As we go to press, millions of public sector workers are preparing to strike and demonstrate on 30 November against the ConDem Coalition’s attack on their pensions. Many of them will also be asking what next? Ballots of GMB, Unison, Unite and other trade unions have shown large majorities in favour of industrial action. Yet there is no indication from trade union leaders as to what further action they will be calling for. With unfulfilled union promises of a spring of discontent, then of a summer of discontent, and then of an autumn of discontent, are there any real signs that they are now going to organise a winter of discontent? TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told us back in March that the ‘phoney war is over’; all we will have seen by December, nearly nine months after that declaration, are two public sector one-day strikes. This is not going to strike fear into the ruling class.
What comes out of 30 November will depend on the membership and the strength of feeling that they have over their pension rights and, more broadly, about the Coalition’s austerity drive. The government’s revised offer in November claims to guarantee that no-one within ten years of normal retirement would have to work longer or see their pension income fall. This concession is clearly designed to appeal to the more than one third of public sector trade unionists who are aged 50 or more. At present the government is not taking trade union opposition seriously – it has no reason to. As far as it can see, the phoney war is set to continue. There has yet to be any serious action against council service cuts and strike levels remain at historic low levels. Brendan Barber has met with the government in an effort to find a deal on pensions which will stop the need for further action. Labour leader Ed Miliband has weighed in to say that ‘the most important thing is there is not a strike’. Following the GMB vote, national officer for public services Brian Strutton said: ‘It is not too late for the government to pull back from this confrontation and scrap this attack on pensions.’ Yet with Labour and many trade union leaders determined to avoid a real struggle, why should the government pull back?
The fact is that although many of the left claim that the ConDem Coalition is weak and divided, the only challenge that has really rocked it came from the working class youth who rioted in August. The events of that weekend created a palpable sense of fear within the ruling class as for a short period of time they seemed in danger of losing control. This is the crux of the problem: so long as the trade union leadership remains in control of events during and after 30 November, the ruling class will not be concerned as the protest will remain ineffective. Public sector workers face the same problem as the electricians (see page 4), but on a vaster scale: should they confine themselves to demands that the leadership takes effective action, or should they force the issue by taking independent action themselves? This matters because the attack on public sector pensions is but one part of the much wider attack on working class living conditions: the attack on benefits, and within a couple of months, the second round of local council cuts and the privatisation of the NHS. Resistance, if it is to be proportionate to the scale of the attack, has to break the straitjacket put on trade union action by the anti-trade union laws. The Occupy movement has been at its most inspiring when it has defied the law and resorted to civil disobedience. The fact that it has faced repression in this country as well as in the US is because the ruling class does not want this example to spread. Civil disobedience by a few thousand can be contained although even that requires some broken heads. When it spreads to tens or hundreds of thousands, then the ruling class faces real problems.
We have to work to create those problems. 30 November will be an indication as to whether it is possible at the moment. It could be the launching pad for real resistance to the ruling class offensive. This will depend on whether sections of public sector workers take Unite general secretary Len McCluskey at his word when he calls for campaigns of civil disobedience. Nothing less is required if resistance is to be effective: direction and control has to be removed from the trade union leaders if we are to move forward.
Robert Clough
For a follow-up on 30 November, visit our website www.revolutionarycommunist.org
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 224 December 2011/January 2012
