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Continuing a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Angela Merkel
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In the first of a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Nicholas Sarkozy
Like all good leftist diatribes, this article about trade unions will start with a few mentions of that dreaded milk snatcher, Mrs Thatcher. Why? Because conventional wisdom over the past few years has had it that trade unions, following Thatcher’s brutal victory in the war against the “enemy within”, unions are as dead as the disgustingly democratic Salvador Allende.
And yet here and now in 2011, in the context of multi-issue activism and the most tense socio-economic relations for years (or class struggle if you are so inclined), the unions are virtually clambering over each other to claim a leading role in the ‘autumn of resistance’.
Moving seamlessly on from Thatcher to Labour, what does this mean for the self-proclaimed Party of social justice? Labour is on a continuous quest for the Holy Grail of modern politics, the centre ground. Both Milibands claimed to represent it during their leadership battle and since then ‘Red Ed’, a leader who had his path to power levelled out by union support, has been forced to go on the defensive about his link to political labour.
This has perhaps deepened the notion amongst unionists that New Labour has not only forsaken their cause in exchange for the plush armchairs of Westminster, the politicians have sunk so far into the upholstery that they will never re-join them at the picket lines.
Outside of leadership elections the widening gap between the happenings of Westminster and the actions on the streets is obvious. The obvious example would be the planned strike on the 30th November which will see millions of workers fight back against cuts to their pensions; a strike that enjoys near universal opposition in Parliament.
Yet tellingly, in the long term, Unite are beginning to unveil schemes such as a new ‘community membership’ scheme to allow students and non-unionised adults to interact with them and help shape their political activities. This desire to broaden activism from the workplace and into the public realm says a lot about the direction of economic struggle.
And, as always, the impetus behind these actions comes from the bottom up. Electricians from Manchester to London have become familiar with that other kind of kettle as they protest to keep their wage agreements safe from 14 major contractors. Notably their unions have only recently caught up with them in that particular ‘dialogue’. Women, long sidelined in the masculine trade unions despite often making up the majority of members, are now taking up a much more concrete role in the fights for equality.
The special relationship between the Labour Party and the trade unions is now a failed relationship. Len McCluskey of Unite can be heard saying that Labour will be receiving no blank cheques, and other unions are discussing standing their own candidates in the next general election. Can we even be convinced that it is a matter of Labour becoming more radical or the unions choosing a new party to support?
What seems likely is that, more and more, the workers will pick and choose which MPs they support, which local policies they oppose, and how to go about strengthening solidarity across the working class.
Ed Miliband stammering over current affairs, Thatcher quietly retired, and the unions going from strength to strength. Who’d have thought it?
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