Solidarity with the rail strike – defend the right to strike

Text of The Red Line bulletin – produced by Socialist Party members in the RMT – for the RMT strike on Tuesday 21 June

• Fight the cost-of-living crisis
• Organise to all strike together!
• Kick out the Tories
• Fight for a new mass workers’ party
• For a fully funded, integrated, publicly owned, democractically worker controlled transport network

During the Covid crisis the combined wealth of the billionaires in the UK rose 21.7% to £597 billion. Yet the Tory government and capitalist media complain about workers on the railways fighting for an increase in pay and to save jobs!

Our members will not stand by and watch our conditions, won by years of struggle, be smashed by a government that represents the interests of the capitalists.

The cabinet is made up of millionaires including Rishi Sunak and his billionaire tax-dodging family. The workers in the rail industry worked during the Covid crisis, like all workers are struggling with the cost of living, and are now threatened with job losses and attacks on pensions and wages.

50,000 rail workers are now striking to fight back. Other unions are preparing for action. Polls suggest the vast majority of workers support us.

This is a historic strike that must be supported by the whole trade union movement, not least because of the threats of new anti-trade union measures, such as setting minimum service requirements and legalising the use of agency workers to do the work of strikers.

But this strike could also be the start of mass working-class struggle the length and breadth of Britain, as workers facing similar attacks gain in confidence and push their trade union leaders to coordinate action.

The rail and tube strike will show, on a scale not seen since the 24- hour public sector general strike on 30 November 2011, the power of workers’ collective action, and offer a glimpse of how workers keep society running.

To the horror of the ruling class, if the RMT can bring sections of society and the economy to a halt, it will show workers across the country, who are desperate to stop falling living standards, something of the huge potential power of the organised workers’ movement.

Mass coordinated struggle needed

The working class faces the biggest fall in living standards since 1956. The TUC demo was an important start, but we need a mass struggle.

P&O’s brutal sacking of their workforce is a sign of how far the bosses will go to protect profits. But the seven- month all-out strike by Coventry bin workers, the ballots among Scottish local council workers and teachers, the various local strikes, and now the national rail strike, all show growing numbers of workers are fighting back.

While action by individual trade unions cannot be delayed, the leaders should discuss how to build on existing action to call a 24-hour general strike – as a show of strength, to raise workers’ confidence, and terrify the Tories and bosses.

If the TUC fails to step up, then those trade union leaders who are willing should come together to coordinate action.

Fight anti-union laws

We need a mass campaign by the whole trade union movement against further anti-union laws. But we can’t allow existing laws to prevent effective action.

Even within the existing undemocratic laws, strike action can be coordinated, and disaggregated ballots can be used to maximise the number of workplaces that pass the legal thresholds.

But, as the ruling against the CWU showed in 2019, the courts are a tool that the bosses and Tories can use to try and block action. Not so when employers break the law: they took no legal action against P&O!

To fight the cost-of-living crisis, coordinated action will play a vital role, even if it means confronting the anti-union laws. We don’t say this lightly – but the crisis is serious.

This is why the Socialist Party campaigns to transform our unions into fighting democratic organisations.

Build a new workers’ party

The divided Tory government, led by ‘one rule for you, another rule for me’ Boris, is on the ropes: 148 of his own MPs tried to boot him out!

We can build a movement to kick them all out. But Starmer’s Labour is no alternative and neither are the SNP. Neither support the rail strikes.

The Scottish government are putting the boot in to workers. Labour and SNP councillors continue to implement Tory cuts. We need a new mass workers’ party.

The bakers’ union BFAWU has disaffiliated from Labour, while in other unions – like CWU, TSSA, Aslef and FBU – debates have been reignited on affiliation.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has made important statements against Labour councils’ abusive treatment of workforces, and has withdrawn support in the Midlands.

Those trade union leaders prepared to make a stand should call a conference to discuss the building of a new party. In the meantime, the Socialist Party and Socialist Party Scotland is part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), alongside the RMT and other trade unionists.

Train guard

“Most of us come from industries where the terms and conditions are nowhere near as good as what we get on the railway. We want to keep it that way, but you have to be prepared to fight for them once in a while. That can encourage other workers to fight for better too. We know that guards on trains make the railway safer for passengers but management see us as an unnecessary expense and want to get rid of us eventually. This dispute is fantastic because finally all grades can be united in one struggle.”

Network Rail maintenance worker

“The attacks on infrastructure workers include the threat of compulsory redundancies, tearing up terms and conditions, and more ‘svings’. The bosses want to change grading structures and duties, which will ultimately result in the closure of depots and the loss of more jobs. They are also pushing through with a 50% reduction in signalling maintenance inspections and a reduction of many other safety-critical maintenance tasks. Do we really need to return to the dark old days where underfunded and inadequate maintenance regimes resulted in serious derailments like Potters Bar?”

Signaller

“It’s been 28 years since our grade took industrial action, and we were hoping that those bad old days were firmly in the past. But with this Tory government, nothing is a surprise. Boris has had a bee in his bonnet with the RMT since long before he was prime minister. I don’t think he ever got over the bloody nose he was given by Bob Crow when he was London mayor. Our industry is changing, with many signal boxes replaced by computerised Operating Centres. The younger members who weren’t around in 1994 do not know how hard we fought that summer for decent terms, conditions and wages. That is why I am proud of the turnout in the ballot. This generation of members are prepared to build on the spirit of 1994.”

London Underground tube driver

“London Underground has a ‘self-financing’ model, the only major metro system not to be subsidised by government. But under the Covid crisis, the Tories had to step in to help support the system. Aided by the London Labour mayor, the Tory government drip fed Transport for London with money, under the condition that TfL tear up our terms and conditions, reduce our workforce, and change our pension scheme. This includes a reduction of 600 station jobs and £730 million savings year on year. In March we took action altogether on the tube, which showed our collective power in shutting London down. This was followed by our station members taking action on 6 June, which was a huge success.”