can prepare the ground for a powerful resumption of action after 4 September.

● The decision to call off the strikes highlights the need for rank-and-file control of the dispute, and the building of a rank-and-file movement in the CWU. Regular mass meetings in every workplace; committees elected from those meetings; and the building, however long it takes, of national rank-and-file coordinating meetings are what is necessary.

If such a structure were in place now, it would have made it harder for the CWU leadership to call off the action, and would make it much harder for Ward and Hayes to push for acceptance of a bad deal. It would have have meant the possibility of generalising wildcat action against victimisations to the point where an all-out strike became a realistic possibility.

It is not too late: CWU militants who are serious about winning this dispute should take this opportunity to step things up.

● Labour movement and socialist activists must continue to build solidarity with the postal workers. The key thing is to build support groups, collaborating especially with postal workers who want to see the action restarted. Stalls, leafleting, petitions, public meetings, CWU speakers in branches - a vibrant campaign of solidarity will strengthen the position of those on the post who want to continue the fight. (For some examples of support groups, see here and here.) For the same reason, we need the biggest possible turn out for the demonstration in London on 21 August.

● Crucially, we must continue to fight for united public sector action, on the assumption that the CWU is not out of the picture. For more on this see here.

The suspension of the CWU's action is a step back, but that does not mean the struggle is over - far from it.