For a whole period the pendulum in the British Labour movement swung far to the right. But now this process has reached its limits and the pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction. The election victories for the Left within the unions demonstrate that the whole process is being thrown into reverse. New younger layers are coming into activity and serving to revive and replenish the branches and shop stewards’ committees. The left wing will revive and grow under these conditions and articulate the aspirations of the rank and file. As workers move into action through their unions, the Broad Left organisations will take on flesh and act as a spearhead for the further transformation of these organisations. The existing leaders will either place themselves at the head of this movement, or they will be replaced by the ranks.
Some have taken the view that the reshaping of the British labour force since the 1970s (and longer) indicates a sharp and irreversible decline in the strength and militancy of the working class. This was the stock argument of the Jeremiahs, such as professor Eric Hobsbawm. It is true that there have been many changes over the last couple of decades as white-collar jobs have boomed at the expense of blue-collar jobs. The first decades of the twentieth century saw important changes in the workforce with the introduction of Fordism and mass production. From the Second World War onwards, there has been a steady contraction in the numbers employed in manufacturing industry, while service industries have expanded. While the numbers employed in steel, cars, textiles, shipbuilding, heavy engineering and mining declined, new industries have emerged based upon new technologies, such as nuclear power, computers, fibre optics, and related IT sectors, such as mobile phones. But this does not mean the demise of the working class. In fact the working class is not shrinking, but expanding, as can be seen from the record number of workers in Britain. It is true these are predominantly low-wage, low-skill jobs, which reflects the decline of British capitalism. The working class is continually evolving in different directions according to the needs of the capitalist system. New industries arise, while others fall and are replaced. This has always been the case, ever since the demise of the handloom weaver in the early nineteenth century.
As a result, call centres, resembling giant factories, have sprung up to meet the needs of the new industries and their demands for 24-hour service. While this poses new problems and challenges for trade union organisation, they are not at all insurmountable. In reality, these layers are wide open to trade union organisation if approached correctly. Throughout history the leaders of the trade unions have always regarded certain groups of workers as beyond their reach. In the 1860s and 1870s, it was said that the unskilled workers could not be organised in unions. Irish immigrants were also placed in the same category. The same was supposed to be true of women workers. Again, those employed in white-collar professions, especially managers, were regarded as beyond the pale as far as the trade unions were concerned. But experience has shown that this was not the case. These so-called barriers were surmounted at every stage.
Over the last twenty years there has been a mushrooming of white-collar trade unions, especially in the public sector. This is a tremendously positive development. The fears that trade unions could not meet the challenges of the twenty-first century are equally unfounded. Throughout the 1990s, trade unions were remarkably successful in the political fund ballots that took place, despite allegations that “political unionism” was unpopular. This outcome had little to do with the campaign of the leadership – which was very feeble – but was rather a reflection of the natural class instincts of the workers themselves.
Today, with the attacks in the workplaces, trade unions are becoming increasingly popular amongst workers. Millions of unorganised workers could be recruited if the unions were to wage a determined campaign to tackle the problems faced by the working class, in relation to jobs, wages, conditions, workers’ rights and other issues. If this were coupled with a concerted recruitment drive into these layers, millions could be won to the trade union movement. Even now, according to the latest British Social Attitudes survey, many workers have never been asked to join a union. If they had been asked, a third said they would join – and this is without any campaign! There is “a high degree of frustrated demand for unionisation”, to use the jargon of the survey, and many never get the chance to join unions.[6] In practice, the conditions in the workplaces, with their casualised, contracted-out and insecure workforce, have never been riper for the growth of trade union organisation.
The recent growth of strikes is just the tip of the iceberg. After a long period of relative lull in the class struggle, there are now clear indications of an upturn in the movement. “Despite the strike statistics and the relative passivity of the working class at this stage, under the surface of this apparent calm exists an accumulation of bitterness and frustration. This is the ‘molecular process’ developing in the minds of the working class that Trotsky talked about. Sooner or later this resentment will break through to the surface…” I wrote these lines a decade ago in an attempt to explain what was taking place. The article continued:
“This ‘counter-revolution’ is preparing a massive recoil at a certain stage. It would be a serious error to conclude that the present relative lull in the class struggle and the quiescence in the mass organisations are of a permanent character…
“How and when the industrial movement will develop depends on a variety of factors. General industrial upsurges, as in 1919-21 or 1974, are more the exception than the rule. Again the movement does not take place in a straight line. ‘The political mood of the proletariat,’ stated Trotsky, ‘does not change automatically in one and the same direction. The upturns in the class struggle are followed by downturns, the flood tides by ebbs, depending upon complicated combinations of material and ideological conditions, nationally and internationally. An upsurge of the masses, if not utilised at the right moment or misused, reverses itself and ends in a period of decline from which the masses will recover faster or slower under the influence of new objective stimuli.’ Further on he explains that ‘the impetus for change’ is given by ‘the change in the economic conjuncture… demands are forced upon the workers on the one hand by the rise of the cost of living and on the other hand by intensified physical exploitation.’ This is the process that is unfolding at the present time.”[7]
When such a break in the situation would occur, it was impossible to say. Astronomy is able to make exact predictions concerning solar eclipses, but the struggle of living forces in society is far more complex and difficult to predict. The process was similar to the stretching of an elastic band. You could say with certainty that the elastic band would break at a certain point. But it was not possible to predict when that point would be reached. Over the last decade, the process unfolded in a far more protracted fashion than we thought likely. The prolongation of the boom and explosion of consumer and corporate credit served to extend the process beyond its limits. For a time the election of a Labour government also held things back. But now the working class has had enough.