Britain

The chances of a referendum on Scottish independence appear increasingly distant following a Scottish parliamentary vote in favour of a resolution condemning moves towards one. This is a huge blow to the Scottish National Party but it has also done little for a Labour Party that has lost all sense of direction, as its leadership exposes itself as utterly unable to capitalise on the SNP’s fall from grace.

The economic crisis looks likely to hit Scotland as badly, if not worse, than the rest of the UK, and is already causing the Scottish National Party some major political headaches.

The workers of Britain are facing 20 years of austerity, not seen since the inter-war period. Whoever wins the next general election – whether it be Labour or Tory – they will be forced to go onto the offensive against the working class. But we can already see the outlines of the future class struggle in this country, which will create the conditions in which Marxism can gain the ear of the workers. [This text is based on a speech given by Rob Sewell at the recent conference of Socialist Appeal, the Marxist Tendency in Britain].

Workers of the Prisme Packaging Plant in Scotland are occupying their factory since March 4 after they were told that they were to be laid off without any back pay. Since then the workers are fighting for their right to work and pay. This shows the growing radicalisation of the working class of not only Scotland but also of Britain as a whole.

There is a burning anger in the workplaces against the bosses’ attacks. Pressure is mounting for the trade union leaders to act in defence of jobs and wages. Internationally, workers have taken to the streets, such as in the recent demonstration of 200,000 workers in Dublin. The British workers will inevitably move in the same direction at some stage.

High-ranking British police officers have expressed concern that Britain may be facing an outburst of street protests. The head of the Metropolitan police's public order branch has spoken of the possibility of riots like those that rocked the country in the 1980s, erupting later this year as people who lose their jobs, homes or savings join a wave of violent mass protests. The perspectives of the police come close to those of the Marxists.

Today, almost 25 years since the miners’ strike began, the industry has been decimated, with only a few thousand jobs left. The proud traditions remain and many miners have taken their fighting traditions into the wider labour movement but many of the pit villages are crumbling. The main lesson of the Ridley Plan for the labour movement and the politically active layers of the youth is that a Tory government would be forced to move against the working class, to deal with the crisis that the capitalist system clearly faces.

Coupled to the Bologna Process has been the privatisation of education and all that this entails. So now not only are students faced with the fact that they will have to work harder and longer hours for a shorter period of time, that the costs of their education will also increase, but also that their courses may end up being influenced by some company who’s only real interest in to create profit out of the process.

Socialist Appeal published a supplement containing articles on the wildcat strike at Lindsey Oil refinery. The pdf file is available for download here (1.4mb). The supplement was used to intervene at picket lines around Britain.

Socialist Appeal interviewed construction workers at Lindsey Oil Refinery during the dispute. Here we publish the interviews. They explain how the strike was not against foreign workers but against undercutting of terms and conditions by companies exploiting EU legislation.

The media in Britain and internationally have systematically portrayed the recent Lindsey dispute as being a struggle between “British workers and foreign workers”, when in actual fact it has nothing to do with this. The struggle was about defending wages and conditions as established in hard fought for trade union agreements. Here Rob Sewell points out some of the dirty tricks of the press.

Socialist Appeal interviewed Antonio Recano, an engineering shop steward, who worksin the construction and maintenance of industrial plants, and works for one of the companies operating within the Syracuse oil refinery. He is a member of the FIOM-CGIL (metalworkers' union), on its Syracuse provincial committee and also the Central Committee (national committee) of the FIOM-CGIL.

The protest at Lindsey was a victory for the workers involved. It sends out a clear message to the rest of the workers in Britain: militant action pays and shows what can be achieved in the face of attack. The background to this dispute was a deliberate employers’ offensive to undermine the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI) and had nothing whatosever to do with racism or xenophobic tendencies. It was the bourgeois media that consciously tried to portary it as such in order to hide the real content.

Last week industrial action began at the Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire. Swiftly the strikes spread to Grangemouth in Scotland, Wilton in Cleveland and all over the country. By Friday 3,000 skilled workers were out from 11 plants. On Monday thousands more joined the action. As a news item, the dispute has been highlighted by pictures of workers carrying placards with the slogan, ‘British jobs for British workers.’ However, most of the workers on strike are aware that their enemy is the employer. That, after all, is who they are striking against.

On Thursday, January 22rd, there was a successful inauguration of Dr. Lal Khan's new book, "Pakistan's Other Story - The 1968-69 Revolution" in London. Young and old, students and trade unionists, turned up to hear a panel of speakers including Zakir Hussain, Qayyum Butt, and Alan Woods who addressed the audience before Lal Khan spoke. (Including videos of the speeches)