On 20 October, up to 100,000 people marched through central London in the TUC’s March for the Alternative. The protest was no more than half the size of the demonstration the TUC called in March 2011, a protest which was accompanied by widespread direct action including the occupation of Fortnum and Masons. The TUC had worked hard to prevent any repetition, cooperating closely with the Metropolitan Police in its control centre, and beforehand, handing over the names of known activists presumably in the hope that they would be subject to preventative arrest. As a consequence, there was only one instance of direct action, when members of Disabled People against the Cuts (DPAC) blockaded Hyde Park corner for a short time, swiftly supported by an FRFI contingent. This year’s event had hardly any mention in the following day’s press. The calls for the TUC to organise a general strike that are being made by organisations of the social democratic opportunist left merely cover up for trade union inaction and opposition to independent action by those who do want to fight, particularly disabled people.
The almost complete lifelessness of the demonstration in no way measured up to the ruling class’s unremitting assault on the working class. Since last year’s protest, hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs have been lost, local council services slashed, hundreds of thousands of disabled people have been thrown into deeper poverty through the ATOS tests, and housing benefit levels and eligibility have been axed. The government’s Health and Social Services Act heralds the privatisation of much of the NHS, and its Welfare Reform Act aims to cut the welfare budget by 20%. The ConDem coalition aims to cut a further £10bn in welfare spending on top of that previously announced. Work and Pensions Secretary Duncan Smith is urging a benefits cap on families with more than two children. There will be no let-up.
Over and over again the trade unions have shown they are not prepared to lead a serious fight against the ruling class. Days lost through industrial action remain at historic lows. The unions have not stopped the decimation of local council services or the consequent job losses. Two one-day strikes five months apart in 2011 was the extent of opposition to the attack on public sector pensions. They failed to organise any fight against the government’s privatisation plans for the NHS even though there was overwhelming opposition to the Health and Social Services Bill. While the TUC has agreed to consider the ‘practicalities’ of calling a general strike, we know that this will be no more than talk since it will involve a real challenge to the anti-trade union laws and the consequent risk to union assets.
The fighting talk from trade union leaders at the rally in Hyde Park following the march was part of a ritual: we heard it on the 26 March protest last year and then again with the 30 June and 30 November one-day public sector strikes. Nothing has changed. On 26 March 2011, Labour leader Ed Miliband was booed when he spoke of the need for ‘some cuts’. On 20 October, he was booed for speaking of the need to make ‘hard choices’ if Labour were in government, though he won an easy cheer for promising to end what he described as the ConDem’s ‘experiment’ in NHS privatisation. Just like every previous Labour government, he will not deliver on promises that challenge profit making by the private sector. Once more, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka and Unite general secretary Len McCluskey led the verbal charge from the platform: nothing it seemed would hold them back with their calls for co-ordinated strikes or general strikes. However, both said much the same at the March 2011 protest more than 18 months ago and they have not delivered. So what will change now?
Despite this dismal failure, the opportunist left – the Communist Party of Britain, the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist Party and sundry others – tell us we have to put all our eggs in the trade union basket as they have done. With their strategy of competing for trade union positions, they are now incorporated into the lower and middle echelons of the trade union bureaucracy – and in the case of unions such as the NUT, PCS and UCU, the upper echelons as well. They serve as a claque for left-wing union leaders such as Serwotka and McCluskey, amplifying their radical phrases and stifling criticism of their failure to lead any resistance. The view of these opportunist organisations is that nothing can move or should be allowed to move unless it is organised through the trade unions. They express the interests of a privileged stratum of the working class especially in the public sector which includes sections of lower and middle management who run PCS, Prospect and Unison branches.
Far from leading working class struggles, trade unions have been obstructing them. Up and down the country, disabled activists and others have been taking action against ATOS and its vindictive Work Capability Assessments. Marks Serwotka has publicly opposed direct action against ATOS claiming that it intimidates PCS members working for the company. On 22 June 2011, the Coalition of Resistance in Glasgow came down against a direct action against ATOS on the same grounds. And on 30 June Glasgow PCS branch chair, member of the PCS national executive and Solidarity (Socialist Party) Derek Thompson criticised disabled activists and FRFI supporters for calling for a further picket of ATOS to follow the demonstration against public sector pension cuts that day claiming that it would dilute the message the PCS was putting forward. Such has been the hostility of PCS officials to such direct action that Welsh DPAC activist Liza van Zyl, who is also chair of the lecturers’ union (UCU) in Cardiff, has written to DPAC national executive members to say
‘I have put a huge amount of effort into persuading DPAC Caerdydd members
to not take direct action against the DWP, that we should engage with PCS
instead. But it’s clear we should no longer bother trying to work with
PCS. They are part of our oppression. And therefore a legitimate target
for direct action’
The very narrow trade union politics of the opportunist left means that it has become incapable of independent action. Its call for a general strike is a gesture: it commits them to nothing other than pushing motions at empty trade union branch meetings and tailing after the likes of McCluskey and Serwotka. In particular, it serves to cover up for the fact that the trade unions remain in retreat, their leadership completely unwilling to countenance a serious defence of the working class. The lesson is clear: relying on the trade unions to initiate working class resistance, or arguing that they should lead such opposition is no way forward. We should remember that the mass community-based anti-Poll Tax campaign triumphed despite the fact that the trade unions and Labour Party opposed it. Today it is organisations outside the trade unions which once again are taking a lead, involving young people in direct action – UK Uncut, and campaigns set up by disabled people such as DPAC. Theirs is the example we should be supporting.
Robert Clough
