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Issue No. 125 | 22 February 2002 |
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Unfair and Dismal
Interview: If Not Now, When? Activists: Fighting Back Industrial: Croon And Divide Politics: Politics of Extinction History: Harry Bridges: International Labour Hero International: Rats in the Ranks Review: Follow The Fence, Find The Truth Satire: Howard Screws Refugee Kids: G-G Turns Blind Eye Poetry: Let It Be
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review
 Dirty Politics Won't WashTom's FooleryGive Us a Spray!
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International Rats in the Ranks
**************** When the PM stood up at a Labour Party conference this month calling union leaders opposed to his privatisation program 'wreckers' simmering tensions between the wings of the British labour movement were out in the open. The TUC leader, John Monks, who is criticized by a new wave of younger union leaders for being too close to Mr Blair, retaliated to the PM's comments by calling them 'juvenile'. Two of the biggest unions in Britain - the GMB and Unison - have mounted anti-Blair media and advertising campaigns over the government's policy of privatisation of the public sector. On Valentine's Day Unison sent a special Valentine's Day card to Labour MPs urging them not to 'break the hearts' of public service workers. After Blair and his Transport Minister, Byers, attacked anti-privatisation unionists with the label of 'wreckers' the GMB took out full page ads depicting a nurse holding a new baby. The advert asks: "Is she one of the wreckers, Mr Blair?". The British media over the last few weeks has been full of some quite lurid anti-union tales attacking so-called militants in the rail union who have led stoppages throughout the UK's now fractured and privatised transport system. Tony Blair has repeatedly condemned the rail strikers. His Government's tacit support to a hard line stance taken by the private rail operators has also strained relations with the union movement. There is some evidence that the Blair government has fed these tales by providing off-the-record briefings about the political backgrounds of recently elected rail union leaders, such as Bob Crow, a Socialist Alliance member who has just won the leadership position of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union. Crow is regarded as one of the new younger generation prepared to challenge Blair, especially with a campaign platform for the re-nationalisation of the rail system. Since the beginning of the year there have been rolling 48 hour strikes on all the key privately-owned commuter rail lines throughout the UK - and the Blair Government has been pointing the finger at union militants. Last week the Murdoch-owned The Times ran a lead story with the screaming headline: " Extreme Left set for RMT union takeover". The first paragraph read: The extreme left wing of the trade union behind the recent rail strikes is today expected to begin its takeover of the top ranks with the appointment of Bob Crow as its leader. The background briefing of journalists during industrial disputes is part of a well-worn Labour tradition. The former British PM, Harold Wilson, used M15 supplied material to attack through the media the 1966 seafarers' strike. It was Blair's Transport Minister, Stephen Byers, who has been at the centre of the industrial turmoil on the rail lines who sparked the anger among unionists as the Labour Party conference in Cardiff. He told delegates it was ' a battle between the reformers and the wreckers' and he would not let ' vested interests' stand in the government's way. Later Byers' spin-doctor went around explaining to journalists that when the Minister referred to 'wreckers' he included some union leaders. Then when the PM repeated the 'wrecker' taunt in his speech later at the same conference the anger boiled over with the TUC reacting sharply. For a short while there was an attempt to hose down the 'wrecker' controversy with spin doctors leaking to the media that a Blair confidante had rung TUC leader, John Monks, to apologise for the taunt. However within hours of the 'apology' BBC report Tony Blair's office officially denied that the government had ever said sorry for labeling some union leaders 'wreckers'.
The reaction from the TUC and the three big unions with large public sector membership - Unison, GMB and the T&G - is probably the most concerted attack on the Blair government since it was elected in 1997. Much of the argument is based on trade union frustration with the government's plans to step up the use of private finance in the public services. The GMB general secretary, John Edmonds, argues that the Blair government's drive to introduce a larger private sector role in public services - such as hospitals and schools - will be as unpopular as the Margaret Thatcher's 'poll tax' which eventually drove the Conservative Government out of power. " The government has created its own 'poll tax' and the policy of privatization was imploding. Unless Labour were careful they would be dragged down by it, just as the Conservatives were under Margaret Thatcher," John Edmonds said. Certainly there is little evidence that there is popular support for the Blair Government's program. The GMB's John Edmonds reminded Labour Ministers that recent polls suggest that only 11% of Britons supported privatisation of public services. " The highest level of support recorded for the hated poll tax was 14%" Unison's general secretary, Dave Prentis, told the Labour Party conference that the New Labour aristocracy was getting too close to private companies and that however the government tried to explain the private finance initiatives it still meant that caring and essential services would end up being run for profit. A new poll has shown skepticism about the influence of business on the Blair Government. The NOP poll released at the beginning of this month shows that the community believes that it is big businesses, rather than unions, who have too much sway over the Government. Attitudes on both sides of the labour movement are now hardening with mainstream so-called moderate union leaders openly criticizing the government's links with business and refusing to make any concessions on the use of private firms in public services. The moderates are moving closer to some of the so-called new wave younger generation union leaders who are critical of any talk of 'social partnership' between the unions and the Labour government. These new leaders, who are mostly not Labour Party members, include Bob Crow of the RMT, Mick Rix from the train drivers' union Aslef, Billy Hayes of the Communication Workers Union and Mark Sertwotka of the Public and Commercial Services Union. The Blair people are bitter about this turn of events. They blame it all on unreconstructed elements. The London Financial Times quoted un-named Labour Party Ministers who, rather high-handedly, say the government is now paying the price of failing to help reform the unions when the party was modernizing itself in the 1980s and 1990s. " Enormous time and effort was spent discussing how we could avoid damaging splits between government and party once we won back power, how we could avoid problems by sticking together," the un-named minister is quoted as telling the Financial Times. "But no one gave any thought about how we make sure the unions are institutions that we can do business with. That was a very big mistake." Another minister told the Financial Times, complaining about the new generation of union leaders: " These people are not very interested in the Labour party. They are not interested in making deals to make life easier for Labour in power and they certainly would not be impressed by an invitation to No 10 for dinner. They want an old-fashioned trial of strength with the company." Andrew Casey is Workers Online's international editor
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