A moment of truth in the fight against New Labour

The decision of the FBU to suspend strike action in order to try and reach a negotiated settlement through the arbitration agency Acas, coincides with a moment of truth for firefighters, their union and everyone else in opposition to New Labour.

What seemed to firefighters a perfectly legitimate pay claim based on research by independent consultants, has assumed a character during just 10 days of strike action beyond anything they might have imagined at the outset of the dispute.

By putting its entire political and economic strategy on the line, New Labour has defied the FBU and its supporters to challenge its legitimacy as a government. The alternative is stark: accept a small pay rise plus substantial cuts or return to work empty handed.

A number of trade union leaders, include the TUC general secretary John Monks, have recognised the significance of the conflict. But none have so far offered any real support, even when presented with the opportunity, as the RMT was over safety on the Underground. The Tory/New Labour anti-union laws frightened the RMT leaders into abandoning even a ballot on industrial action let alone going ahead with a strike.

The government has at its disposal the machinery of state, most of the media and the right-wing in the TUC.  It has an evil spin machine which weaves lies by the minute. Without the support of sympathetic unions - which without a call from the FBU leaders for solidarity action is unlikely to materialise - the conditions do not exist for firefighters on their own to beat New Labour.

Actually defeating Blair and his government implies a number of things that by their nature extend beyond the confines, organisation and outlook of trade unionism even at its most militant.

Andy Gilchrist, the FBU general secretary, went some way towards acknowledging this when he rejected New Labour’s whole philosophy and called for “Real Labour” to take its place. His political courage brought down upon his head vitriolic attacks from the media as well as the government because he dared to question the basis of New Labour.

New Labour is a big business government that hates the trade unions. In the one-party state that is Blair’s Britain everyone is expected to know and then accept his or her place. If that means the destruction of the fire service in the name of “modernisation”, then so be it.

The capitalist globalisation process has turned parties like New Labour into managing agencies of corporate interests and exposed the parliamentary process as an undemocratic fraud. That is why every challenge to the status quo, no matter how modest, raises the issue of political and economic power.

Firefighters rightly want their contribution to society recognised with a living wage; they want some control over changes to their working practices so that they are not made at the expense of either their jobs or the communities they serve. What they want is not on offer in a country dominated by commercial considerations and profit margins.

We have to remake society for it to be something like what firefighters and other working people want. In place of the rule of the global corporations and financial markets, there is a need for democratic control, ownership and decision-making. Only such a society can solve pressing world issues in a peaceful way rather than through military aggression, as is about to happen in Iraq.

This is one way of describing what a “Real Labour” party might have as its objectives. The FBU leaders have performed a great service by showing how their members’ interests are inseparably linked to wider political aspirations. That is something to build on as the debate gathers pace on what is to replace New Labour and what kind of society we want to live in.

Movement for a Socialist Future
December 3, 2002