British TUC plans strikes and direct action against cuts

We have to do more and demand more than this

I have been active in the workers’ and trade Union movement for the last 25 to 30 years and I think I am not wrong in saying that we are in the most favorable objective climate in decades.  I always used to tell my co-workers who said that there will never be a fightback, that “people don’t care” that we have an ally in that sense in the boss.  The boss will not let up; they will continue to drive us backwards and that has reached a rapid pace in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

As folks know I am visiting Britain and trying to keep up with developments.  Britain’s national Union body, the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) met this week and the leadership has called a series of strikes against the attacks on public sector workers and their pensions that are similar to the onslaught that public workers in the US are experiencing. 

As we pointed out in an earlier blog, a majority of organized Labor’s members are in the public sector both in Britain, about 60% and 35% or so of public workers are organized in the US compared to less than 7% in the private sector.  This poses a problem for the heads of organized Labor because even though they view the world through the same glasses as the employers and their lifestyles are very similar, their social base is the organized section of the working class, the Unions.  In the US, as we all know, a right wing section of the capitalist class is attempting to eliminate the right to bargain altogether and in Britain and the US, the public sector is being decimated through layoffs and cuts in public services. Official unemployment in Britain increased by 80,000 over the last three months as a result of what one paper called a “public sector jobs cull”.

The Union leaders are talking tough which is nothing new but exactly how this will play out  is impossible for a visitor with limited knowledge of the situation to tell.  Knowing the thinking of the present leadership of the Unions both here and back in the US, unless we hear them sing a different tune with some real substance to it, I am not optimistic.  The problem is that as of yet, neither the AFL-CIO leadership of their TUC counterparts have said anything that indicates they have a real plan other than letting off steam and they are in general agreement with the bosses that cuts have to be made.

The leader of Unison, one of the major public sector Unions, announced that the Unions are in the “fight of their lives” which is true.  But the bosses’ response to this after a similar propaganda campaign comparing public sector workers’ pay and benefits, especially pensions, to the rest of the population and blaming them for the cause of the economic crisis, is that strikes at this time of “shared sacrifice” will be a “self inflicted wound”.  

As a visitor here for a short time, and on other business at that, it is hard to gauge the mood.  I have spoken to very few trade Union workers so I am not clear on how they feel generally.  I have been following the issue in the press but I have read no comments from trade Union officials that indicate in any way that their strategy is designed to avoid the self inflicted wound scenario.

After all, given the unemployment situation it seems that the jobs issue is crucial and strikes by organized workers should include clear demands for jobs and an expansion of pensions to all workers. An immediate reduction in the workweek with no loss in pay and a mass infrastructure program both here and the US would be a first step in creating more jobs.  In the last quarter for instance, unemployment in Britain rose by 78,000 to 973,000 among 16 to 24 year olds.  The papers pointed pout today that the number of 16 to 24 year olds out of work is higher than at any point during the Great recession and the economic horizon is not bright. As is the case in the US, the capitalists are on strike and their political representatives are attempting to coax them to invest.  Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister has a “plan A plus” designed to do just that as well as entice foreign investors.  At the same time, he will not back down from “cutting the deficit” on the workers’ backs in order to ensure a “fiscal framework to ensure stability.”.

It’s the same story as in the US.  Could we imagine during a strike of Labor, as opposed to capital and the politicians attempting to coax us back to work in this manner?  Of course not. We would be facing troops. It has come out today that judges were told by government officials to come down hard on the youth after the uprising last month.  Prices are going up for parking, using the subway and other necessities.  I read also that in the US poverty is on the rise and one in six Americans are in it. The number of Americans without health care has also risen. The time must be seized.

On the news today some politician that I didn’t recognize talked of the severe crisis the world economy, in this case, Europe is in as an excuse for the austerity measures all governments are implementing.  Like the “self inflicted wound” tactic, he said that a poll had been conducted in Austria and 92% of Austrians voted to kick Greece out of the EU. The media repeats this propaganda that workers in other European workers will have to pay for “profligate” Greeks.  But the question is: what was the question? We can bet it was just that.  Are you willing to pay for the Greek crisis or should we kick them out.  It would have been expressed in some way around that premise in order to get the 92%. Making the rich pay would not have been an option.

As I said in the beginning, the conditions are ripe for an offensive of our own, from the US to Britain, Greece and elsewhere.  Linking up with the events in the Middle East would be easy.  But I never read any indication of a genuine offensive from the British Labor officials closely connected to the strikes.  “While we will never walk away from talks, neither will we sit on our hands” says Gail Cartmail of Unite.  The government’s plans are a “crude smash and grab” which leaves “little alternative” Matt Wrack of the Firefighters Union is quoted as saying.  Now perhaps a lot more has been said and the capitalist press is being selective but the experience has been of late that the bosses are serious about their intentions.

So while there is the discontent it might not be winter yet. We’ll have to see.