Troublemakers at Work are holding their second conference at an opportune time. The Manchester gathering on 5 October offers trade union activists a chance to reflect on the tasks posed by the arrival of a Labour government, a stagnant capitalist economy and the ongoing war in Gaza and Lebanon.
The first conference, in July 2023, came after a year-long strike wave had put under the spotlight the long term decline in real wages, the restrictions on effective industrial action by accumulated anti-trade union laws and the conflict of interest between the trade union leaders and the rank and file membership of the unions.
One year on, Counterfire’s Rank & File Combine and the Socialist Workers Party’s Workers Summit have completely failed to endure, let alone take any strides towards the formation of real rank and file organisation. We predicted this outcome. It not only reflects the sectarian practices of the two socialist groups organising and controlling them, but also their ambivalent relationship with the left union leaders, whom they both seek to influence, in return muting criticism of their failings.
This leaves Troublemakers at Work as the only rank and file initiative going. The organisers plan to hold another, decision-making conference in the first months of 2025. If union militants can use the intervening months to prosecute campaigns, get stuck into the strikes and ballots that are underway and encourage their activists to attend, then we can begin to pull together the various strands of struggle and bind them into a solid rope.
New scene
Two important political developments in the past year have placed new tasks in front of trade unionists. The first is the tragic war in Gaza, and now in Lebanon, where millions have been driven from their homes. Zionist atrocities have drawn hundreds of thousands onto the streets and prompted direct action against Israeli weapons suppliers.
Despite the movement’s mass character and the participation of tens of thousands of union activists in its ranks, the union leaders have at best restricted their opposition to Britain’s support for the Zionist genocide to mere words. Too many have remained silent and absent from the struggle. Unite’s Sharon Graham even condemned Palestine supporters as ‘attacking’ her union’s members in the defence industry.
Israel’s relentless extension of its war has made the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, more urgent as each day passes. Plainly it is up to the rank and file to ensure this call by the Palestinian trade unions, repeated on May Day, is answered. In particular, work on the production and transportation of weapons and components destined for the IDF should be boycotted.
Secondly, we have seen the election of a new Labour government after 14 years of falling real wages, Tory destruction of the welfare state, and yet more anti-union laws which shackle effective action. The pro-capitalist leadership of the party, epitomised by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, have rewarded the union leaders for their support by promising a ‘painful’ budget: another round of austerity for working class communities and public sector workers in order to restore profitability for British capitalism.
This immediately poses the task of breaking the unions from their subservience to the Labour government. There should be strike action against Reeves’ cuts and the bosses’ downsizing. The tragedy of the closure of steel plants from Port Talbot to Scunthorpe without a single day of strike action shows the dangers of new sell-outs.
The need for a renewal of workplace organisation and the formation of a rank and file movement, politically opposed to the reformist union leaders and the capitalist system they defend, both in Britain and abroad, has only become more urgent.
Let’s get to work – let’s ‘make trouble’ for Labour, the do-nothing union bureaucrats and the bosses!