Militant action shows the way trade unions in Britain and points to some positive moves by those prepared to fight struggle between France and Britain struggle are numerous and have beer London. There has also been a continuing The irony of the situation is that Brown mobilisation against the occupation of obviously thinks it is popular to attack The contrast in the level of trade union in the last year could not be starker. Last autumn in France, the trade unions, with the left and anti-globalisation movement, government's referendum for the European Union Constitution, stopping in its tracks one of the neo-liberal juggernauts. This was followed in the spring by the biggest of student strikes since occupations and solidarity actions with trade unionists, against the 'Contrat de Premiere Embauche' (flexible and low wage employment contract for youth) that ended with the humiliation of the government when it had to withdraw the proposal. Meanwhile in Britain, 2005 saw the lowest level of strikes since records began in 1881! Barely 150,000 days were lost in strike last year, beating the previous low of 237,000 days lost in 1997. This contrasts with the average days lost in strike during the 1970s of 12.9million a year and the 1980s with 7.2million days lost a year. Public sector strikes However, the small upturn of industrial action in 2006 demonstrates that the combativity of trade unionists in Britain still exists, if given the opportunity and leadership. There was an impressive one- day strike on the 28th March with 1.5 million local government workers from UNISON, TGWU and GMB striking to protect their existing pension agreement. There have also been a number of strikes by the civil service union PCS and rail workers union RMT. The fact that the 1.5 million days lost in strike by council workers on the 28th March on its own managed to multiply last years level of days lost by a factor of 10, only demonstrates how low the level of industrial struggle is at the moment in Britain. Fred Leplat analyses the state of the New Labour's neo-liberal policies. The reasons for this low level of union analysed in depth elsewhere. The fallout from the defeats of 1980s, including anti- uniuon laws, inflicted on the miners, dockers, printers and steelworkers is still The strategy of 'partnership', especially the use of single-union, no- strike deals with employers followed by most unions, has demobilised members activists. The 'partnership' allowed management, both in the private and public sectors, to introduce a whole raft of 'new management techniques' working and just-in-time production, and the widespread use of agency and temporary workers, which undermined the ability of collective action and bargaining by the unions. The low level of strike action compared to most countries in Europe does not mean that there is no political struggle on other fronts. Labour has been punished in national and local elections, with Respect doing particularly well in East Iraq and the current Israeli offensive in Lebanon and Palestine on a scale that has not been matched elsewhere in Europe. The involvement of trade unionists in these political struggles lays the basis for a renewed confidence in the workplace against the employers. Attacks on pensions The current attacks on final-salary pension schemes in the private and public sectors and the continuing privatisation of public services could provide the opportunity for the unions to organise national campaigns, including industrial action, around these key areas of concerns to their members. What we have seen instead is the 'big four' unions, UNISON, GMB, TGWU and Amicus, continuing with their private lobbying 13 of the Labour Party and government ministers with little to show as a result. Last year just before the general election, the New Labour government bought off the civil service and teaching unions by offering to protect all existing members of the pension schemes. This year, despite a one-day strike, the local government unions have been offered four options for a new pension scheme that fails to match last year's offer to the PCS, NUT and other unions. Even though the one-day strike was extremely well supported by union members, UNISON and the other unions have refused to press home their advantage by calling for further action, in particular during the run-up to the local government elections. The unions have now been manoeuvred by the employers into negotiating some miserly improvements on their original offers which are miles away even from full protection to existing pension scheme members. The 'big four's' other strategy of placing their hopes in Gordon Brown will also be a miserable failure. Brown announced in 'the days of plenty for public- sector workers were over'. He opened up an assault on two fronts announcing that a pay freeze on public-sector workers' pay would continue until 2011 and that any pay increase would be restricted to no more than 2 percent. This actually amounts to a pay cut for the six million workers in the public sector, as inflation is already above that figure and is forecast to go even higher. His other attack was on jobs when he boasted that 45,000 civil service jobs had already gone, "in less than two years', as part of the 84,000 jobs that were targeted by Sir Peter Gershon in 2004. He then said that once they had gone there would be more cuts to follow. public-sector workers, but in doing so has opened up the space for the Tories to claim that these workers are not valued enough and that the government should stop attacking them! Blair and Brown obviously want to push the neo-liberal "reforms' of the public sector to their limits, and in so doing inflict defeats on the public sector unions on the scale of Strike action, not lobbying In the face of these continuing attacks by New Labour and the free hand given to the private sector employers, the reliance on lobbying instead of industrial action is a hopeless strategy. It has failed too often in the past, but once again was relied on by the TGWU and Amicus over the threat
to close the Peugeot factory in Coventry, when the two unions launched a chauvinist campaign during the football world-cup to protect British jobs. Instead, the union leadership should have been preparing members for industrial action, including occupation, to prevent the being dismantled and shipped elsewhere, in a campaign across the whole Peugeot group in Europe with the other unions on the continent. Another quick fix to solve the continuing lack of influence of the 'big four' is the planned merger between the TGWU and Amicus to create a super-union. Mergers in themselves solve nothing, except to save the jobs of full-time officials. The strategy pursued by the 'big four' is in contrast to that of some of the smaller unions such as the RMT and PCS. These two unions have pursued a more militant strategy of recruitment and organising for industrial action against attacks on members' pay, conditions and jobs. However the militancy in the PCS has largely been due to the activity of local reps pushing the leadership into calling strikes and these have sometimes been poorly led. As noted above 45,000 jobs have been lost in the Civil Service This greater militancy has resulted in these unions recruiting members at a faster rate than the 'big four', and the RMT even boasts of being the growing union'. The leadership given by the general secretaries of these unions, Mark Sewotka for the PCS, Bob Crow for the RMT, and Matt Wrack for the FBU, is also in stark contrast to that given in the "big four'. These three general secretaries have not been afraid to denounce the They have also argued that union action on its own is not enough to protect members from the current offensive, and that what is needed is not just a new fighting strategy in the workplace, but a new political alternative to New Labour for the working class. fact that these three unions are not affiliated to the Labour Party (the PCS never was, the FBU left, and the RMT was expelled) makes it easier to argue the case for a political alternative, but also demonstrates that it is a fighting strategy rather than lobbying through the Labour Party that delivers. Searching for a political alternative to New Labour The search for a political alternative for the unions is not an easy job and is posed differently in the different unions. A straightforward disaffiliation without party in Britain. being replaced by a new project for political representation can lead to a depoliticisation of the union. John McDonnell MP has announced that he will contest the leadership of the Labour Party and socialists in affiliated unions shoulo argue support for his candidature, as he is closest to the core positions of these unions. This is not counter to arguing that the political funds of the affiliated unions should be used to support candidates in elections from parties other than Labour, as this is simply an issue of democracy. Rebuilding a shop-stewards movement is obviously important in the current situation, as although the level of union membership has stood still during the last decade, the number of activists and shop stewards has declined dramatically In this context, the RMT-called, October conference for a shop-stewards movement should be welcomed. But a shop stewards movement is not enough. The stakes are high as New Labour embraces ever more neo-liberal policies. The political allegiance of the working ilass to socialism is in question. With the three main parties vying for the same right wing ground, the political space to the left needs to be filled as quickly as possible and the unions, still mass organisations of the working class, have a crucial role to play in this process. Socialist Outlook has argued that the Respect Coalition, despite all its faults, represents the best hope for launched by the Socialist Party. Respect-initiated TU Conference le forthcoming Organising for Fighti nions conference initiated by Respe to be held on the 11th November, is an important development that already has the sponsorship of 500 shop stewards the conference. Among the speakers there will be Matt Wrack of the FBU, Bob Crow of the RMT and PCS leader Mark Serwotka. POA General Secretary, Brian supporting the conference. This conference will bring together ndividuals from various political tradition: and at different levels in the unions. B participating in such a conference with the Respect Coalition, these trade union activists will be taking another step ir the slow, and at times tortuous, route 14