Workers' Liberty

Make sure you go and vote today. Keep out Johnson and the BNP. Here is what Tubeworker had to say about it a couple of weeks ago.

Ken for Mayor or Boris for Mayor? Voters in London’s mayoral elections face a grim choice on May 1st.

Any Tube workers out there tempted to vote Liberal Democrat in the forthcoming Mayor and GLA election should have a quick gander at LibDem Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick's manifesto on transport. There you will discover that he wants to privatise us!

Tory Mayoral candidate Boris Johnson has unveiled his transport policy, promising a no-strike deal on the Tube.

At last month's Labour Party conference, Gordon Brown took away trade unions' (and local Labour Parties') right to submit resolutions to future conferences. Or rather, the unions gave away their rights - voting for Brown's proposal to gag themselves!

Union resolutions in recent years have been passed by Labour conference, criticising the Party leadership over issues including council housing, privatisation and trade union rights. But rather than build on those successes with a renewed fight for Labour to turn back towards socialist policies and genuine support for working-class issues, the unions vote to give up their right to submit anything at all!

What about the rail unions?

The 2008 Mayoral and Greater London Assembly elections are likely to offer little choice for working class people in London.

For mayor, there will be Ken Livingstone, who proved he'd turned his back on workers when he said that RMT members should cross picket lines - and he's supposed to be on our side!

From Trade Unionists for John

NEWSFLASH . . . NEWSFLASH . . . NEWSFLASH . . .

ASLEF backs John McDonnell

Train drivers' union ASLEF has voted to back John McDonnell as the next Labour Party leader. Their Executive met this week and voted unanimously to back McDonnell.

So Blair's bezzie mate Lord Levy has been nicked. Tubeworker's heart positively does not bleed.

After years of thinking that playing tennis with Tone places you above the law, Lord Lowlife is finally finding out that selling knighthoods for cash is actually illegal.

The council elections on 4 May were a disaster for the Labour Party, but not wholly surprising. As is the norm these days, turnout was low, and there was a worrying increase in support for the BNP in certain areas.

The Trades Union Congress is campaigning for trade union freedom from the shackles of anti union laws. It is backing a Early Day Motion in Parliament, the Trade Union Freedom Bill. (EDMs do not get time to be debated in Parliament, but serve to "flag up" issues). The TUC has made the campaign the theme of the London May Day demonstration.

There is a report on RMT's conference on the crisis in working-class political representation, which took place on Saturday 21st January, in the latest issue of Solidarity newspaper.

Ken Livingstone lines up with management against the unions shocker. (Or Ken Livingstone is management, and does what bosses do?.)

Read reports on his previous anti-union behaviour on the Tube here, a summary of his well dodgy political career here, and more articles about the Not-At-All Red Ken here.

RMT has called a conference for Saturday 21 January, 11:30, at Friends House, Euston, on working-class political representation.