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unity!
AAD May 2017
Industrial action works
AAD motions considered
UNDErGrOUND NOTES
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hE bALLOT for industrial action towards the end of last year again demonstrated how effective strong trade unionism can be. Issues had built up over the proceeding months with management attempting to ride roughshod over our agreements. A ballot for strike action soon saw all the issues being resolved through the established machinery of negotiation. Discussions around the ballot in the messrooms raised one issue which has, no doubt, grown from seeds planted by management and watered by the Evening Standard. Some drivers seem to be of the opinion that if we go on strike, the company will bring forward plans for driverless trains and we will all be doomed, consigned to history like the Handloom Weavers of old. There are a few things to say on this. Firstly, the history of the working class movement shows time and again the fallacy of this argument. The Notts Miners who scabbed during the strike of 1984-85 did so because they thought they would be OK, they had modern and profitable pits and Thatcher's Government went on a great deal about the 'debt the whole country owes to the working miners of Nottinghamshire.' Within ten years all the pits in Nottinghamshire were gone and the workers on the dole, same as everywhere else. The lesson we can learn from this is that you get nothing for being good little boys and girls. The company won't thank us for not striking and decide to tear up plans for driverless trains. The opposite is true. If they see a docile, meek, divided workforce they will accelerate their plans to decimate our grade. By being organised and united, by balloting and striking when necessary, we extend our time on the front of the train, not shorten it. There has never been more Train Ops than there is now, more people use the Tube than ever before, the economy has never been more dependent on the continual movement of people on the Tube network. Therefore, we remain in as strong a position as ever before, if not stronger. We can all see a time down the tracks when that may not be the case, but right here and now, we have collective strength and industrial muscle. Do we head towards an uncertain future with our heads down, accepting a continuous degradation of our terms and conditions? We certainly do not comrades, no one will thank us for it and we won't add one extra day onto our jobs as Train Ops. Only by realising our collective strength, by being organised and united can we protect our conditions, our pensions and our jobs. Much to the horror of the right-wing media and Tory politicians, we have a decent wage and decent conditions not because the company value our labour so highly but because we and those who went before us fought tooth and nail for them. That fight has to be maintained and this can only be done by a strong, organised trade union movement.
More politics please! FrEIGhT rEDUNDANCIES
exploitative jobs market. It is the free market that means in a time of trouble, hE COLLApSE of Db Cargo the only solution DB Cargo can possibly imagine is to tear up Driver’s terms and was a shocking example of conditions and replace them with a couple the cruelties, inefficiencies and often the sheer madness of the of pages of arbitrary nonsense about hubs, blank rosters etc. It is in this free ‘free market’ especially when it market utopia, where efficiency is comes to the rail industry. The apparently maximised, that depots with FOCs operate in the kind of free lucrative contracts to fulfil and which market lauded by the Tories, their currently don’t have enough Drivers to media and their think tanks. Where TOCS are more like ensure the company fulfil them and must send begging text messages for Drivers to middlemen and merely run the work rest days, are threatened with ‘franchise’ on behalf of the Driver redundancies. This is insanity and Government, the FOCs must bid for contracts in a highly competitive short termism of the highest degree. With climate change emerging as environment, competing with other perhaps the most serious problem facing FOCs and road haulage firms for this and coming generations, it seems example. obscene that politicians adherence to a It is in this free market, where for failed right wing dogma should prevent ideologues of the right, a hidden hand the government sitting down with FOCs, guides the actions of those involved to create a perfectly functioning market place the unions and others and planning how to maximise freight use on our rail with the best results for all involved. In reality however, it is the free market which network and take as many high polluting HGVs off the road as possible. Of course gives us a situation where nearly 400 of the opposite is happening as the debacle our brothers and sisters are being made with DB Cargo all too clearly shows. redundant. Nearly 400 families thrown There are some in our union (and in upon the tender mercies of today’s hyper
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other unions too) who call for less politics. They say there is too much politics in our Journal, there should be more stories about trains and less about our union’s engagement with the Labour Party and the TUC. We say the opposite. We say more politics, more involvement with the wider Labour Movement. We must be, and are, actively trying to defend and improve our member’s terms and conditions. However to make that fight at all possible, we must be active on the political front too. If we are not, if we retreat into our own little bubbles, we leave the ground clear for the free market fanatics to do their worst. The horror show at DB Cargo shows us we cannot allow this to happen. Along with continuously striving to defend and improve terms and conditions, the best way to we can help our members is to engage politically. ASLEF members active at all levels of the Labour Party and the TUC or involved with the wider labour movement, the trades councils, the Communist Party or elsewhere, is the most effective way to influence and change society so the chaos is at DB Cargo is not repeated elsewhere.
hErE ArE several progressive motions at AAD that deserve support. Victoria Line's motion (78) committing the union to participating and supporting events relating to the centenary of the russian revolution is important and ought to receive much support from delegates. The October Revolution was and remains an inspiration to millions of working class people, it had a profound impact on British history and was a beacon for national liberation movements across the globe. The Russian Revolution Centenary Committee will be organising a series of events culminating a day of celebration at TUC House on November 4th. The Committee would be a good place of contact for Branches and Districts should this motion pass. www.1917.org.uk The BEM Representative Committee motion (7) on the lack of diversity in TOCS and FOCs is important and shows how positive it is to have the BEM Rep Committee at AAD raising these issues. Bristol raise an important issue (13) in praising the hard work done by Reps and Officers to protect the jobs and conditions of our brothers and sisters in the freight industry and committing the EC to keep up the fight. Leytonstone and Northern Line North raise important and timely motions regarding the provision of trade union education. It would be a hugely positive step for these three motions to be passed (44, 51, 52). The government is trying to dismantle trade union, adult and working class education. Supporting motions like these are important in organising resistance to this attack. The RMS motions (64, 67) touch on something that is hardly out of the news at the moment and one affecting more and more people. Dignity and care for elderly and sick people should not be a commodity or a vehicle for all manner of cowboy health firms to enrich themselves and their corporate shareholders. Definitely a motion worthy of support.
Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School EDUCATION
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hE MArx Memorial Library and Workers’ School is a valuable resource for the trade union movement. It regularly runs courses (online and classroom based) on different aspects of trade unionism. These courses and the other initiatives run by the Library have never been more important. A number of ASLEF branches are affiliated with activists making use of the opportunities to politically educate themselves. The labour movement needs to support working class education, now more than ever, when we are under such a sustained assault by
the Tories. By this, we don’t mean training reps to deal with individualised procedures, or to use employment law, vital as that ongoing work is. The content of education needs to be shifted to educate citizens to think for themselves and organise to effect change in society. We must rediscover collective power. We, as trade unionists, must learn to think of ourselves as personifying collective power, not individually representing other individuals. It is crucial to teach about collectivism and collective power again. ASLEF’s Political Education Schools are an example of this work in practice, linking trade unionism with wider political movements, educating members in how to be active in the Labour Movement.
The Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School too, is committed to playing its part in the revival of working class and trade union education. The library is a very special place; it was there, at 37a Clerkenwell Green that the International Working Men’s Association met. It was also where Twentieth Century Press printed Marx and Engels’s classic works and where Lenin worked in exile 1902-3 — visitors can still see his office. The library was founded in 1933, on the 50th anniversary of Marx’s death, by a group of British socialists and trade unionists. Ever since, it has collected, published and archived material on Marxism, the working-class movement and trade unionism and making it
available through education programs and facilitating publication and research projects. At the heart of the British Labour Movement for over eighty years, the Library is also home to a unique collection of published and archival sources on related subjects including peace and solidarity movements and the Spanish Civil War The library is imbued with a proud history and sense of place. With the twin goals of fulfilling its self-proclaimed role as a workers’ school and of reaching out to new audiences, the MML has a number of exciting projects underway. It is the perfect time to get your branch and district to affiliate, to support and above all to use this valuable resource. www.marx-memorial-library.org
Star act
Bankers’ Brexit or Peoples’ Brexit? CLASS pOLITICS
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MOMENT of opportunity for popular democracy now exists following last year’s referendum. Whether you voted leave or remain is in the past and no longer now matters. What matters is that we unite to make sure the Tory’s don’t get away with forcing a Banker’s Brexit on us and we get a People’s Brexit and ultimately remove them from office. Although the issue was divisive and split opinion, the ASLEF EC decision to side with popular sovereignty against the anti-democratic EU was the right one and one in which we can be proud. Many who voted remain are rightly scathing of the ‘Brexiteers’ like Farage and Johnson with their racist, divisive campaigning and their dreams of turning Britain into a neoliberal playground (even more so than it is already!). However, we can’t be
motivated by the emotions aroused by the likes of Farage. What we need is a clear class analysis. The neoliberal assault on society, the attacks on our trade union movement, the racist immigration laws etc. were all well underway before last June. The EU has for years now been attacking trade union rights to collective bargaining across Europe. Collective agreements are repeatedly undermined by the appeal to competition law. Even TUPE regulations are under assault in the courts. The Tory’s and southern/Govia tried to break this union and its influence on the rail industry while we were in the EU. The country has suffered repeated waves of de-industrialisation and unemployment, all while in the EU. The EU is not a benign institution that can be won to socialist or even social democratic policies. It is an inherently anti-democratic supra national body that drives the neoliberal agenda. The
examples of this, from Greece, to Ireland, to Spain and here in Britain are now so obvious and so many that the nature of the EU has become clearer to many on the left. Just to focus on our industry, the Fourth Railway Package forces EU countries to ‘open up’ their rail industry to neoliberal market forces. Our rule book bounds us strive for a nationalised rail industry. This simply cannot happen now within the EU. Hard as it may be to see now, through the fog of Tory/UKIP rhetoric from the likes of the Daily Mail, a way has been cleared for socialist policies in Britain. A future progressive Labour government in power will now be able to nationalise key industries and rewrite labour law. Of course, huge challenges remain, not least the Conservative attempts to turn the country into a minimal tax (for the rich and corporations), low wage, minimal regulation economy. But this can and will be challenged. The policies, ideas,
knowledge, campaigns and people are already there. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The Tories can be defeated. However, we voted in June, there are things that we can unite around now. The campaign to save the NHS has the potential to be huge and the Achilles Heel of the government. The Institute for Employment Rights Manifesto for Labour Law has been accepted by the TUC and Labour and contains policies we can unite around to ensure a Brexit that benefits the working class, in all its diversity, including migrant workers. Threats from neoliberal trade deals like TTIP, will now at least be subject to scrutiny from MPs and other bodies including the TUC, not forced through in secrecy like they are within the EU. These are things we can unite around and work towards now to ensure a people’s brexit. H
ASLEF’s proud history of class struggle
OUr hISTOrY
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SLEF hAS a long and proud history at forefront of the labour movement and of class struggle in britain. ASLEF members from the Communist party, the Labour party as well as those from no particular party have at times played a pivotal role in the working class history.
The 1971 Industrial Relations Act was a significant challenge to the freedom and independence of our trade unions. This was met by huge resistance by the labour movement and ASLEF were at the forefront. The Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions (LCDTU) was formed by rank and file shop stewards and activists as a broad organisation to organise and defend rank and file workers and to work with trade
union leaders in opposing vicious antiunion Tory legislation. Waterloo Branch activists, headed by former general secretary Derrick Fullick, were influential in the formation of the LCDTU and its opening meeting were stewarded by activists from Waterloo, Kings Cross and Euston. The LCDTU was instrumental in opposing the Industrial Relations Act and pressuring the TUC to resist the government. After five striking dockers were jailed in 1972 (the Pentonville Five pictured above), the LCDTU organised huge demonstrations and the TUC threatened a general strike to secure their release. The government was forced to climb down, the dockers released and the hated Industrial Relations Act became a dead letter. ASLEF’s solidarity in the Miner’s Strike of 1984-85 was crucial to the ability of the miners to stay out for so long. ASLEF members refused to move coal and respected the miners picket lines. Many ASLEF members came from the same coalfield communities that were under such fierce attack by the government. Members of ASLEF’s EC worked hand in hand with NUM comrades to stop the transport of coal at ports and docks and by non-union lorry drivers. In a hugely symbolic move, a driver refused to move his train past a banner hung over a bridge in South
Yorkshire declaring an NUM picket line. The train was not moved for the duration of the strike and was a symbol of ASLEF’s solidarity with the NUM and commitment to the class struggle raging on at the time. A major weapon in the establishment’s armoury is to steal the history of class struggle from working people, to deny us knowledge of our own history. This very brief outline of just two examples of ASLEF’s involvement in the struggles of the working class should be a source of pride for our union and there are many more such examples. It shows us that whatever battle is won by organised workers, it has to be fought again and again to retain gains made. The shameful practices of privateers like Southern, backed as ever by the government and the media are nothing new. Strong, organised unions like ASLEF are a vital defence for the working class. Politically educated, class conscious trade unionists are central to the struggle. Joining the Communist Party, being active in the Labour Party or getting involved in your local trades council or People’s Assembly are concrete ways you can make a difference within the labour movement, like generations of ASLEF members before.
MEDIA In a media world dominated by the millionaire press and a sycophantic Establishmentminded bbC the Morning Star – the world’s only English language socialist daily paper – is an invakluable daily read for class conscious workers. It was founded in 1930 as the Daily Worker to be the organ of the central committee of the Communist party and in 1948 became a co-operative, the people’s press printing Sociey. It is run by an elected management committee which currently has ten national trade unions in membership. The paper provides day to day coverage of the fight for workplace rights, equal rights and the struggle against austerity. Leading figures in the labour and trade union movement and progressives and peace activists write regularly in the paper. There is a vibrant arts page and the paper’s sports coverage, especially football (including womens’ football), boxing and racing is renowned. The paper’s online edition is proving very popular with busy trade union activists who want and need reliable and informed labour movement news. The Morning Star is on sale at all Co-op Stores, rS McColls and can be ordered at your local newsagent. H
‘The Morning Star is the most precious and only voice we have in the daily media’ Jeremy Corbyn
Daily paper of the left £1 from your newsagent www.morningstaronline.com
Fight for a People’s Brexit
Join Britain’s revolutionary party of working class power and liberation I want to join the Communist party/Young Communist League name address
post code age if under 28
return to Communist party Ruskin House 23 Coombe Road Croydon CR0 1BD e mail office@communist-party.org.uk or call 02086861659 H NHS 2017
The European Union decision – in 2012 – to further reduce permitted deficit levels for all EU countries, has prevented the kind of economic stimulus that would provide more jobs and better public services. As predicted by communists and the left wing throughout the EU it has produced economic stagnation and low investment. Financialisation, and privatisation – which is gripping the NHS – results from the creation of the Single Market and the end to all obstacles to free competition. It has resulted in the destruction of local governmentservices and the increasing privatisation of state-owned utilities from energy and transport to postal services and communications. The 2006 Services Directive has opened education and health and health insurance to the private sector. The 2003 the Pensions Directive directed occupational pension provision to private providers. This has led to a major growth in the size of pension and savings assets controlled by the private financial sector. H
the EU deconstructed Critical voices from Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, Cyprus and Germany
£2 free online at www.manifestopress.org.uk
The EU, Winning a progressive settlement This new Morning Star pamphlet shows how breaking with the European Union opens the way for strengthening workers’ rights.
The EU deconstructed carries five critical voices from within the European Union, from Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, Cyprus and Germany who describe the austerity effect of EU membership.
www.communist-party.org.uk
www.manifestopress.org.uk