The Working Class in Britain

Submitted by Anon on 1 May, 2003 - 11:49

by Alan

"What has the labour movement got to do with students? What have a load of old Trade Unionists out for a peceful walk on MayDay got to teach young anti-capitalists about radicalism and direct action?"

To many people on this year's May Day demo these questions don't even need answering. Last year, almost all the media coverage focused on the "anarchist travelling circus" - the direct action activists who, we were told, were busying themselves plotting to smash up every shop in central London, behead Winston Churchill's statue with Samuri Swords and eat babies served with humous and organic rye bread.

Actually, I made that last bit up. Actually, the media made the whole thing up, but you get the idea.

The establishment was scared, but not, it seemed, of the nice 'family day out' contingent of the Trade Unions with their assorted paper-sellers, placards and "ONE TWO THREE FOUR" chanting.

In most other parts of the world people are active in Trade Unions as the best tools to put demands to authoritarian governments and bosses. Last week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of demonstrators outside a clothes factory that had been held for more than a year by employees seeking to to keep it from closing.

In Britain also, Trade Union labour movement has a long history of inspiring struggle and internationalism. In the 1980's the NUM, the miners' union, almost brought down the Thatcher government. Today, the Firefighter's union, the FBU, is putting pressure on the government for fair pay for firefighters, and against cuts. Trade Unions organise active solidarity for people across the world, from sweatshop workers in Indonesia to setting up 'Ethical Threads', selling clothes made by unionised workers in the Third World.

This doesn't seem as dramatic as what is happening in Argentina. Why is this?

Blair boasts that Britain has the most restrictive anti-Union laws in the Western world. In this country, there is no right to strike. For a strike to be declared legal, a ballot has to take place under rules determined not by the union but by the government. These rules are designed to make it as difficult as possible to get a yes vote. Workers can only take industrial action over so-called trade or contract issues. CWU members, for instance, can't actually strike over decisions to privatise parts of the industry as this is considered political. Workers can only take action against their own employer, so Royal Mail staff can't come out in defence of cleaners.

Strikers can only set up a picket line outside their own place of work, so if the employer moves the work elsewhere, hard luck! In any case, picket lines are limited to six and it is illegal to try to prevent someone from crossing.

This means that workers in Britain are restricted as to how they use the best weapon in their arsenal - striking and refusing to work. When workers strike the companies they work for can't make any profits and lose money. This hits the bosses and their governments where it hurts.

Of course, unfair laws can - and should - be broken and changed. But this is only likely to happen if we get involved in Unions and the labour movement. Putting a brick through the window of Starbucks is something to do on a demo, but getting together with Starbucks workers, supporting their right to form a Union, strike and demand more from their bosses is more effective.

This year, something changed that - something reminded those in charge of the days when the Trade Unions talked seriously about bringing down right-wing governments, when they demanded a say in how the country was run, and when they made Cabinet Ministers sweat with fear.

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