Shane Bentley
Britain's National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), with 67,000 members, made headlines in December when its Scottish regional council voted overwhelmingly to end its long-standing links with the Labour Party and affiliate to the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP).
The RMT is the result of the amalgamation in 1990 of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and the National Union of Seamen. The RMT's membership includes British Rail and London Underground workers; seafarers, divers and offshore oil-rig employees; bus, taxi and truck drivers as well as dock workers in some ports.
"For years RMT members have grown increasingly disaffected with Tony Blair's New Labour", said John Milligan, an RMT executive member who is also a member of the SSP. He said the Labour government "has retained Tory anti-trade union laws that ban solidarity action. It has refused to re-nationalise the railways and has gone further than the Tories ever did by privatising the London Underground.
"Under Labour the gap between rich and poor has widened further. More members understand that the Labour Party no longer represents workers and unionists — it acts in the interests of the rich and privileged in society.
"After Bob Crow was elected RMT general secretary he wrote to Labour MPs, including those sponsored by the RMT, to ask where they stood on the re-nationalisation of the rail system and other questions of RMT policy.
"Most did not even bother to reply. Most of those that did fell in behind Blair's privatisation policy. Some MPs attacked the RMT's right to even question Labour Party policy. The few that did support RMT policy were mainly from the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs."
Milligan said the RMT's 2003 annual conference brought in a number of rule changes with regard to political affiliation. "The rule that forced each local branch of the RMT to affiliate to the local Labour Party branch was removed. RMT branches and regions were now allowed to affiliate to other pro-working class parties.
"The stipulation about 'pro-working class parties' is important for a number of reasons. The old NUR saw an attempt in the 1970s to affiliate a local NUR branch to the fascist National Front.
"The RMT is still affiliated nationally to the Labour Party, but the RMT has reduced its financial support to Labour over the last few years from £180,000 a year to only £12,500."
Milligan noted that it was his own RMT branch just outside Glasgow which had been the first to move to affiliate to the SSP. Other branches in Glasgow and Edinburgh soon followed.
"All members have had access to the political affiliation debate", Milligan said. 'The monthly union journal RMT News has regular columns written by RMT-sponsored Labour MPs where they put their pro-Labour stance. But the pages are open to other views.
"The latest issue has my own one-page article that argues for Scottish RMT affiliation to the SSP. There are also moves to allow an SSP parliamentarian to write a regular column in the journal."
Milligan concluded with his views on union political representation. "Part of the RMT rule book states that the union must 'work for the supersession of the capitalist system by a socialistic order of society'. The Labour Party no longer has these socialist aims. The SSP does.
"As a trade union activist, I have always recognised the need for a political party that represents workers. In the past I involved myself actively in the Labour Party in pursuit of this goal. I now see that as a futile road to take.
"When RMT members and other workers are in dispute, the SSP offered solidarity while Labour MPs spoke against the actions of workers. The SSP has raised support for RMT members in the Scottish Parliament and is promoting a rail re-nationalisation bill.
"The SSP campaigns for the repeal of Tory anti-trade union laws that Labour refuses to remove. The SSP campaigns in local communities to defend local services from closure by Labour-dominated local authorities. The SSP fights for wealth distribution and proper taxation of the rich minority. That is why I joined the Scottish Socialist Party."
From Green Left Weekly, January 21, 2004.
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