By Mark Langabeer, RMT South Devon Bus branch, personal capacity
The debate within the RMT, regarding whether the union should reaffiliate to Labour will be decided at a special meeting of delegates at the end of May. It is probable that the union will reaffiliate, given that most of it’s leaders are supportive. It is also worth reminding readers that the RMT was expelled from Labour because it gave support for the Scottish Socialist Party. Many union activists were angry and frustrated by ‘New Labour’s’ refusal to support the re-nationalisation of the railways and the scrapping of the Tories anti-union laws.
Since it’s expulsion, the union has backed the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition Party as well as the SSP. Many activists had perceived that TUSC would act as a left alternative to Labour, but it failed to gain anything remotely like a mass support and the election of Corbyn as Labour Party leader has put the issue of affiliation back on the agenda.
In my branch the debate didn’t revolve around the issue of backing TUSC/SSP, or Labour. It was whether the union should have any political involvement at all! “Stick to pay and conditions not politics” was a common sentiment. Fortunately, I was not alone in defending Corbyn and reaffiliation to the Labour Party. The many serious issues facing workers and their families today: housing, the NHS, austerity, pensions, education are issues that can only be resolved by political measures and government policies. Our union, like other unions has to have a view on these issues and be prepared to advanced its members’ interests in the political sphere as well as in the workplace.
In my view, the principle reason why the union must re-join Labour is that the Party is the political arm of the Trade Unions. Without the unions, the Labour Party would eventually cease to exist. Likewise, the Tories are the Party of big business. It is a class issue and whatever criticism you may have of particular Labour policies, support for the Party should remain unconditional.
As some observers have pointed out, Labour’s programme is essentially social-democratic in character. However, it contains many radical elements and it aims, as the slogan says, to carry out policies “for the many, not the few” and as such it represents a dramatic break from the Blair, Brown and Miliband years. The election of Corbyn was a starting point in moving the Party in a socialist direction.
It is only through a Labour Government, nationalising the major banks and the giant monopolies and putting the levers of economic control in the hands of the majority, that we can transform society along socialist lines.
May 21, 2018
