Build on the Labour surge

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

Labour's surge in the 8 June is a source of huge political hope and inspiration for all working-class people.

The outcome, a Tory government only given a workable majority via the support of the far-right Democratic Unionist Party, is a grim outcome, but an unstable one. Another election, eminently winnable for Labour, is possible soon.

Tube workers should be actively organising to win a Labour government. Only Labour can halt the Tories' plans to end TfL's central government subsidy, which, without sustained industrial resistance from us, will inevitably lead to huge cuts on LU. The Tories want to impose more anti-union laws, further restricting our rights to organise at work; Labour are committed to repealing the Tories' "Trade Union Act".

What can you do? Join the Labour Party! Get active in your local party, get involved with campaigning. Fight for socialist policies in Labour so it continues to raise, and go beyond, the radical ideas in the election manifesto, rather than edging back towards the centre ground, as moderate, Blairite elements within the party (whether privately or publicly) wish and will be organising for. Encourage your workmates to join Labour and get active too.

If you are a member of Aslef, TSSA, or Unite, make proposals in your union branch for what your union should do within the party. Propose that it backs socialist policies, and organises to select candidates who will commit to resisting cuts at local council level.

If you are a member of RMT, propose at your branch that the union requests reaffiliation to Labour. RMT was booted out of the party during the Blair years for the "crime" of backing socialist candidates in elections; now, the only viable socialist candidates will be standing for Labour. RMT campaigned for Labour in the election; now it should throw its weight behind the fight to bolster Corbyn and McDonnell, and win a left-wing Labour government by reaffiliating and getting actively involved in the party. Two RMT branches, East Midlands Central and Derby Rail and Engineering, have passed emergency resolutions calling on the union to request reaffiliation to Labour.

Unless we take advantage of it, this immensely hopeful moment may not last for long. The right will find a way to reassert itself. Any worker who cares about solidarity, justice, and equality should join and get active in Labour, and help push forward the project to transform Labour into a genuinely democratic workers' party that seeks to govern wholeheartedly in the interests of our class, just as the Tories govern in the interests of the rich.

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