Lindsey German on the strikes and how we win

I’ve had the misfortune that former editor of the Sun, Kelvin Mackenzie, kept popping up in my Twitter feed recently. I assumed this was to do with the Musk-associated changes on Twitter and have now blocked him from sending me his rants. However they are indicative of the sheer apoplectic rage now gripping the right-wing media and Tory politicians about the public sector strikes which are a daily occurrence this month, with more set for the new year. According to the playbook this wasn’t supposed to happen: the right’s heroine Margaret Thatcher drove a stake through the heart of ‘militant unions’ in the 1980s and it seems incredible to them that rail workers, teachers and lecturers, posties, civil servants, nurses, midwives and ambulance drivers are all actually striking or planning to do so in the near future. The gap between their thinking and reality is unbridgeable.

Any rational assessment of the action would surely begin with asking how a government had managed to antagonise so many groups of workers into going on strike in such numbers.  The answer lies in the systematic attacks on all workers’ living conditions with wages declining in real terms over a decade and a half, coupled with sharp declines on spending in public services overall. This means that all the strikes are over pay, related to high levels of inflation and rocketing energy prices, but also to some degree about conditions and quality of work. They are also generalised because every working-class person is feeling worse off, can see growing inequality and misery, and therefore sympathy for the strikers is particularly high.

So the current wave of strikes present real difficulties for the Tories and their right-wing mouthpieces in the media. They fume at the number of strikes, detest any articulate response of the sort we have seen from union leaders like Mick Lynch, spread wild accusations about the impact of the strikes themselves and about the costs of any settlement. Rishi Sunak took to the pages of the Sun on Sunday to attack strikers as ‘selfish’. But neither he nor the right-wing commentators can make that stick in a society where selfishness and greed are much more connected with the rich and their friends in the Tory party. Consequently they really do not have a clear understanding of why the strikes are happening or how to stop them.

Up till now they are taking a tough line: the government is intervening to prevent negotiated deals on the railways and is insisting that there can be no further increases for the nurses. It is however coming under increasing pressure from some of its own MPs. It was obvious from the nurses’ picket lines that support for their strikes is very widespread across the working class, and this is reflected in opinion polls. Levels of support for all the strikes are remarkably high given the whole weight of government and media propaganda against them, and the dominant narrative which highlights disruption from strikes but ignores the same disruption when caused by cuts, government policy or privatised industry inefficiency.

Strikes are dominating British politics as they have not done for decades. The period of neoliberalism ushered in by Thatcherism saw globalised free markets and tamed unions as central to its expansion and success. Its most fervent advocates like Mackenzie now continue to put up the most bitter resistance to anything other than wage cuts and deepening inequality. Sections of the British ruling class, however, recognise wages have become too low and that the public sector will not be able to recruit if this pay policy continues. But there are also sections who want to hold firm, recognising that if the nurses win this will be a major breach followed by other groups of workers. And it is clear from the Bank of England decision to yet again raise interest rates last week, we are still expected to keep taking the medicine, however much it hurts, and however much it further worsens living standards.

The strikes are also at a turning point. They have been well supported both by union members and the public, and the nurses’ strike was definitely a blow to the government, but the rhetoric about wrecking Xmas is being deliberately played up, and there is the allegation that workers, especially on the rail, are growing tired. The problem for the union leaders is that they are used to negotiating, but this means of compromise has so far not been on the table in most of the disputes – or at least not without major cuts to jobs and changes in working conditions which the unions find unacceptable. Nonetheless they are looking for settlements which would likely fall far short of increases which would match inflation.

The strikes have now been going for six months in the case of the RMT and demonstrate the limitations of one- and two-day actions as opposed to indefinite strike. Such a strike would need to be sustained by proper strike pay funded by the unions and public donations (which would be forthcoming in the present situation), and they would hit the employers and government where it hurts. When we talk about coordination and escalation, it has to be in this direction. The series of strikes on consecutive days have an important cumulative value, but they are not the same as all striking together on one day, in a general strike.

Such a strike contains a strong political element because it becomes a challenge to government itself, rather than a sectional dispute. It also then feeds back into various sectional disputes, helping them to strengthen union organisation and combativity. I don’t see how there is going to be a knockout blow to this government without moving towards this level of organisation.  

Trade unionism in Britain has taken great steps forward in the past few months, with growing numbers of strikes, increases in membership and higher levels of combativity. History tells us that there are patterns of trade union organisation where long periods when unions are in decline or stagnating are then followed by leaps in organisation and consciousness. One important factor in union growth is tight labour markets, as happened during the world wars and in the 1960s. Another is the cumulative reaction to political unrest and discontent, along with economic attacks on working-class living standards. This is the background to the New Unionism of the late 1880s, which led to the creation of the modern labour movement. 

Trade union advances have been key to improving working-class share of the wealth produced in society. Their weakening has helped produce record levels of inequality. We know the employers and their backers in government will concede nothing without a fight. We must take on that fight.

One response of governments in the past to union advances has been increased repression and authoritarianism. This is what they are now trying to do with anti-union laws which will make it near impossible to have strikes in many key industries. They hope that this, coupled with compromises which settle for less than could have been achieved, will deflect this present strike wave. It’s up to us to make sure that doesn’t happen. 

This week: I look forward to being at the Counterfire meeting on Tuesday where we will hear from striking health workers in another week of nurses’ and ambulance drivers’ action. They, the posties, civil servants and rail workers are all on picket lines this week and need donations, food, drink and solidarity. So I’ll be going to some of those.

I’m taking the next two weeks off as much as possible so no Briefing until New Year. Merry Xmas and all the best for a fighting 2023.