Britain's Union leaders threaten "greatest battle in living memory"

Ed Miliband, British Labor Party leader

The US and Britain have a lot more in common than neo-liberal policies, wars in Iraq and Libya, and being the dominant immediate causes of the economic collapse. 

“What could that be?” you might ask.

Well it seems that much of the mass media is challenging this view and is blaming the rampaging youth and public sector workers for the crisis. “Twenty percent of my taxes go to pay the pensions of public sector workers so they can retire at 55.” One small business person tells me today, so the propaganda is having a bit of an effect.

I have to admit that even though I am in a section of London where youth battled the police and some damage was done, there is considerable sympathy with the young people.  In fact, and I would say the same for the US, given the massive propaganda machine churning out its lies that the youth, immigrants, lazy public sector workers and the like are the cause of the crisis, deep down people know different.

One worker said to me last night that he didn’t really care that the young people smashed up the store fronts of these trendy sports chains that urge them to buy clothes that they can’t afford but he was upset at the destruction of people’s homes or the property of the corner shop.  He recognized that there is no future out there for so many of the young people and that having nowhere to go the anger eventually bursts through to the surface as we saw last month. Youth unemployment is very high in Britain with roughly one in five of 18- to 25-year-olds out of work. The inequality in Britain has also reached crisis levels as this country has, along with the US, been the most ardent proponents of the neo-liberal agenda and what has been termed the Anglo-Saxon model--privatize everything.

I have been coming to this café to get online every day and it is staffed by immigrants, Polish, Latvian, eastern Europeans in general.  One of the young women came over to me as she had a brief moment, she thought I was “working”.  I told her I was “venting” and talked about the situation in the US and how they blame the same people for the crisis, immigrants, the poor, workers. She told me she hopes to save some money and maybe be able to return to Poland to complete her studies; she’s only been in the UK 10 months.

Today, Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labor Party is to speak to the TUC’s annual conference here in London. (The TUC is the British equivalent of the AFL-CIO, the national Union body.)   According to reports in the press, he will tell the Labor bureaucracy that the Unions have to “modernize outdated workplace practices” so they can “play their part in ‘Britain’s new economy’”

 Workers need to beware when we here the terms “Modernize” or “reform” coming from the mouths of these folks.  The head of the Labor Party has the interests of the employers in mind when he talks of modernizing things. The “workplace practices” he has in mind  are safety regulations and Union rules that benefit the worker and place some restraint on profit taking, such as wages---in other words the influence of workers’ collective power over the Labor process. It’s the same as the US, British workers have to compete in the global economy with their Asian, Latin American and other workers who come cheaper. It’s that downward spiral to oblivion; the Team Concept, helping “our” capitalists in their struggle against their competitors for market dominance.

The Union tops have threatened major strikes and non violent protests in the face of the attacks on the pensions, wages and benefits of the public sector which is 60% Unionized compared to 15% of the private. The so-called leader of the Labor Party is expected not to support these actions when he speaks to them today and praised the auto workers Union leaders who “made some sacrifices” to save jobs; not jobs for our youth though.  He will warn them, the press says, that they have to get on board with the new economy and convince the private employers that they are “relevant to the future”.  Of course, the complete opposite should be the case, convincing the class that works that they are “relevant to the future”.

Just like Democrats in the US, the Miliband covers both bases telling the Union bureaucracy that the country needs “decent jobs at decent wages” but that they also need to “reward entrepreneurship and wealth creation”.  Miliband is aware that we have just been through a reward the entrepreneur and “wealth creation” period with devastating consequences but, like his co-thinkers atop the AFL-CIO, he has no alternative to capitalism so will continue supporting these policies that lead to further and further cuts and attacks on the people that work and actually produce wealth.

Youth battle cops last month

Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC is talking about the massive inequality in Britain that led to the uprising here last month and the need to offer the youth a future. The leaders of all the major Unions, the public sector in particular, are threatening an Autumn of discontent, the “greatest battle in our living memory” says Barber. These are fine words but I have heard similar rhetoric from Labor’s hierarchy in the US and it is generally hot air.  They were very capable of diffusing the events in Wisconsin and sending everyone home except those that joined the movement to elect Democrats in to office as opposed to Republicans.

The situation is ripe here for a generalized offensive of our own; young people, immigrants, racially oppressed minorities, just as it is in the US.  The Labor leadership back home have been able to derail any serious threat to the employers up to this point and have ensured that no serious links have been built between their members, our communities, and the youth, links that can wage a direct action campaign against the employers and their system.

Maybe the normally empty rhetoric of the Labor officialdom will amount to something more in Britain this fall as far as the Unionized sector is concerned, I hope so.  For that to happen any movement will have to overcome this obstacle of our own leadership and break from its control.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.