Preparing our union to withstand the attacks of the new Tory Government is urgent. PCS, alongside unions like the RMT, which are left fighting unions, will be key to ensuring the whole of the trade union movement is able to respond to the attacks which are coming.
Johnson, in his victory speech, talked about being a ‘one-nation Conservative’ and promised increased spending on the NHS. This is difficult to believe. Many of us remember Thatcher quoting Frances of Assisi, promising to bring harmony and hope to Britain when she won in 1979.
Instead, she ruled ruthlessly in the interests of her class and attacked working people including Civil Service workers and their families. It was Thatcher who privatised huge areas of the Civil Service, broke up national bargaining by introducing ‘delegations’ and cut thousands of jobs in her attempts to reduce the power of the union.
Johnson will do the same. Already he has launched an assault on the rights of rail workers to strike. This, combined with the recent brutal anti-democratic court rulings against the postal workers’ union, the CWU, gives a glimpse of the attacks that are to come.
But if the Trade Union movement fights with a strategy that unites workers across trade unions then Johnson’s attacks can be defeated. The seeming strength of Johnson’s government can be shattered. In 1987 Margaret Thatcher had a majority of 102. Within 12 months the campaign of mass non-payment against the poll tax began and led to her resignation just a few years later.
Today’s Tory party is far weaker than it was then. It is bitterly divided, and Johnson has only been able to win by linking BREXIT with promises to invest in health, housing and education and falsely claiming he is standing up for ‘the people’.
His promise to “get BREXIT done” by 31January is impossible to achieve and the road is fraught with dangers for big business and the Tories. It is entirely possible that this will cause huge political problems for the Government. If the Brexit arrangements trash the economy, all the other promises on taxes and spending will become impossible to deliver. The worst estimates say that a No Deal exit could cause twice the damage of the banking crash.
These false promises will become apparent very quickly and provoke a response which the Tories didn’t anticipate. The relevance of the anti-austerity agenda promoted by Corbyn will be back in the minds of working people.
The Trade Union movement must prepare now. PCS should demand the TUC call an urgent ‘council of war’ to plan the fight back against Johnson’s attacks. In the here and now this means immediate support for the PCS, education, postal and rail workers currently in dispute. But that also means giving the lead to quickly co-ordinate a campaign against the Tories to give a voice to working people. This must include demands for socialist policies. If the TUC doesn’t act then PCS must meet with like-minded unions to organise an effective and quick response.
Already politicians, commentators and the Labour right wing, are arguing that Labour’s poor result was caused by Corbyn’s left-wing manifesto. This is nonsense. If Corbyn had maintained the commitment that he gave in the 2017 manifesto that a Labour government led by him would recognise the referendum result, seek to negotiate a deal in the interests of workers the outcome might have been very different. Supporters of the Broad Left Network moved an emergency motion at the September NEC that called for the TUC Congress, which was meeting the following week, to mobilise workers to fight for a general election, just as Johnson was losing crucial parliamentary votes. However, this was opposed and defeated by Mark Serwotka and his supporters, meaning that the mistaken approach of Jeremy Corbyn to instead limit himself to parliamentary manoeuvres with pro-Remain parties wasn’t countered.
Even so, Labour got 10.2 million votes, the second time under Corbyn it has reached over 10 million votes, something that was not achieved by Blair after the 2001 election, or ever by Brown or Miliband. Had he won, and implemented his programme it would have changed the lives of millions of working people including PCS members.
The battle lines are now being drawn with Johnson, aided and abetted by his side-kick, the unelected, unaccountable Cummings, planning their overhaul of Whitehall which will impact all PCS members and the communities we serve. Let’s not forget it was Cummings who lectured that a permanent civil service belongs in the history books!
The agenda for PCS members is already set. Fair pay, a return to national bargaining, investment in the key services we provide and an end to office closures, job losses and pension cuts. In short this means a fight to preserve a permanent, properly trained and rewarded Civil Service. We must also step up our campaigning to stop climate change.
The Broad Left Network will have a vital part to play in the struggles ahead. We must hold the current PCS leadership to account. Marion Lloyd won a tremendous vote in the General Secretary election, as did Bev Laidlaw, who came third. The NEC must take into account the views of those members, who include many key Union activists. They want:
- A return to a member led union
- A joined-up strategy to rebuild PCS which links bargaining to organising
- A fight back against office closures to save jobs, with PCS Groups and National Branches fully consulted and
- Lay structures (the activists who are PCS members), and not full-time officials, directing the best use of union resources.
The Broad Left Network will be standing candidates in the PCS 2020 elections with a programme to counter the Tory attacks and fighting to defend our members interests. Attend the event we have called on the 18th January in Manchester. Join us in this struggle by joining the BLN.
PCS Broad Left Network 