It’s approaching conference time, and TUC leader Brendan Barber is putting out press releases about the stark condition British society is being forced to endure. There is an undeniable element of “I’m still here”, like Len McLuskey’s occasional fighting talk, and Brendan Barber’s plan, his only plan, is to ask nicely, but it is also the run up to a major demonstration: A Future That Works.
It is an A to B march, and we have been here before. But we cannot pull strikes out of a hat, not in our present condition. The fact that the British trade union movement seems to need a set-piece demonstration to work itself up for any kind of confrontation with the government (not forgetting how quickly these confrontations are also abandoned to apathy), should be cause for debate. I am a trade union member, not a battle hardened convenor or rep but enough of a member to know we need a change of direction.
We have been here before with mass demonstrations. We need to find a way for demonstrations to become strikes and for strikes to stick. We need what’s known as a rank and file perspective. It’s all very well saying people need confidence before we start building, but we will be forever be in the hands of the likes of Brendan Barber and Dave Prentis, the kind of leaders who would not stir themselves even if they were the last union members left alive, let alone in work. There’s nothing like starting now to build confidence.
None the less, let’s be on the October 20th demo, in large numbers. The government and
the mass media will want to pretend austerity is popular, or at least accepted, for as long
and hard as possible. A big demonstration will be another blow to the Tories.