The Socialist Issue 237

PRIVATE PROFIT is public enemy number one. If your train doesn't arrive, if you're denied a hospital bed, if your education services are cut, if your libraries are closed then chances are it's because big business has decided it doesn't make enough money.

Ken Smith

Twenty five years ago the Tories told us public ownership of industries wasn't working and spent 18 years privatising everything in sight, making services inadequate, less reliable or non-existent.

Labour continued the Tories' privatisation agenda and for four years has launched attack after attack on the public sector and the workers in it. The result has been a further paralysis of public services.

Now, faced with mounting chaos on the railways and a failure to deliver in other public services, Labour cabinet members admit their privatisation agenda has gone "flaky".

We've warned for ages that Labour's plans were not just "flaky" but dangerous and that things were getting worse than they were under the Tories.

Blair, however, carries on globetrotting trying to solve the world's intractable problems while ignoring the Third-World condition of Britain's public services. No wonder two-thirds of voters think he is arrogant and out of touch.

Now workers - pushed to breaking point - are taking action against the privatisation madness, which has meant them having to apologise for services they have no control over.

Public services are public in name only. Those who really pull the purse strings are big businesses who make a profit out of workers' low pay and ripping off the rest of us.

The big rail companies say Byers' new plan won't work because they won't invest any more or take less profits. When will the Daily Mail have screaming banner headlines about this investment strike by big business against our railways?

Now, Health Secretary Milburn wants to create a Railtrack in the NHS, bringing in more private managers. But, from Enron and Marconi to Britain's ailing rail system we've seen private profit only brings public misery.

Let's fight to end the role of these private parasites and bring industry under the democratic control and planning of working-class people - the people who use and work in these services.

PCS dispute

Support Action For Safety

PUBLIC AND Commercial Services (PCS) union members working in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) took two days of strike action in December 2001 over safety.

By A PCS member

40,000 civil servants joined Pathfinder offices who had already been on strike since September and October. Many Benefits Agency offices were unable to offer a service to customers, others closed for all but a couple of hours.

While telling staff that safety is a top priority in the new Jobcentre Plus offices, management are doing nothing to prevent assaults. The screened Benefits Agency offices have half the number of assaults found in unscreened Jobcentres. Yet management plan to ensure that all Jobcentre Plus offices are unscreened with only one small screen facility for every four offices.

Shortly after the Christmas break, a south London Jobcentre worker was hit over the head with a wastepaper basket. The open plan environment clearly didn't encourage his attacker to feel calm and able to conduct matters without violence. In another incident a returned striker was assaulted outside the Balham office.

The signs are that such assaults are increasing. This will certainly be the case if Jobcentre Plus goes ahead as currently designed. Yet management choose to ignore these incidents, insisting that the new open plan will not see increased assaults on staff.

On Tuesday 15 January the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are due to visit the Streatham Pathfinder. This will be one of five Pathfinder offices the HSE will visit. Management have refused to enter into tripartite discussions with PCS and the HSE. Again this shows that safety is not management's top priority.

Management are preparing to reward scabs that undermined strikers at the Pathfinder offices. Those that scabbed at the Brent and Streatham Pathfinders were offered 10 days extra annual leave. These were in addition to financial rewards already made.

One scab, after two months, netted £1,800 on top of normal pay. Such tactics are a clear attempt to undermine the solidarity between staff and to break the dispute.

PCS have twice met management and put forward proposals to settle the dispute. PCS officials expected management to enter into serious negotiations, but this didn't happen and no progress was made. This despite the government's assertion that they "are willing to have further discussion on this basis".

PCS members are now preparing for two further days of strike action on 28 and 29 January and a lobby of Parliament on the 29th. A ballot for work to rule will start on 30 January. Management should stop posturing, seriously consider the proposals put to them and provide staff with a safe working environment.

A Return to the 1970s?... If Only

RAIL WORKERS strike and they are called 'trade union fundamentalists' in a disgraceful attempt by TV commentators to link them to the Islamic 'fundamentalists' behind the attacks of 11 September.

One TV commentator in the London region also referred to Bob Crow, left candidate in the RMT general secretary election, as having "come out of the woodwork". Worst of all for the media, all this conjures up the 'nightmare' of the 1970s.

But nightmare for who? It certainly was for the bosses but not for the working class. They rose from their knees to fight against their terrible conditions. The Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, in a magnificent work-in, compelled the Tory government of Heath to undertake the greatest U-turn for decades - forcing the government to keep the shipyards open.

The mighty National Union of Mineworkers humbled the same government in two titanic strikes in 1972 and 1974. The latter led to a general election, the defeat of the Tories and the coming to power of the Wilson Labour government in 1974.

The strength and power of the working class at this stage was in its union organisation in general but in particular in the 350,000 shop stewards, representatives of workers on the shop floor.

Bosses' revenge

FORD WORKERS ignored their leaders and ended the Labour government's iniquitous pay restrictions.

This policy stoked up enormous grievances which burst out in the 'winter of discontent' of 1978/79. It is this incident which is referred to by opponents of the trade unions and the working class when they touch on the 1970s.

The bosses, however, were thirsting for revenge after the display of working class power in that decade. Their opportunity came with the coming to power of the Thatcher government in 1979.

It is a complete distortion of history which says that it was the working class which paved the way for the coming to power of Thatcher. On the contrary, responsibility lay with the policies of the right-wing Labour government of Callaghan and Healey, which introduced 'Thatcherism' through cuts in government expenditure, even before Thatcher came to power. Then, through a series of Tory anti-union laws the most draconian attacks on the working class in the industrialised world were carried out.

But it was not this alone that led to the enormous weakening of the working class. The cowardly behaviour of the right-wing trade union leaders in the teeth of a brutal offensive against the unions and the working class in the 1980s also assisted the Tories. The miners, in their epic struggle of 1984-85, were let down as were the print workers in 1986.

The massive deindustrialisation of Britain was the main reason why union membership declined from more than 50% to a little over a third of the workforce today. Shop stewards have correspondingly weakened in numbers and influence as the employers, under both Tory and New Labour governments, have carried through neo-liberal policies of privatisation, casualised working, the replacement of relatively high-paid jobs with low-paid jobs, etc.

Union membership

HOWEVER, THE position today is much better says journalist Polly Toynbee. After all, "a whole day a year per worker was lost to strikes in 1979, now it is just 15 minutes" [The Guardian, 11 January].

The Independent's correspondent, Donald MacIntyre, points out: "By October last year, the annual strike figures were still at 354,000 days lost, something like a thirtieth of what they were in 1978. Indeed they haven't been above a million since 1999".

Why then the foaming at the mouth when workers take strike action? Why the vicious scabbing by New Labour in the strike of PCS workers for protective screens? Is it because the bosses and their hired writers and liars in the press and media can feel the subterranean revolt which is gathering in the workplaces?

Membership of trade unions has recently undergone a small increase, which would undoubtedly have been much greater if they had battling class fighters at their head instead of largely right-wing trade union leaders. But the recent election of left candidates to leading positions in the PCS (Serwotka), ASLEF (Rix) and in the firefighters union (Gilchrist) are indications of the mood that is developing from below.

The rail strikes above all show not just the failure of privatisation but the fact that no matter what methods are used by employers to weaken the working class, in time it recoils on them. One of the aims of privatisation of the railways was to destroy national bargaining, divide the workers and set one against another.

But the strikes which railworkers have undertaken have been extremely effective. They should be linked up through national action to improve the lot of all rail workers. They should also be linked to a campaign, involving rail users, for the immediate renationalisation of the rail industry.

Workers' power

COMMENTATORS LIKE Polly Toynbee rush to assure the capitalists that the rail workers are an exception; a resurgence of union militancy is not on the cards. George Monbiot, also in The Guardian, says the working class is "atomised". Far from being "atomised", the rail workers have shown the latent power of the working class once it is mobilised to defend itself.

The employers, their spokespersons and the New Labour government are rattled by the action of rail workers. If they are successful it will be an example to other workers.

However, if the strike weapon is so unpopular, as Polly Toynbee and others argue, why is this traditional method of struggle of the working class been adopted recently by professional footballers in England and Wales? Now commuters are also threatening to strike "with big companies' approval" [Financial Times] in March over the state of the railways.

In truth, there is a real whiff of the 1970s in these actions. History never repeats itself in the same way. But the British workers could do a lot worse than emulate how the unions and the working class acted then.

The union leaders of the 1970s, particularly Hugh Scanlon in the engineers' union, Jack Jones in the TGWU and Lawrence Daly in the NUM, had their weaknesses politically but they did respond to and articulate at certain stages the combative mood.

However, unless these leaders are not just good industrial militants but have an overall perspective for socialist change it is inevitable that they will tend to become more 'respectable' and therefore acceptable to the capitalists and conversely less acceptable to union members.

Even Mick Rix of ASLEF is reported in The Observer to be seeking to bargain with New Labour ministers that he would drop ASLEF's demand for the renationalisation of the railways for the reintroduction of national pay bargaining.

The trade union movement needs to be renewed from top to bottom. On jobs, on wages and conditions the British workers face the greatest challenge in the next period that it has seen for more than a decade.

The threat of a worldwide recession or even slump can have a dramatic effect on Britain. In order to meet this challenge the trade unions need a combative socialist programme and leaders which are equal to this.

Northern Ireland

Workers Strike Against Killings

UNDER INTENSE pressure from trade union members, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions have called a half day strike on 18 January in protest at the spiralling wave of sectarian attacks and threats.

Peter Hadden, Belfast

Last week saw vicious riots across much of north Belfast. School students from both Catholic and Protestant schools were threatened and attacked. In one incident a gang of men, at least one armed, forced their way into a Catholic school and wrecked staff cars in the car park.

On Saturday morning the violence worsened with the murder of a young Catholic postal worker, Daniel McColgan as he arrived for work in the Protestant Rathcoole estate near North Belfast.

The UDA carried out this killing, using the cover name, the Red Hand Defenders. It was followed with a threat that all Catholic postal workers and all Catholic staff in schools are now 'legitimate targets'.

Postal walk-out

This latest situation follows weeks of attacks on workers, especially those providing services to working-class communities. Late last year bus drivers withdrew night services from parts of Belfast following attacks on drivers, some sectarian, some because of vandalism.

Just after Christmas bus drivers struck to try to resolve this situation. Ambulance personnel have also been attacked and a mood for strike was only averted when UNISON officials persuaded members to postpone a ballot for two months.

Firefighters have also been under attack. In Portadown a fire crew was attacked by a crowd of 50 hurling missiles and bottles. A train driver has also been injured by a missile. Park rangers and other city council staff have received threats. Most recently a threat has been issued to Protestant council staff claiming to come from the Catholic Reaction Force.

Workers have had enough. Union members have bombarded their officials with demands for action. The phones have not stopped in many union offices with workers complaining that they're having to work under threat and insisting that the unions do something.

Following Daniel McColgan's killing the Communication Workers Union led the way. The main sorting office outside Belfast immediately walked out. The union has called a total stoppage of all postal collections and deliveries until 16 January, the day after the funeral.

All indications are that the ICTU strike and rally will get a huge response. Socialist Party members in the workplaces have been the most vocal in demanding a stoppage and are now building to make it a success.

An emergency meeting of trade union members of the party was held on 13 January where initiatives were discussed in the teaching unions, in the public-sector union NIPSA, in the FBU, the T&GWU and CWU.

The union leaders want this rally just to let off steam before handing responsibility to the politicians. But local politicians are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

The strike needs to be followed by further protests and by local initiatives by the unions along with community organisations. These bodies need to act to ensure that those providing services in the areas can do so without threat. They also need to discuss how the working class can act to challenge and overcome sectarianism.

School Students United

A NEW campaign "School students UNITED against sectarianism" has been launched. Socialist Youth members took this to Belfast's streets last Saturday demanding free access for all students to schools.

The campaign calls on school students, Catholic and Protestant, to unite to fight for more resources for education and against privatisation and not to be divided along religious lines. This message got an excellent response.

Now "School students UNITED against sectarianism" are organising a school students' meeting on the day before the trade union rally. It will discuss a call for students from all schools to join the strike and march together to the union rally.

LAST WEEK The Socialist described the momentous scenes of 19/20 December in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when an uprising of workers and the middle classes pushed aside the 'State of Siege' and drove out the hated President De la Rua, whose 'neo-liberal' capitalist policies had pauperised society. Mass protests are continuing as the crisis deepens. Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) member DIMITRI SILVEIRA takes up the story.

Mass Protests Threaten Ruling Class

ON 23 December Adolfo Saa was appointed President by the Legislative Assembly. A smiling Saa immediately announced a series of populist measures to be implemented by his government.

The most pronounced effect of these proposals was to create an expectation of change. The holiday period had also begun and there was a downturn in mobilisations. Everything seemed quiet and then...

28 December uprising

ONE OF the main changes that people wanted to see was the government ending the "corralito" (the restriction on cash withdrawals from bank accounts), but it announced it was going to keep it!

In addition to this unpopular announcement, Rodruguez Saa nominated Carlos Grosso - a Peronist leader - as Chief of Cabinet of the Government, who has a long list of corruption charges against him. When questioned about the suitability of his nomination, Grosso replied: "I was nominated for my intelligence not for my record." This was too much to swallow.

On 28 December at 10pm the first echoes of the sound of banging metal could be heard as people began to go out onto the streets to begin a mass demonstration - another "cacercolazo". At 11.30pm there were only a few of us - no more than 100 people - who began to assemble in front of the National Congress. One hour later we were thousands!

The few police who were guarding the main entrance to the Congress simply vanished. The crowd control barriers that had been used to block the steps up to the Congress were now used by us to block off the streets!

The staircase was totally taken over and with every minute that passed more and more people arrived to occupy the square in front of the Congress.

By midnight more than 15,000 voices were chanting that we should go forward to take the Casa Rosada - the Presidential Palace. The Avenida de Mayo that links the Plaza de Mayo with the Casa Rosada and the National Congress had a few people passing through it. Arriving in the Plaza de Mayo tens of thousands more were assembled in front of the Casa Rosada.

Following the brutal repression that the police carried out on 19-20 December, in which 30 people were murdered, including 13- and 14-year-olds, the order was given not to use repressive measures, for the moment, as a gigantic protest was taking place at the gates of the Casa de Govierno. The few police that guarded a part of the front of the Casa Rosada, when confronted with the people simply vanished.

At this point there was not a single policeman in the hall to the Casa Rosada, and taking it had become the easiest task in the world. The objective had not only been to take the hall but the Casa Rosada itself.

The demonstration had been peaceful. You could see young and old together. They carried the Argentinian national flag and all sang protest songs and demanded profound political change in the country.

At 2.30am the riot troops arrived and began to brutally repress the demonstration using tear gas and plastic bullets. After this battle in the Plaza de Mayo the masses decided to return to the National Congress. It was about 4am in the morning when the demonstration was finally dispersed after a series of running battles with the police and attempts to re-occupy the Plaza del Congresso.

The masses managed to do in the National Congress what they could not do in the Casa Rosada. The main door was open and some people managed to enter the National Congress while tens of thousands stood outside chanting: "They will all go".

Sofas, curtain, pictures, bronze busts, everything they found in the National Congress was taken down the steps to a massive bonfire around which the people chanted and sang, "In Argentina - They will rob no more".

Not much later at about 5am police re-enforcements arrived which dispersed the demonstration which had mobilised up to 50,000 people.

Political effects

IN THE middle of the night of the 28th the Chief of the Cabinet of the Government, Carlos Grosso, faced with the beginning of the uprising which was unfolding in various regions throughout the country, submitted his resignation.

By the 29th the weakened government of Rodriguez Saa began to collapse like a stack of cards. Saa made a public announcement regarding the events of the previous night and called a meeting of all provincial governors from the Peronists asking them for their co-operation in strengthening support for his government.

On the 30th only five of the 14 governors called to the meeting attended. Without the support of his own Peronists, Saa was left 'suspended in mid air'. On the same day he announced that he could not continue as President of Argentina.

Ramon Puerta, who assumed the Presidency after Saa was also forced to resign. Eduardo Camano, President of the Chamber of Deputies, then assumed the post of President of the Republic for a few hours. He convened the Legislative Assembly to elect a new President on 1 January.

Duhalde - will he last?

ON 1 January at 2pm the Legislative Assembly began its session. The Peronists proposed Eduardo Duhalde as President with the support of the UCR (Radical Civil Union - a liberal capitalist party) and FREPASO (a centre capitalist coalition) and other smaller capitalist parties.

The ARI (Alianca por Una Republica de Iquales - a centre-left grouping) began by saying it would abstain. Following a hysterical intervention by a Peronist Senator denouncing the left the ARI decided to vote against Duhalde.

Duhalde was elected by a big majority of the assembly to govern until 2003. Opinion polls taken in Buenos Aires between 26 and 29 December indicated that if elections were to take place in March 2002; 20% would be undecided and 12% would cast a blank vote.

The calling of an assembly of Deputies and Senators to elect a new president was denounced by the Left as a farce. They called a protest outside the congress in front of a protest called by some Peronists. In reality the Peronists had mobilised a layer of lumpen [reactionary] workers to wave flags and shout slogans in support of Duhalde.

A fight broke out which was reported as between left-wing militants and Peronists. The police intervened and attacked the left-wing protesters. The total protest was no bigger than 400.

At 11pm on the same day (1 January) another demonstration took place involving about 5,000 mainly young people. The main thrust of the protest was against Duhalde being elected President until 2003 and the cancellation of elections in March 2002 which had been agreed when Saa resigned.

THE CRISIS on the railways has recently overshadowed even the crises in education and the health service. Whilst railway workers fight against low pay and aggressive and ineffectual management, the whole railway system is crying out for more investment. We explain the socialist solution to the railway crisis.

The Worst Railways In Europe

WHEN GOVERNMENT minister Peter Hain blurted out what most people had long ago concluded about the state of Britain's railways, he was slapped down by Downing Street. A mere minister for Europe couldn't comment on transport and he certainly shouldn't tell the truth.

Alison Hill

Britain's railways may be the worst in Europe now but they've always suffered from under- investment as the profiteers held sway over the development of a modern transport system.

At the beginning of the last century there were 217 different railway companies, with over 1,400 directors wanting their share of the spoils. As a result, railway workers were on poor wages whilst fares and freight rates were high. Capitalism as a whole needed a cheap and efficient railway system but the individual companies of course always put profit first.

Fundamental changes in the way the railways were run didn't happen until the creation of the nationalised British Railways in 1948. The railway system emerged from the war worn out and in desperate need of investment. Under nationalisation, steam gave way to electric and diesel, and tracks and signalling were replaced.

But investment was never enough for the development of modern industry and rail often lost out to road freight carriers. British Rail was always treated like a private company, with profit and loss the main driving force.

In the 1960s many branch lines and stations were closed after a notorious report by Beeching, chair of the British Railways Board. After numerous other reports about British Railways' debts, the end of the nationalised system came with the election of the Tory government in 1979.

Desperate to offload the responsibility for future investment in the railways and ideologically committed to privatisation, 'restructuring' began in 1982. The hotels, Sealink ferries and the railway workshops were sold off first, along with British Rail's legendary catering arm 'Travellers Fare.'

Completing the job, Railtrack was formed in 1994 and privatised in 1996, after the Tories wrote off £1 billion in debts. The sell-off of the rest of the network was completed just before the 1997 general election.

The under-funded, unaccountable inefficient British Railways was replaced by Railtrack and 28 (now 25) under-funded, unaccountable and inefficient train operating companies. And this disaster for rail in general became the Southall, Paddington, Hatfield and Selby disasters.

The View From The Front Line

A SENIOR union rep from the rail union RMT spoke to The Socialist about the effects of privatisation.

PRIVATISATION IS a complete and utter disaster. The government is discredited in the eyes of railway workers and yet they want to continue privatisation. Blair and Byers attack railway workers and call for 'new and innovative ways of solving disputes' but what are they?

The only people who are never consulted about how the railways are run are the workers who actually keep the railways going. We're at the front line when everything goes wrong. Big business, senior civil servants, the privateers all got consulted but not us.

There is fury and anger over pay but there's also fury, anger and desperation over the whole state of the industry.

Hundreds of trains a day are cancelled because there are no drivers or no trains. You can see how bad it is by the shambles after the Hatfield disaster. Railtrack have neglected repairs and improvements so the whole west coast mainline north of Carlisle had to be shut and there were speed restrictions all over the place.

As far as investment and renationalisation are concerned the interests of railway workers and the travelling public are the same. People like the transport users' consultative committees attack the rail unions for taking action but we're the ones who are arguing for more investment. We campaign against overcrowding, for clean trains, for decent facilities for the passengers and against the fare price rises.

MPs support local campaigns about the rail services and then they vote with the government on privatisation and attack the RMT.

There's no direction in the industry, it's seen to be in crisis. People turn up for work and they're not surprised when their train isn't moving. They have to face irate passengers, including the elderly who are apprehensive about their journey anyway.

The service is terrible, the trains are filthy because they've got rid of cleaners and by the afternoon the toilets don't work because the train hasn't been filled up with water. The fares have been increased and most of the time the catering doesn't turn up.

They should take the market away from the railways. It's a public service which needs investment and it should be accountable to the public and to the workforce. Their ethos is to make money out of everything but fund nothing. Blair has moved on to the Tories' ground and the Tories have got worse. Working class people only vote Labour now because the Tories are seen as even worse.

The railways are a real dog's breakfast now and Byers and the rest of them have to take responsibility. They can't blame the Tories forever.

I used to be the only person who argued our union should disaffiliate from the Labour Party, now that's changing, more people are agreeing with me.

A Socialist Programme For The Railways

AS SOCIALISTS, we demand that the rail industry be properly funded with investment in rail safety the number one priority.

Rail workers are the real experts on the industry. They know where investment is required to ensure proper safety and the efficient running of the system. The rail unions must be on the board of a wholly publicly owned rail industry.

Representatives should be directly elected by the workers through their own union structures with the wages of an average railworker. If they fail to represent the real interests of the rail workers they should be removed if necessary to be replaced by others who will.

The working class as a whole must also have a direct say in the industry. The trade unions are the mass organisations representing the working class. They, along with consumer groups, passenger groups and others, including political parties which fully support the concept of public ownership, should have representation on the rail board.

A democratic socialist transport plan needs to be introduced to ensure the integration of all forms of public transport, including rail, the bus industry, air transport and London Underground in an environmentally friendly way.

A Conductor's Working Life

A CONDUCTOR on Arriva Trains Northern, who has just voted to strike over pay, spoke to The Socialist:

"The train can't start without a driver but it also can't start without a conductor [formerly guard].

I've worked there for over 6 years. When I first started it was regional railway but then it was privatised under Arriva. Since I first started they've tried to water the job down.

Before the train can start I have to make sure the signals are off on the platform and check no one is stuck in the doors or anything. Then I have to collect the fares and look after the passengers. At every station you have to watch people getting on and off and check the doors.

We still have to be trained for if there's an accident or a fire even though they've taken the train protection duties off us. This meant if the train failed for any reason, we had to protect the train and get assistance. Now the drivers are supposed to do that, we only do it if the driver is incapacitated.

We were upset about losing those duties. We balloted to strike but the company took the union to court because it was Railtrack's decision to change our duties, not Arriva's.

We're only on £15,500 a year plus commission, which is 3% of the ticket sales. This is for a 35-hour week.

The earliest start is 4.15am. One week we work afternoons then early mornings the next week. But our last pay rise consolidated the shift allowances into basic pay. You get extra for working Sundays but you have to work them when you're booked to, if they can't find anyone else to swap.

If the train is delayed because the driver is late coming from another train or the train isn't platformed, its all aggro from the passengers.

Sometimes I don't go down the train if it's really late. I'd rather lose the commission than get a smack. I've been threatened myself but some people I know have been physically assaulted. I don't go down the train if I don't feel safe.

I don't think I know anybody in our mess room who doesn't believe that the railways should be renationalised. But people think the government don't want the responsibility or the cost of running the railways. Railways should be a public service not here for companies to make a quick profit."

The RMT And The Labour Party

ONE WEEK before the last RMT annual general meeting (the equivalent of the union's national conference) our national leaders handed over £60,000 to the 'New' Labour Party. The party took our money, thanked our bureaucrats politely and used it to campaign on a programme of mass privatisation, including London Underground!

Bill Johnson, RMT London Underground

The timing of our generosity is significant. The union's leadership were worried that the AGM would block further donations on this scale. They were right to worry. Most rank and file union members working on the underground are amazed when told that their union is still contributing to the Labour Party.

In the event the AGM voted to review our support for Labour and agreed to withdraw our support if the party continues with its current anti-union policies. Several RMT branches on the tube have now affiliated to the 'Campaign for an Independent Fund' (a specific RMT campaign). My own branch supported the campaign unanimously - including at least one Labour Party member!

This reflects a certain amount of confusion that still exists amongst the union's 'left'. There are those who campaign around the slogan of 'Through Labour where possible, against Labour where necessary'. This is a position that has been taken up, without stating it explicitly, by Bob Crow, the left candidate for general secretary.

Supporters of this position differentiate two or three RMT sponsored Labour MPs such as Tam Dalyell, John Marek and Gwyneth Dunwoody from another ten including Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, London Transport Minister Keith Hill, and London Mayor failure Frank Dobson.

New party

All of these MPs take our union's money and frauds like Prescott deserve particular opprobrium. Nevertheless, it is time to draw the conclusion that New Labour is beyond salvation and a new party must now be built. Prevarication over this issue will only cause delay in starting the real project of constructing a new workers' party.

The degeneracy of New Labour is typified in the failure of opponents of PPP to even win enough support within the party's 'policy forum' for the issue to be debated at Labour Party conference. The Labour left could not even get it on the agenda, let alone defeat the leadership.

Rail-workers have a proud tradition of fighting for the political representation of workers. In 1900 ASRS (the Associated Society of Railway Servants) General Secretary, Richard Bell was one of the first trade-unionists elected to parliament.

Sitting opposite him were 53 rail company bosses. Also in 1900 the ASRS successfully moved a resolution at the TUC calling for an independent party of Labour.

A year later the infamous Taff Vale Judgement ordered the rail unions to pay over £20,000 compensation to their bosses following a strike. The determination to put workers into parliament grew stronger.

Historic achievements

It is a crime that the legacy of struggle, by railway and other workers, to build a party of Labour, has been desecrated by the architects of New Labour today. We should recognise the historic achievements of our trade unions, which have brought dignity and improved conditions for millions of working people.

But we must also recognise that the history of the Labour Party, as a force for defending workers and our unions, has come to an end.

New Labour is now so bankrupt that I think socialists should call for formal disaffiliation from the party. Some may accuse us of taking an apolitical position and throwing away what influence we have. None will be able to identify what influence that is.

Disaffiliation is a first step. Firstly it deprives Blair of our members' fees. Let him raise his own money to organise the sale of our jobs to Balfour Beatty. Secondly it will settle the issue of what we can expect from New Labour ...nothing!

In the process it will save our union and its members the wasted energies currently directed towards the party. We should argue for our unions to support socialist candidates in forthcoming elections but most importantly, like the rail-workers at the turn of the twentieth century, we must now campaign for our unions to use their organisational and financial resources to build a new mass party to lead the battles of the working class.

Rail Guards Fight For Decent Pay

WHEN THE railway network was split into 'business units', everyone knew it was to prepare for privatisation but the rail bosses said it was to increase 'customer orientation and focus'. But they struggled with the regional companies when they did privatise them, companies didn't think they would be profitable.

A senior RMT, rail union, rep, Arriva Trains Northern

The north-east franchise was initially taken over by the privatised Liverpool bus company MTL, which was an industrial relations disaster. They allowed a lot of drivers to retire and many others left because they could get higher wages with other companies.

So this year Arriva, who now run the network, had to pay the drivers an 18% increase, a £400 Christmas bonus, backdated pension benefits and some improvements in their conditions.

They did this without consultation, so as soon as the other grades found out they all demanded meetings with management. We demanded to know why the normal bargaining procedures had been broken and the company was acting unfairly.

Ballot result

We had to call a strike ballot. I felt warm inside when we got the result - 94% in favour of industrial action, on a 73% turnout, one of the highest we've ever had in the RMT.

The company may try to break the strike on 24/25 January but the members will stick by what they said in the ballot. In any case the ballot was within the strict Tory anti-union laws yet we're still being slagged off and attacked. No wonder the members are saying to us "Why bother to negotiate with the company, let's just go on strike."

There's been a vicious management campaign against the unions in Arriva. They removed trade union material from people's pigeonholes and took the union posters off the union notice boards. But in Carlisle they just made Christmas decorations out of the posters so the company couldn't do anything.

All four members of the Arriva Trains Northern Conductors' council of RMT have been gagged by the company. They can't make statements to the press about the dispute under the threat of disciplinary action. This is an archaic attitude by the company.

Companies like South West Trains (SWT) are victimising union reps like Greg Tucker and Sarah Friday, using the safety regulations, because they got results. The RMT have a similar pay dispute with SWT. All the companies would like to get rid of effective union reps.

Bob Crow is standing for general secretary of the RMT and because he is seen to be on the left there's a campaign from the right, from RMT-sponsored MPs and the TUC leaders, to ensure he doesn't get elected. (see below)

Management's record speaks for itself. The managing director of Arriva is from the discredited Railtrack. He replaced a bloke called Nigel Patterson who told us on a Thursday that he was there for the long haul to turn the company around but he was gone by the Monday. The other directors include one from Woolworth's and one from the Halifax Building Society.

Some passengers have set up their own website: www.arrivasucks.com to co-ordinate their complaints against the company. But they support our strike: "... let us hope Arriva does the decent thing and addresses the pay of conductors who on the whole provide exceptional service given the low morale faced, infrastructure problems and crumbling rolling stock."

"WE'RE UPSET about the pay. The drivers got a pay rise and a bonus last year but they won't pay us. Management caused problems by getting rid of a lot of experienced drivers. They didn't think anyone would go sick or go on holiday.

They think their plans look OK on paper but it doesn't work like that. People above have never seen how things really work. They've got rid of all the people with real experience of how the railways run.

I reckon the 24/25 January strike will be quite solid. The only trains will be taken out by managers."

Rail guard, Arriva trains

RMT General Secretary Candidate Attacked

BOB CROW, candidate for rail union RMT's general secretary, has exposed how a senior TUC official attempted to sabotage his election campaign. Even more seriously he has described how he was physically attacked by 'hired thugs' in the early hours of New Year's Day.

TUC media officer Mike Power wrote a report advising Bob Crow's election rival to refer to Crow as a 'fanatic' and that the RMT was a union 'on the brink'.

The briefing was also circulated to the press and it was taken up by London paper, the Evening Standard, which ran a two-page attack on Crow, 'the man who even scares the TUC'.

TUC general secretary John Monks has been forced to disassociate the TUC from the briefing, saying that Power's conduct is being dealt with as a serious disciplinary matter.

In an extremely serious development, on the day the general secretary election papers were sent out, Bob Crow was attacked on his doorstep by thugs with iron bars.

Crow blames 'certain employers' worried about further industrial action on the railways. "I think it was someone giving me a hiding on the day that the ballot papers went out" he told the press.

Although the police originally described the attack as a failed burglary they are now treating it as assault.

Privatisation now means there are thousands of different companies trying to make profits from the railways.

Apparently some of them may be prepared to resort to thuggery to prevent workers having determined left-wing leaders.

Stop This Privatisation Madness