Wednesday sees an important milestone in modern UK politics. With a one-day strike coordinated by the TUC, involving several unions whose members have already balloted to strike, it is the nearest equivalent in modern times to a general strike. Somewhere around 600,000 workers will be on strike on one day. The strike will be accompanied by marches and rallies in towns and cities throughout the country.
The latest trade union to ballot its members for industrial action is the FBU, winning a huge majority, 88%, in favour of the union striking in defence of firefighters’ living standards. The FBU ballot was declared too late to participate in the February 1 action, but its members will strike soon afterwards.
The leaders of some other unions currently engaged in industrial struggles could – and should – have participated in this one day of action, but chose not to do so, some for their own narrow reasons. Even the leaders of those unions who are participating in Wednesday’s action will deny its political significance, but for Marxists it is an undeniable fact.
Public opinion polls hold no sway over Rishi Sunak
Public opinion is on the side of the strikers; the overwhelming majority of the population are opposed to the constant erosion of living standards for all except those at the very top of society. But the court of public opinion holds no sway over this government. They hold the purse-strings very tightly and they are hoping to ride out the storm of opposition they face among public sector workers.
The large majority of the Tory Party in parliament, in any case, will use private schools and private medical services, and they are quite happy to allow public services to be run into the ground, while crying crocodile tears to the media. They have no response to the crisis in living standards and their only answer is to propose a new law that that threatens workers with the sack, or worse, if they go on strike.
All of the issues on which the unions are campaigning – principally wages and against the new anti-trade union laws – are without exception issues that can only be resolved in the political sphere, at governmental level, and which cannot be considered to be simply ‘industrial’ issues.
One of the features of any big strike movement like this is that it enhances the confidence, energy and enthusiasm of the movement. Again without exception, those unions involved in struggle have seen significant increases in membership, sometimes at the expense of those other unions that are lagging behind. Days like Wednesday open the eyes of workers to the strength of the labour movement, and it makes for far better and more meaningful discussions than in ‘normal’ times.
Workers learn more in one day that they ‘normally’ do in years
Workers will learn more by this one day than they would normally learn in years, not least about who their friends are and who they are not. It is an important means of building lasting solidarity between unions and groups of workers in different industries and sectors. It is the reason why political discussions on rallies and marches are so important.
With the likelihood that Labour will be elected to government at the next general election, the hopes and aspirations of millions will ride on whatever that government does in office. Although there are no great illusions in Starmer himself, whose personal ratings are little better than Sunak’s, for the mass of workers, as opposed to the most class-conscious and active minority, a Labour government offers the prospect of something better, an improvement on the Tories.
Starmer’s election to office therefore, at the head of a Labour government, would be another important turning point. It would lay bare in stark fashion the choices that face the labour movement: a government that mobilised support among workers to carry out policies in the interests of working-class people, or a government – once again – rigged in the interests of the tiny minority at the top.
If Keir Starmer bases his economic policy on the latter – and all the signs are that he is on that track – then he will dash the hopes that millions have for an improvement in their lives. What is given with one hand would be taken away, twice over, with the other.
More openness to socialist ideas
Under those circumstances the anger and resentment currently directed at the Tories will instead be aimed at the Labour leaders. In the labour movement as a whole, but especially inside the Labour-affiliated unions, there will be turmoil and opposition to government policy. Among Labour members, where the left, although cowed by bureaucracy and expulsions, is hanging on, there will be a renewed vigour in their opposition.
There will be many more workers inside and outside the unions and the Labour Party who are open to bold socialist ideas, which are the only means of solving the problems of declining public services and attacks on living standards. We need an economy owned, planned and managed – ‘rigged’, if you like – in the interests of the big majority and not the wealthy or super-wealthy 1%.
The coordinated strike action on Wednesday has to be seen as part of a longer-term effort to renew the labour movement from top to bottom. That means, at grass-roots level, to recruit workers into unions, and to establish reps and shop-stewards in every workplace. At the top, it means campaigning for union leaders who will put their members’ interests first. It is not good enough for some union leaders to make fine speeches, but then throw their full support behind a Labour leader who is outspoken in opposition to union policies.
The campaign for a socialist movement was always going to be a long one. It is a marathon, not a sprint. But the strikes and rallies on Wednesday are an important, and very welcome, milestone on that long road.
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