Workers' Liberty

On Thursday 27 September, the RMT London Transport Regional Council (which represents mainly workers on London Underground) passed a motion for a slate of independent working-class candidates in next year's London mayoral and assembly elections.

This discussion and decision will now be fed back to the RMT national executive, which will take a final decision. Meanwhile, activists in other unions, anti-cuts campaigns and so on should get organised to support and participate in a slate. Already, a group of trade unionists in London has written to Bob Crow supporting the idea: if you would like to add your signature to the letter, email Caroline Russell.

The union's national executive has decided to consult all five of its regional councils that have members in London before making a decision on this issue. The London Transport vote does not necessarily mean that the RMT will stand candidates - but it is an important step in that direction (particularly as London Transport has more RMT members than the other four regional councils put together).

In August, Camden No 3 Underground branch passed the following motion on the initiative of a member of the Socialist Party:

This branch believes that the RMT should draw up lists of candidates to stand in the London mayoral elections and GLA elections in 2008. These lists should be drawn from RMT members, socialists, anti-capitalists, local campaign groups, etc. who are in broad agreement with the aims and policies of our union.

At the next branch meeting, members passed the following amendment, proposed by an AWL member:

To be effective, such a slate would need to
a) Draw in, or at least attempt to draw in, broader forces than just the RMT, by approaching other unions, anti-privatisation and cuts campaigns, tenants' organisations, socialist groups and so on.
b) Develop a manifesto which speaks to the many different issues facing workers, working-class communities and oppressed groups in London, such as education, the health service, housing, a living wage and trade union rights - while of course making the demand for a 100% publicly owned, democratically controlled, integrated and cheap public transport system central. A broad focus will make the challenge stronger.
This branch therefore asks that the union issue a call for such a slate of candidates and approach other unions and campaigning groups in London.

(Neasden branch, which received the text with the AWL bulletin Tubeworker, later passed the same amendment with a preamble.)

At the Regional Council, there was a fairly extensive discussion on the amended Camden motion, with most speakers in favour.

No one argued for backing Labour. Nor did anyone argue for a single-issue, railworkers-only slate along the lines of the Campaign Against Tube Privatisation that stood against the Socialist Alliance in 2000 (see here, particularly the section on the Greater London Assembly).

All those in favour advocated a broad slate - assuming that such a slate can be constructed.

The only opposition came from the SWP and a few people they have persuaded that Respect is the only game in town. An RMT-led slate, after all, would take votes away from Respect. The SWP's Unjum Mirza was even so kind as to suggest that the RMT could sponsor a couple of candidates on the Respect list. It was pointed out that this amounts to a request for the union to supply cheerleaders for Lindsey German, who as Respect's already announced top-of-the-list candidate is the only one with any chance of getting elected to the GLA. The meeting also heard a few home truths about the non-class politics of Respect.

It was clear from the debate that the key issue is working-class political representation. At a time when the last remaining channels for a working-class voice in the Labour Party are being conclusively destroyed, initiatives like this could not be more important. Workers fighting back against Gordon Brown's pay limit, against privatisation, against cuts, need a political voice more than ever - but they won't get it from either New Labour or Respect. In the London elections, it won't be on the ballot paper unless we put it there.

The result was nine branches in favour, four against and two abstentions.