Solidarity 460, 31 January 2018

An open letter to ASLEF drivers

As strikes by train guards in the RMT union against the imposition of “Driver Only Operation” continue, the role of drivers, most of whom are in the Aslef union, is thrown into sharper and sharper relief. On MerseyRail, activists have organised magnificent solidarity which has led to Aslef drivers refusing en masse to refuse to cross RMT picket lines. On other companies the picture is less positive. Off The Rails, a platform for rank-and-file rail workers hosted by Workers’ Liberty, recently published an “open letter to fellow Aslef drivers”, calling on drivers to refuse to cross picket lines...

Defend Jon Lansman

The labour movement should rally to the defence of Labour National Executive member and Momentum leader Jon Lansman against George Galloway’s threat to sue him for defamation. Galloway says he has “instructed solicitors to bring a case for defamation against Jon Lansman”. That is a response to a tweet by Lansman defending Jewish comedian David Baddiel after Galloway made a tweet (now deleted) that “no supporter of the Palestinian people” would march “behind” Baddiel (apparently a reference to planned protests against Donald Trump visiting Britain). Over the years Galloway has run or threatened...

Buy out boom points to slump

Editorial from Solidarity 460 “Private equity” — the industry that raises funds from wealthy people to buy out wobbly companies, take them off the stock markets, ruthlessly chop costs and sell off assets, get them profitable, and then sell them off again at a premium — is booming. According to the Financial Times (24 January), “buy-out groups are setting new records for fund-raising”. They’re even turning away cash from rich people keen to get in on their operations. And the volume of buy-outs they do rose 27% from 2016 to 2017. This boom is likely to lead to a crash. “Private equity”...

Organising: defects of the SEIU-Crosby model

Despite what you might think from David Morris’ polemic ( Solidarity 459), I am in favour of unions employing full-time organisers to unionise new areas. I am in favour of that, just as I am in favour of unions employing lawyers, running websites, publishing union journals or newspapers. And better hard-working union officials than “lethargic, cautious, self-serving and incompetent” ones. All that, however, does not add up to the three cheers David gives for the US SEIU and its version of an “organising agenda”, as documented by the Australian union official Michael Crosby. Scarcely even the...

Books that can win

The author Alan Sillitoe described how, as a national serviceman aged 19 in 1955, he was got to read Robert Tressell’s The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by an eager colleague saying: “This is the book which won the 1945 election for Labour”. The Tories, in 1945, tried to counter by mass-distributing a book of their own, Friedrich von Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. The political shift of 1945 was shaped by books, and conversations around books, not by tweets or memes. If we want a similar big shift today, we need similarly heavy ammunition. Over the last two and a half years, allowing for...

Left stands for NUS President

University of the Arts Student Union Campaigns Officer Sahaya James is standing for President of the National Union of Students. She was one of the organisers of the “Free Education – Tax the Rich” demonstration in November 2017. This month’s edition of Clarion magazine interviewed Sahaya, where she explained why she was standing. “Students are charged exorbitant rents, management push our academics into further precarity, pay the cleaners and caterers who keep our institutions functioning a measly fraction of what university VCs earn, starve our mental health services of vital funding. “The...

Standing together in football

In 1986, Middlesbrough Football Club was on the verge of being thrown into administration. It was Friday 22 August — the eve of the season, and the gates had been padlocked. Cleveland Police had advised Middlesbrough that they were unable to play their first home game at their then home ground, Ayresome Park. The Football League stated that if Boro were unable to fulfil this fixture then they would face expulsion from the Football League. At the eleventh hour, a lifeline was thrown to our club from our neighbours and footballing rivals, Hartlepool United who offered Boro the opportunity to...

The “perks” of the old boy networks

Revelations by Financial Times undercover journalists, about the sexual harassment which took place at an event held by the men-only fundraising charity the Presidents Club, will come as little surprise to women who have worked in the hospitality industry. Many of the guests were quick to promote their “good boys who left by nine and didn’t see any funny business” credentials, yet seem to see no problem in the concept of an all-male event with all-female waiting staff who had been told to wear short, tight, dresses. It was obvious from the set up that these women were meant to be objects of...

Public sector pay: make the unions move!

Local government workers have been offered pay rises of 2% in each of the next two years. Further flat rate rises are promised for workers on the lowest pay, but the effect of existing top-ups which bring some of those workers up to the government’s National Living Wage is that some of them will get no pay rise at all. The offer from the Local Government Association is below inflation (CPIH up 2.7% December 2016 to December 2017), and does not even start to make up for pay lost since 2010. According to the Unison union, strong in local government and health, “public sector pay rose by just 4.4...

Labour base shifts on Brexit

The base for a left-wing campaign in the labour movement to defend and extend free movement, and to stop Brexit, is expanding. A recent poll has shown a four-to-one majority of existing and potential Labour voters want Labour to back permanent membership of the EU’s single market and customs union. Another indicates that nearly as many Labour pro-Brexit people are now in favour of a second referendum (39%) as are against it (43%). A second referendum would attract overwhelming support from that majority of Labour voters who favour remaining in the EU. Overall, 65% of Labour backers want the...

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