Labour And The Politics Of Treachery

There was a time when Trades Unions were proscribed by law, workers were not allowed to meet together to discuss their conditions and to do agree to work together for better conditions could lead to transportation to Australia. In order for Trades Unions to bring about change they had no choice, but to break the law; so break the law they did and change followed. Since the end of the Nineteenth Century we have made enormous gains, we have universal suffrage, and the Unions have, or at least had, a parliamentary party to protect their interests.

Over many years the Labour Party delivered real benefits for working people, National Insurance  a National Health Service, and various employment protections. However the extreme right wing government of Margaret Thatcher and now David Cameron's Neo-Thatcherism, have shown us how fragile our hard won rights really are. The Labour Party, rather than being the parliamentary wing of the Trades Union movement, has become part of the political elite, led by men who have never held a job outside politics. The Labour Party has for too long taken the loyalty of the Unions for granted while actively undermining the ability of unions to defend themselves. Increasingly, particularly during the New Labour years the parliamentary party has failed to support workers' rights, instead accepting the Conservative postulate that the unions had to have their activities limited by law. Unfortunately the unions have been more or less hypnotised into believing they need to be acceptable to the upper classes in order to progress. Needless to say the erosion of legal protections for workers, the weakening of the unions and dangerously high unemployment, has led to a fall in union membership, which in turn further undermines the ability of unions to protect their members.

It is obvious that to continue to allow the erosion of workers rights will not only allow the divide between rich and poor to increase even further, but lead to the demise of the unions, leaving workers without any protection. The unions became strong by standing up for the workers despite the law, and they won rights and improvements in working conditions by doing so. If the unions want to be able to protect their members, and turn back the tide of Conservative attacks on the living and working conditions of ordinary people, they must cut their ties with the current Labour Party and refuse to be bound by unjust laws. The Labour Movement grew as it resisted injustice and rejected unjust laws. If the Unions are to stop the erosion of employment rights, they must once more put Justice before the law. Our forebears didn't get the vote, the right to combine, and all our other freedoms by obeying the law and waiting for a benevolent government to give them to them, they took them! They broke laws, they were attacked, imprisoned, deported and they won. We must follow their example or else deserve to be slaves.