Richie Venton, Glasgow
In a monumental breakthrough for socialism and genuine political representation for working people, the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union (RMT) in Scotland has voted to ditch the British Labour Party and affiliate to the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP).
After debates in Scottish RMT branches, the union's Scottish regional council voted overwhelmingly on December 12 for the motion moved by the union's Motherwell and Wishaw branch.
History has turned full circle, but in a far more advanced form. Back in 1899, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the forerunner to the RMT, moved the proposal at the Trade Union Congress conference to break with the big-business Liberal Party and form what became the Labour Party.
Now the RMT has made working-class history by being the first union to openly break from big-business Labour and directly affiliate to the SSP, a full-blooded socialist alternative. They are doing so in tune with the majority of members' wishes.
The RMT's regional council has already approved requests by at least five Scottish RMT branches to directly affiliate to the SSP: Motherwell and Wishaw; Glasgow and District Engineering; Glasgow 1 and 2 branch; Edinburgh and East Scotland; and Perth branch. Now they will meet to consider the Scottish RMT region's request.
While the RMT remains affiliated to Labour nationally, the union's general secretary Bob Crow defended his Scottish members' democratic decision to support the SSP. "[Their decision] is a result of the inadequacies of New Labour in defending or advancing policies in favour of working people. RMT members are looking to the SSP for proper representation."
The RMT's national council is yet to ratify the Scots' decision.
John Milligan, an active trade unionist and socialist for decades, moved the proposal to affiliate to the SSP. "Delegates representing RMT members across Scotland believe the SSP meets the aspirations of the union, and believe Labour won't and can't deliver on behalf of working people. By affiliating to the SSP, we will improve RMT members' situation by becoming part of a voice that articulates workers' needs and aspirations — on renationalisation of the railways, on public ownership, on scrapping of anti-union laws and on other key issues."
The Labour Party faces a well-deserved dilemma. If it expels the RMT, it will only encourage other unions to give up their futile attempts to "reclaim" Labour for the unions. But if it ignores the RMT's affiliation to the SSP, it will encourage other unions to follow suit.
SSP leader Tommy Sheridan urged trade union members across Scotland to "examine their links with New Labour which is privatising services, supporting illegal wars and refusing to give pensioners a decent pension. New Labour is no longer the party of the millions; Tony Blair has transformed it into the party of the millionaires. The Scottish Socialist Party is the natural home for trade union members and socialists and I call on other unions in Scotland to follow the example of the RMT."
It is understood that left-wing activists in the Fire Brigades Union, which conducted a bitter industrial dispute with Britain's Labour government last year, are also urging their union to follow the RMT example and disaffiliate from Labour in Scotland.
The Glasgow Daily Record reported on January 8 that the Labour national office in London had threatened to expel the RMT, Britain's largest rail union, from the Labour Party. The RMT has called an emergency general meeting of the union in Glasgow on February 6 to decide what to do.
[Richie Venton is the Scottish Socialist Party's workplace organiser. Visit <http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/>.]
From Green Left Weekly, January 14, 2004.
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