Trade unions
Workers of the world unite!

Tony Blair calls them wreckers. The Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail talk of a left wing conspiracy to drag Britain back to the "dark days of the 1970s".The rail bosses claim they are holding passengers to ransom and forcing 'ordinary' railworkers to carry out their evil plan.

Yes. Strikes are back!

On the rail guards and platform staff are striking for the same pay rise that drivers have received. Benefit office workers are striking over unsafe conditions and management dictat. Tube and postal workers threatened with privatisation and job cuts are poised to set up picket lines, again over pay.

But these are just the headlines. Up and down the country groups of workers are standing up, downing tools and shouting, "Basta!" (OK, they're crying, "Enough!" but if they were Spanish...) Engineers in Durham who make the Caterpillar diggers, teachers and council workers in London, airport security staff in Manchester, journalists in Yorkshire... are all either on strike or balloting for strike action.

Wage slavery

Now, if all these disputes were the result of revolutionary socialists rallying workers to self-sacrifice for the downfall of capitalism, we'd be laughing. But, of course, that is just New Labour's propaganda machine going into overdrive. In fact, these disputes are the direct result of capitalism.

All over the world, workers and students are forced to sell their ability to work to the bosses. They do this because they don't have the means to make their own goods to exchange on the market, and are denied a living wage or benefits. Thus they have to sign a contract with an employer to survive.

On the surface this is presented as an equal relationship between two people where both parties, boss and workers, benefit. In fact, on the one side you've got a multi-national giant like McDonalds with outlets in every major city in the world and billions of pounds at its disposal; and on the other there's li'l ol' you with your trainers and $2.50 in your pocket. And if you don't play the game as Ronald McD likes it, there's someone else just like you who will.

The capitalists say this unevenness between them and you is the result of hard, honest endeavour.

For example, we are told that rail and bus magnate Brian Souter - the son of a bus driver - used his dad's redundancy package to build up his transport empire and his $580m personal fortune.

Bollocks. Souter's obscene fortune has been screwed out of thousands of low-paid workers over twenty-odd years of hard graft. Exploitation, not honest toil got him where he is. For every Brian Souter there are thousands of others whose redundancy pay just about pays off the debts.

This system is often described as wage slavery. But wherever there is slavery there is a slaves' revolt. In the film Spartacus, there's a moment where the Romans are looking for the leader. First Spartacus steps forward, then another shouts, "No, I'm Spartacus!" Then another and another till they're all standing together. This is how the trade unions were built.

Workers soon learnt that the only way to protect and advance their interests against the exploiters was to combine their strengths and act in unison. Individually they can be picked off one by one, together they can stop the capitalist making his profits off their backs and threaten him (or occasionally her) with ruin.

What's more, the very fact that workers endure the same conditions as each other every day in the factory, the fast food joint or the office engenders a spirit of solidarity and unity of purpose.

Frederick Engels, the lifelong collaborator of Karl Marx, called the unions, "schools for socialism". By this he meant that through strikes and occupations workers learnt first-hand about their collective strength and their potential to run society without bosses.

But Engels also recognised that this potential was often wasted. The unions would usually only fight for short-term gain. Postal workers and tube workers are to strike over pay not to stop privatisation, which is the big issue threatening them. Train drivers in Aslef are continuing to drive the trains when guards and platform staff are on strike. Why? Because it's not "their" dispute.

Reformism and the union bureaucrats

The reason for this is that trade unionism is a form of reformism. Workers strike for better pay, more jobs, shorter hours, safer conditions. But even if they win, capitalist exploitation remains in place. The boss still controls the factory and, sooner or later, he'll be back for more.

Rosa Luxemburg, another great revolutionary socialist, likened this guerrilla warfare to the "labour of Sysiphus" -- an ancient Greek myth where this guy was made to roll a rock to the top of the hill only to see it roll down again on the other side where he had to start all over again.

Reformism suits the bosses down to the ground. It divides workers from each other and weakens their resistance to capitalist exploitation as a whole.

In fact they like it so much they are prepared to offer favours and privileges to a set of union leaders. "Sir" Ken Jackson is the leader of the engineers' union Amicus. He receives #70,000 plus perks a year, sits on the government committees and was knighted for his "services to industry". And what are these services? Well, he recently told Caterpillar workers in Durham to "get back to work, improve productivity [i.e. work harder] and work with the company".

In times of crisis, these union leaders can get even worse. In Argentina the union leaders, supposedly representing ordinary workers who have had their savings stolen and haven't been paid for months, have hung up a giant banner outside their offices in central Buenos Aires saying, "Work harder, spend less". Animal Farm or what?!

Of course, sometimes union leaders have to lead a fight to maintain their position. Bob Crow of the railworkers' union RMT and Mark Serwotka of the civil service union PCS are left wing bureaucrats. Bob Crow may have called more strikes on the tube than any other bureaucrat, but he's also called off more. Mark Serwotka may be dedicated to rank and file workers, but he has failed to break the control of sectional bureaucrats who are allowing the strike to peter out.

Socialism and the rank and file

Socialists welcome the recent election of left wing candidates in union elections. Better to have someone prepared to back a strike than a strike-breaker. But left wing leaders cannot, on their own, solve the problem of trade union reformism. For this we need two things. Democratic rank and file control of the union machinery -- regularly elected and instantly recallable officials paid the average wage of the workers they represent, workers' control over all negotiations and strike action -- and revolutionary methods of struggle and goals.

If post workers are going to sacrifice pay by going on strike, they might as well go for gold: for a nationalised communications network run under workers' and community control. If Job Centre workers are facing potential violence from claimants, they should demand benefits are set at the same level as the minimum wage and the element of coercion -- forcing the unemployed into dead-end jobs -- is removed from the system. If RMT train workers' action is being undermined by drivers and managers scabbing on them, they should erect mass pickets to physically stop them breaking the strike.

All these fights -- for workers' control, unity with the unemployed, picket defence squads -- will mean that the unions do not remain just primary schools for socialism, but become an interlinked system leading to higher education and a degree in revolutionary socialism.

Bringing anti-capitalism to the unions

Arriva Northern workers have decided to run "No Fares" days where the public travel for free while the bosses make zero profits. So long as these run alongside strike days and do not lessen the pressure on drivers to join the strike it is an imaginative way of proving that the strikers, not the bosses, are on the passengers' side.

Caterpillar workers in Durham not only went on strike, they occupied the factory. By holding the factory to ransom, workers can increase the pressure on the bosses. In the 1990s occupying Caterpillar workers even made a digger, painted it bright pink and donated it to charity. An excellent way to highlight capitalism's greed and workers' solidarity.

Hackney workers sick of cuts have decided to go into the auction where the council is selling off the borough's assets and making phoney bids, disrupting the meeting, etc. And they're bringing the Rhythms of Resistance samba band along for good measure!

Think of other anti-capitalist ways to take a dispute in your area forward. Build strike support groups to get allies for these ideas. You'll be surprised how many workers are up for it.

Rank and file action

In Italy there is a massive confrontation brewing between billionaire media magnate-cum-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and the unions. Berlusconi and his (neo-)fascist ministers want to introduce the right to sack workers at will.

The big unions were too timid to fight back. So the smaller, more combative unions with strong rank and file control called a general strike on Friday 15th February. It was a huge success with 100,000 workers marching in Rome alone.

Result: the 5.7m-strong CGIL union has now called a general strike to smash the anti-union bill. True, this will not start until April and is due to last just one day. But the rank and file are already building on this by starting local and sectional strikes.

By refusing to allow the big union cheeses to dictate tactics, they can bring the general strike date forward and make sure it lasts more than just the one day.

The role of the social forums in Italy has made this possible. Why not build something similar in Britain? That way, post, rail, Job Centre and engineering workers can co-ordinate their action, get active public support and massively increase their impact.

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