Trade unionists have rightly reacted with anger at Tory proposals to amend the new Lobbying Bill to include fresh attacks on union funding for the Labour Party and to try and further limit the right to strike. The trade union and Labour leaders must fight against these attacks.
Trade unionists have rightly reacted with anger at Tory proposals to amend the new Lobbying Bill to include fresh attacks on union funding for the Labour Party and to try and further limit the right to strike.
Under new proposals union funding of leaflets during elections will now fully count towards the legal spending cap. The law will apply to those “directly affiliated to political parties and those contributing £100,000 or more to political parties”. Rich Tory donors and big business would largely escape untouched, whereas the union funding of Labour would have to be heavily curtailed, sharply reducing the income Labour for use in national and local elections.
Also included in the Bill is a proposal to end self-certification of union membership. The aim of this is to make it far easier to challenge strike ballots and thereby outlaw industrial action.
The blatant crudeness of these amendments, alongside the fact that they have nothing to do with the supposed main aim of the bill – to clean up Westminster – has even disturbed some outside of the Labour movement. Darren Hughes from the Electoral Reform Society quickly commented on this saying, “Regulating the unions without touching big business is a joke.”
These measures have been announced following a fresh spate of scandals involving an MP and a number of Lords who have all been caught evidently selling their services for cash. Once again the crude links between big business and our representatives in Westminster have been exposed for all to see. In passing we should note that one of those caught out – Lord (formerly Jack) Cunningham was a Labour right-winger who was all too happy to attack the Left whilst he was a member of parliament. Now we see all too clearly where his loyalties really lie. In an effort to stem the flow of criticism, over 80 people have had their parliamentary passes withdrawn, whilst checks are carried out to see if they are in fact just lobbyists for big business.
These latest scandals just serve to remind us that the state, parliament, the judiciary, the press and the agents of capitalism are all tied together by a thousand threads with just one single aim: to preserve the gains of the rich and powerful. They try and pretend that this is not so – that we live in a democracy, that they all act in our interests etc., etc. – but sometimes the truth just creeps out.
In America, these links are even more blatant, with the success of election candidates dependent on how much funding they can get from big business and rich pals. No wonder the American political system is dominated by two capitalist parties.
In Britain, the Tories have long benefited from huge backing from rich donors, which has enabled them to outspend Labour by a vast margin in every election. People like Lord Ashcroft have been able to get round election laws to provide sizeable funding for the Tories; donations for which he has been well rewarded.
These donations from big business are made with little or no consultation with shareholders or anyone else. Meanwhile, union donations and support for Labour are all made openly from money raised through the political levies that members have clearly agreed should be used for this purpose. The Tories seem happy, as they would of course, for a few rich people to gain influence at the highest levels of government yet deny hundreds of thousands a voice in the political process through the Labour-union link.
Far from being ashamed of the union funding of Labour, as some Blairite relics are, the movement should be fighting to defend it as the “most honest” and democratic money in politics. Far better for Labour to get money from working class people and organisations than to have to rely on cash from big business.
The Labour and trade union movement should launch a campaign to defend the Labour-union link and defend the right to fund Labour in its election campaigns. Such a campaign should outline the importance of these links and why the working class through its organisations should have a strong voice in shaping Labour’s policies.
The shift to the right politically by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls in recent policy announcements has only served to underline the need for the trade union voice to be heard. The Labour-union link is the only effective way for this to be done. The Tory attempts to undermine union funding of Labour is nothing short of a disgrace, which has very little to do with any real response to the scandals which led to the bill in the first place.
This applies doubly to the proposals on certification of union membership. The aim of this is to make it very difficult for unions to avoid legal challenges to strike ballots by constantly questioning the membership data. As with so many other Tory union laws they hope to fatally undermine the ability of workers to fight the attacks of the bosses and be effectively represented.
The irony for the Tories is that despite every effort on their part, working people still look to the unions to defend them, union membership is rising and strikes are still taking place. As pressure on the working class increases under the brutal regime of austerity, these processes will continue to develop. No wonder the Tories, acting under orders from big business, are desperate to try and derail any growing mood of struggle.
The more astute Tories are already becoming nervous about the potential shifts in mood that may and will occur over the next period. The huge movements in Europe against the massive cuts being pushed through are now seen by many as being the music of the future so far as Britain is concerned. The growing support for a one-day general strike within the ranks of the movement shows in which direction things are going. Such a crude and blatant attempt to sneak through new plans to stop action by workers must be resisted.
The movement must go on the offensive and show the Tory plan up for what it is. The Labour leadership must get onside and make clear that they will fight for – and once in office repeal – all anti-trade union laws. If Mr Balls and the rest do not like it, clear off and let people committed to acting in the interests of working class people and not the City of London take their place.
We should also warn the Tories and their pals in big business of something else. Workers strike because they have no choice but to act. If workers cannot strike “legally” they will simply strike anyway. In that respect the Tories should be careful what they wish for in case they get it.
The fact that these two proposed measures have been sneaked out, in what is seen as a blatant scam that has nothing to do with the issue at hand, shows how befuddled the Tories have become. Under pressure from all sides, as the crisis goes on and on, the Tories have turned from being the “nasty” party into being the “stupid” party, lacking the foresight and the judgement which the parties of the ruling class had in the past.
The only thing that is saving Cameron and co. is the failure of the Labour leaders to seize the opportunity and come out with a clear programme of opposition to these attacks and the system that has bred them. Miliband and Ball’s recent statements regarding welfare show the wrong way to proceed. The Tories will simply tell people “if the only choice is a government of right-wing policies, vote for the real thing – vote for us”, whilst workers looking for a way out of the crisis will be unenthused to say the least.
For the unions the task is not just to repel these latest attacks, but to push on and commit Labour to fighting on a clear socialist programme to transform society and bin this rotten and corrupt capitalist system.
