FBU leaders must ask for support now

This is no longer just a dispute between the firefighters and the government but between New Labour and the whole trade union movement. Those are the words of John Edmonds, the general secretary of the GMB union, which has led the campaign against privatisation of public services. He is absolutely right.

John Monks, once a close friend of New Labour, now describes the strike as a “seminal dispute” for the relationship between the New Labour government and the unions. He too is right. Monks is so angered by the government's determination to block any decent pay settlement with the FBU that he has sent an email to all unions urging them to support the firefighters. 

The FBU leaders now have a golden opportunity to respond to these statements by asking for active industrial support from other unions. It is an opening they must grasp with both hands because they are clearly involved in a fight to the finish with the Blair government. 

New Labour wants to defeat the FBU in order to cut existing conditions to shreds through overtime working and the ending of the four-shift system. This will mean job losses and putting the public in greater danger from fire. Other public services would then suffer a similar fate.

The only way to prevent this is to mobilise the trade union movement to defeat the government. FBU leaders have to take Monks and Edmonds at their words. They must immediately ask for supportive industrial action.

The fact that such action is illegal under Tory/New Labour laws should not become an excuse. Unions were not formed to protect the assets from the courts but to defend the interests of workers. If they are not going to be used in support of the firefighters, what use are they to future generations? Let the GMB, the RMT and other unions organise action now - and not sit back and await the outcome of the firefighters' struggle.

Many firefighters have already decided that they will never again pay a penny towards New Labour's coffers through the political levy. The FBU leaders should recognise what their members want and announce they will ballot on disaffiliation. This would give a tremendous boost to the burning question of the day: discussing and building alternatives to New Labour.

Movement for a Socialist Future
November 24, 2002