British Rail Union Leader Fights Off Hostile and Stupid Media Attacks

 

Richard Mellor

Mike Lynch, the leader of the UK's Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) has been demonized in the big business media in the UK as a communist a Marxist a terrorist and has faced other downright  childish attacks. There are a couple in this short report and it is an example of how the capitalist media goes on the offensive when working class people and organized labor uses the only weapon we have when our livelihoods are under assault, the withdrawal of our labor power. Brother Lynch handles it well.

The same occurs here in the US. The Democrats pretend they are friends of labor and the worker and counterpose themselves to the right wing Republican's who are more open about their hostility  to unions. The reality is that the liberals support unions as long as the leadership ensures the real power of the organized working class is never used, that mobilizing this power in order to stop production and profit making is not an option.  They push the idea that we are in this together, capital and labor, and that we are on the same team.

The minute the rank and file worker abandons this philosophy and takes and independent road, sees ourselves as a class unto ourselves with our own distinct interests, the so-called friends of labor will show their true colors.

Mick Lynch, the leader of the RMT here is head and shoulders above the class collaborators atop the AFL-CIO and organized labor in the US. At the recent AFL-CIO convention earlier this month, the new head of the AFL-CIO Liz Shuler received a standing ovation as she called for organizing one million workers over the next ten years. The  whole discussion focused on more members not to build our power in the workplaces and streets of America but in order to elect Democrats, the labor officialdom's team mates, in to office.

As this moribund body of right wing bureaucrats debated the need to build organized labor's membership, it refused to invite the young workers leading the struggles to unionize Amazon, Starbucks, tech and other workplaces to the meeting. The truth is that they fear these new young workers more than anything else. They are secure in their relationship with capital based on labor peace and, having no alternative to capitalism, will defend it.

We are seeing a new wave of union activity here in the US and throughout the world, the UK is engulfed in it at the moment.  Other rail unions will likely join the British rails strikes next week and nurses and teachers are contemplating striking. This is the new consciousness in the post pandemic economy and after workers have been told for a few years how important and essential we are and that we are heroes. It will not be easy to put this genie back in the bottle.