After the party

tim — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:00:37 +0000

There had been a long-running debate in the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) about our affiliation with the Labour Party going back to the 1980s. But it all came to a head during the 2002/2003 disputes. Our members were taken aback by how suddenly the pressure was put on by the government and the harshness with which we were treated. One Labour politician even described us as fascists. We settled the disputes in 2003 and at the following year’s conference we disaffiliated from the party.

An overwhelming percentage of the FBU membership supported the decision. I suspect that in the beginning a lot of our members just wanted to give Labour a bit of a kick but they have continued to back disaffiliation in the following years. Since then we have been thinking through how we develop: what we do politically as a disaffiliated union.

There was a concern among our officials that we would be left isolated and politicians wouldn’t talk to us anymore. I don’t think that has happened. We have a very good relationship with a lot of MPs and have also rebuilt some of our relations with government. Ironically, it seems that since disaffiliating we have formalised a lot more of our parliamentary work.

Using the political fund

We continue to use our political fund to support individual Labour MPs, such as John McDonnell in his leadership bid. Our regional groups have supported Green and Respect candidates, although the FBU nationally has not supported any other parties’ candidates since Labour.

In Scotland being disaffiliated has opened more doors for us. We have backed a range of candidates, including the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). We have a good relationship with the Scottish government, possibly better than the one we have at Westminster. It strikes me how different the political debate in Scotland is to England. The first minister goes to the Scottish TUC and talks openly about council housing and opposing the war – stuff that a politician would never tell you here.

We also support plenty of single-issue campaigns. This year we have worked closely with the anti-fascist movement, funding the Love Music Hate Racism march and festival.

Some people think we should be moving further towards an approach where we pick out individual candidates and campaigns. I don’t agree. I feel strongly that there needs to be a wider approach – the left and the working class needs a political party but there isn’t one for them at this time.

No longer Labour

In theory, you would think that if the Labour government is on the ropes it would be an ideal opportunity for the trade unions to put some demands to them. I’ve not seen any evidence, although I hope this will happen.

Instead, it seems that among the affiliated unions there is currently a move to rally round the Labour Party as the election approaches. I’m pleased we don’t have that in the FBU, as I don’t think it washes with either members or people generally. There is no sign of a change in direction now and there is unlikely to be any change after an election either.

There is a huge amount of frustration with mainstream politics. There is consensus among the three main parties around a neoliberal agenda. For us as trade unions that is about the privatisation and restrictions on trade union rights that have alienated Labour’s core supporters.

I am no longer a Labour member. I am not convinced the party can be reclaimed in the way people want it to be at the moment. But we need to be political and the working class needs representation in parliament. How we achieve that is a drawn-out process. The trade unions that are clearly opposed to the mainstream agenda need to discuss and co-operate a lot more. The challenge for us is the need for a fundamental debate about the type of society we want.

For me as a socialist, I’d like a socialist society. I think there is a growing unease about some of the developments – ever-growing inequality and climate change, for example – and the fact is the policies around which Labour, Liberals and Tories address those issues – a market based approach – can’t do anything.

Beyond belief

tim — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:52:35 +0000

Any sensible Labour strategist would do well to heed left MP John McDonnell’s call for the party to focus on policies rathern than personalities, given the Brown government’s drubbing over the past month.

The batterings which Labour received in the local elections and the disastrous Crewe and Nantwich by-election are inextricably linked to its abandonment of working people and its clammy embrace of big business.

Witness the furore over the scrapping of the 10p tax rate, the looming summer of public-sector strikes over pay and the mounting fury – even unto the middle classes – at the decadent money-go-round that characterises Britain’s boardrooms.

As the GMB union has pointed out, City bonuses have risen to a record £12.6 billion at a time when the financial sector is allegedly tightening its belt due to the so-called credit crunch, sparking suspicions that bosses are simply snaffling the £50 billion kindly provided by the generous British public to revitalise the sector.

The alleged City regulator, the Financial Services Authority, is already known as the Fundamentally Supine Authority for its weak-kneed reluctance to do its job and prevent the finance sector from imploding out of sheer greed.

And now we face the prospect of former CBI chief Adair Turner – a man whose career has revolved around lobbying for ever-weaker regulation of business – becoming the new FSA chairman, appointed by, of course, this Whitehall farce of a new Labour government.

If this is what Gordon Brown means when he declares himself the right person to “steer the British economy through what have been very difficult times,” then his MPs had better start looking in the jobs section of their local paper.

If anyone thinks that Lord Turner would lift a finger to prevent another Northern Rock debacle, or act to rein in City bosses’ excessive bonuses, or seriously investigate where all these billions are actually coming from, as GMB has called for, then they are either in need of serious medical attention or are members of the Cabinet. Or both.

John McDonnell has repeatedly pointed out that the Labour Party needs to rediscover its socialist soul and begin implementing the progressive policies that will help drag it out of the neoliberal hole that it has dug for itself.

Instead, we see a flurry of Blairite and Brownite lackeys squabbling over which brand of warmed-over Thatcherism should reign supreme and issuing denials and counter-denials as to whether any of the fourth-rate “personalities” among their number will plunge a stiletto between Mr Brown’s shoulderblades.

And, while they bicker over how best to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic, the ship steams happily towards electoral oblivion.

Putting a fox like Lord Turner in charge of the City chicken coop makes about as much sense as putting the fevered egos of Cabinet ministers ahead of the good of the working people of this country, but it appears that good sense and original thinking are in scant supply in Downing Street.

John McDonnell | ukwatch.net

After the party

Beyond belief