The Government Declaration of War on the Working Class

The Government Declaration of War on the Working Class Today’s (22 May 2022) Sunday Telegraph reports that ‘The Conservatives are threatening to launch a double-pronged attack against the Trade Unions in an effort to break their stranglehold on the public’ This exaggerated claim at the power of the unions comes at a time when the anti-trade union laws in this country are some of the most severe of any of the developed countries. Trade Unions do not have freedom to act, the requirements of ballots place such a high demand on participation and support that if they were applied in Parliamentary and Council elections we would never have a functioning Government. Nor is it possible for those workers who are in a stronger position to take action to defend their brothers and sister who are in a weaker position because secondary action has been made illegal. This means that workers are hamstrung, the very basis of workers unity, that of solidarity in action, is denied to them. This is in complete opposition to the idea that we live in a democracy and that individuals have a right to act singly an collectively in support of their needs. But just what are they proposing? The Telegraph reports ‘that the Government was poised to draw up laws requiring minimum rail staff to work during a strike. The law would make any industrial action illegal if those levels were not met’. Just read that carefully and think what it means. There are two direct consequences of such an Act. First it would render any strike action ineffective. It is the equivalent of making a strike illegal. Workers do not strike needlessly, It is a last resort when they feel that either their wages or their conditions of worker are such that they are no longer tenable. Going on strike means financial loss and this in itself brings added consequences. It can brings great hardship upon the family especially to mothers and children who have to make do without the level of income normally available. To the striking worker, man or woman, there is also the sustained attack from Government, council officials and the daily press and media as striking workers are attack as greedy, selfish individuals who care nothing for others, when in fact it is they who are the victims of selfish employers who seek to profit by maintaining the wages they pay as low as they possibly can, and provide working conditions at the lowest possible cost and in such poor state as they can get away with, whilst at the same time increasing the rate of profit that they can get from their workers to the highest rate possible. The second direct consequence of this Act is stated in the underlined phrase (underlined in the version of the Telegraph from which I took the quotation). The Act would ‘require minimum rail staff to work during a strike’!!!! What is this if not forced labour. To force a person to work against their will places that person in a position defined as slavery. A Government on a so called democratic society is contemplating bringing in an act that makes slavery a requirement!! Some may consider this language to be extreme but we have become to immune to the attacks of our ruling class upon the working class that we no longer challenge these kinds of actions. There is a tendency to down play the concept of class having fallen for the idea that we are now middle class because we can buy our own house and get a salary rather that a wage. This may be true of those able to indulge in what goes for politics nowadays, but it is certainly not the experience of large numbers of people forced to live on a totally inadequate minimum wage, subject to zero hour contracts, working two or three or even more part time jobs, having to survive on benefits, inadequate pensions, relying on food banks, suffering disabilities, both physical and mental, with inadequate or non existent housing. I could go on. The issue of class is very relevant in modern society and Trade Unions, although severely handicapped by by the anti-trade union laws are our only defence and means of changing this situation. But this is not the only attack planned against the Trade Unions. The Telegraph article goes on to say ‘Separately. Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, is planning to loosen the grip of trade unions on schools. Mr Zahawi is examining plans to bolster the rights of teachers who choose not to join unions. He wants to amend the Employment Relations Act to enshrine the rights of teachers to be accompanied to grievance and disciplinary meetings by an external lawyer or representative of a body other than a union.’ Here again the ignorance of the true situation within schools by the Government is made very clear. There has, without doubt , been a massive increase in the number of grievance and disciplinary issues that local Teacher Union officers have had to deal with. They have taken up so much of the time of local branch Secretaries that they have been unable to attend to other matters of great concern to teachers. This is a clear failing of school administrators,which has been made considerably worse by the academisation of schools, thereby taking them out of the control of local education committees and the local authorities. Prior to this change, schools were seen as belonging to the local community and received input from that community. That link has now been lost, schools and communities have both suffered as a consequence. But, again, the Government is being dishonest. The decision is being planned to weaken Teacher Trade Unions. The situation within schools is such that teachers have a choice of which Union that they join, if any. They are well advised to join a Union because all the Teacher Trade Unions are very well experienced in defending teachers in such things as grievances and disciplinary matters but also in supporting and defending teachers with other, serious legal situations in which they may inadvertently fall into. But, this is not the main reason to join a Union. As a teacher, I had the confidence to look after the needs of my pupils in the knowledge that my own union (NASUWT) would look after my needs. It is that confidence that enables teaches to carry out what is a difficult, mentally demanding and pressurised role. There are two main aspects of the work of Teacher Unions. As with any Union in any work situation, Teacher’s Trade Unions exist to defend the wages and conditions of work of their members. Sadly, again as a result of academisation, teachers and schools, have been divided so that the cohesion that was once the mark of the profession has been seriously weakened. Both the NEU and the NASUWT are fighting hard to improve both wages and conditions of work. There has been action on both these fronts, with action against hire and fire in certain academies, and string support for the TUC demonstration on 18 June when workers will be marching and demonstrating, strongly informing the Government that ‘We Demand Better’. But this defensive role is not the only role that Teacher’s Unions play. It has to be said that if you speak to teachers, or indeed to pupils and students, you will find great dissatisfaction with the situation in schools. The development of the curriculum and the extent of the testing regime, from proposed preschool tests, SATS, and GCEs and A-levels, we have returned to the vision of education as a sorting out of children into the roles that they will perform within a capitalist economic structure. Very little is left of the concept of education as a means of fulfilment and extension of the personality. The Child centred learning that teachers fought for with the development of such things as Modern Mathematics, newer approaches o the teaching of Science, the introduction of Project Technology to replace Woodwork and Metal Work, all leading up to the Certificate of Education (CSE) which was teacher led, tested what had been taught (rather that teaching to the test as is the norm with GCE) and child centred. All that is now lost. The lesson that those who understand the needs of young people, that we are aiming to teach too much too soon, has been lost. The view that if children are taught at a young age through play and story telling they will readily absorb lesson at a later age that we now seek and fail to force into them by rote learning at an earlier age. If teachers are to fight for such methodologies, they need the guidance and support of their teacher unions. Teaching is a noble profession, the experts are the teachers their unions are the mechanism through which their aspirations, in all their forms, are met because success can only come through people working together. Of course, in this teachers are not unique. Exactly the same can be said of our transport system. Freed of the fear that declining wages and poor working conditions bring in its train, railway workers and transport workers generally could provide a transport system that meets all the varying needs placed upon the system. But that requires a different structure of society, one geared to meeting public need rather than private profit and greed. In fact this is true in every sector of working life in this country. Workers Control was at one time the centre of much political debate. It is time the Working Class fought back. As Marx aptly put it ‘We have nothing to lose but our chains’ . But we have a world to win and redeem. The cost if we fail would be the climate catastrophe which daily comes closer to reality. Scribar 22.5.22