Communists @ Unite Conference 2010
Unity to defeat ConDems This conference takes place at a time, when there is no possibility of our union influencing government policy, except by supporting and leading mass action against attacks on our members. Unquestionably, the biggest task ahead is to mobilise unity across the union and the movement in face of the biggest onslaught against working people to come in over seven decades. Shouldn’t the Parliament of the biggest union in the country discuss how Labour lost 5 million voters over the lifetime of three governments? The Communist Party has always supported the Labour Party. Not always on its immediate policies, that's true. But Communists back Labour on the basis that it is unique. It is the only party established by trade’s unionists to defend their members in parliament. It was set up with the specific aim of defeating the kind of legal action that saw the main railway workers union in 1901 massively fined. This was the Taff Vale case and it established that unions could be liable for loss of profits to employers when they took strike action. The Trade
Disputes Act, which came out of this, laid the basis for union expansion across the 20th century until the anti-union laws introduced by Thatcher turned back the clock. New Labour allowed matters on this front to worsen. Things have got to change but Britain’s unions still need a mass workers’ party to represent their interests. But New Labour’s record over 13 years of government calls much into question. Over the course of 13 years, New Labour openly defied the interests and policies put forward by trade unions; they attacked the movement they purported to represent, imposing cuts on public services, flogging vast swathes of the public sector off. They consistently opposed any intervention to preserve or extend Britain’s manufacturing base, which has allowed the decimation of our productive economy to continue. They instead, placed their faith in gambling, speculation and unsustainable economic policies that benefited the city and fat cat bankers. Then New Labour threw billions at the banks, instead of taking them over
properly. Bankers, city spivs and monopolies have reaped super profits none of which has found its way into the public coffers. But the key has always the anti-union laws and the ‘flexible’ labour market that came out of that. Under Blair and Brown’s stewardship we have actually seen a worsening in the anti-union laws. New Labour watched on while the law was twisted to weaken workers’ rights; judge-made law has become the norm, just as at Taff Vale in 1901, that has allowed the likes of Willie Walsh to undermine not only industrial action but also to seek to destroy our union, sack activists, and set up a scabbing organisation. Far from condemning Walsh and BA for their tactics, New Labourite ministers lined up alongside them in this attack on our members. We doubt that, as a result, many cabin crew - and maybe other Unite members eagerly dashed out to the polling booths to vote Labour. Now, however, Unite needs to pull out all the stops to give maximum support for the Cabin Crew – their fight is ours!
Continued Overleaf
The outcome of the general election represents a real challenge to working people. 13 years of New Labour privatisation and war will now be replaced by the one thing that we can categorically say is worse – a Conservative government. Because that is the reality of the situation; LibDems or no LibDems, this government will be Tory through and through. It is working people who will bear the brunt of this government’s policies– as workers but also as service users, in their own communities. The only thing that stands between the ConDem government and its destructive agenda is the trades union movement and the wider working class. Over the coming months and years, we will need to build the strength and unity of the movement to withstand the attacks that we will face. The recent rulings on Unite and RMT disputes at BA and Network Rail show the lengths to which employers will go to prevent unions from taking action to defend their members interests.
Work must begin now to build the kind of movement which can not only respond to the ruling class offensive but which can put forward an alternative set of policies Continued Overleaf