The News Line: Editorial
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Anti-union laws and wage cuts will stay =96 Brown tells trade unions
Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday gave a fitting reply to all
those trade union bureaucrats who were saying that he could be forced
to ditch his Thatcherite policies now that the Labour party is
financially bankrupt.
Brown simply told the union leaders that =91there will be no return to
the 1970s=92 and, that he stood four square behind all of the Thatcher
and Labour anti-union laws.
The argument of the bureaucrats is that with the Labour Party in =A38
million debt, and with all of its big business friends unwilling to
shell out yet again for New Labour, the trade unions have the PM over
a barrel.
The trade unions have the money that the PM and the Labour party
wants, so Brown will have to make concessions =96 this is the theme that
is currently being played non-stop at a thousand union meetings from
NECs to local branches, to counter the demands of workers that this is
the time to smash Brown by cutting off his cash supply.
However the trade union leaders, who are not too confident in their
own propaganda, have decided not to pitch their demands above the
level of the absolutely minimal, when they meet Brown on July 25th, to
make a Warwick 2 deal between the unions and the government, that will
see the unions resolve Labour=92s financial crisis.
The trade union bureaucrats are prepared to hand over =A38 million plus
of workers money to Brown for measures that include free school meals
for all primary school pupils, a =91modernising=92 of voting in industrial
action ballots to prevent employers mounting legal challenges to
ballot results, reform of the National Insurance system, a better
regulation of energy prices, and for family friendly workplace reforms
such as extended rights for parents to take days off.
These are minimal demands. But Brown will not even give the nod to
these unless he gets the clearance of the bankers, and the bosses, who
will see free primary school meals, and family friendly days off from
work as dire threats to profitability, flexibility and financial
stability.
Brown made this clear on Monday night when he told the media:
=91There=92ll be no return to the 1970s.=92
He added that he would not allow the re-introduction of secondary
picketing rights, and told journalists: =91Successful governments are
those whose eyes are fixed on the future not harking back to the past.
So there will be no return to the 1970s, 1980s or even the 1990s when
it comes to union rights, no retreat from continued modernisation and
there can be no question of any reintroduction of secondary picketing
rights.=92
He added: =91The countries that prosper in the future will be those that
combine fairness with flexibility to achieve full employment. . .
While we will push ahead with our family friendly agenda, we will do
nothing that puts employment and future prosperity at risk.=92
In fact what workers require in a period of a massive inflation of
food, fares, gas and electricity prices is an end to Brown=92s three
year wage cutting pay deals, the abolition of the anti-union laws so
that the trade unions are free to defend their members from price
rises and job losses, a proper regulation of gas and oil prices
through the nationalisation of the gas and oil industries, and the
illegalising of house repossessions by banks, when families can no
longer afford to pay their mortgages because of the capitalist crisis.
The union leaders will not demand such policies because this would
mean a conflict with the government that they are working all out to
preserve.
Instead they urge a few cosmetic changes, saying that anything more
than this will see the government fall and the Tories back.
The trade union bureaucrats=92 policy is to hand millions to Brown so
that he can carry on governing for the bankers.
It is this policy of propping up the Brown government that is making
the Tories stronger with every day that p*****.
This policy must be dumped and the trade union leaders with it. The
working class must take action to bring the Brown government down, and
to bring in a workers government that will carry out socialist
policies to keep the Tories out. This is the only way to defend the
interests of the working class.
http://www.wrp.org.uk/news/3344
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