Restart the strikes - Break out of the union prison

On 19th March the Firefighters’ delegates rejected the latest offer put forward by the bosses, despite the fact that the union desperately urged then to accept. The government promptly announced its intention to impose a settlement on the firefighters by force, using a legal injunction and the power of the state through the courts and the police. These three events are a typical example of the way the struggle has progressed over the last six months. They illustrate the militancy of the firefighters themselves, the sabotage of their struggle by the union and the determined resistance coming from the capitalist class as expressed by their government.

The rejection of the latest offer shows the determination of the firefighters to pursue the struggle, a struggle which is about pay and working conditions. These are quite simply the issues that the working class has fought for since its creation in the 18th and 19th centuries, and they are still the issues which it is fighting for from one end of the world to the other. This struggle can clearly be seen as a class struggle springing from the nature of capitalism itself. The capitalist class is, of course, unwilling to grant these demands because granting improvements to the working class will reduce the profits on capital. This is why, from the start this dispute has been tied to the issue of producing greater efficiency in the service through reorganization, restructuring, changing working practices and redundancies. For the capitalist class these changes will ensure that, even if there is an increase of pay of 16% over three years, the overall cost of the service will be reduced and there will be no effect on the overall profitability of British capitalism. For our rulers it is extremely important that this is the outcome of the strike, since there are several million other workers in the public sector who could follow the lead of the firefighters. If they did this would have a far more devastating effect on the profitability of British capital.

This dispute illustrates once again the real divisions which underlie our society and the class struggles they generate. It also illustrates how this struggle cannot be “resolved” within capitalist society since the interests of the working class and the capitalist class are quite simply irreconcilable. The trade unions generally, and in this dispute, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), pretend that these interests can be reconciled within capitalism. This signifies their fundamental support for the capitalist system and leads them to act as the fifth column of the capitalist class sabotaging workers struggles from within.

Union Sabotage

The latest offer was, as many firefighters put it, “an insult”.

This offer consisted of a 16% increase over three years was linked to job cuts of 4000 in the fire service and far worse conditions for those left. In reality, the 16% boiled down to 4% backdated to November 2002 with the rest tied to ‘modernisation’, i.e., cuts in the service. The government, through the Bain report, has pressed for a shift from fire fighting to fire prevention and wants some of the smaller, rural stations to be closed down. There may not be any more money on the table for decent wages, but £30 millions has been set aside for ‘transitional funding’ to allow these changes to come into force. But the increase, measly though it is, is not open to all firefighters, only those who acquire new ‘skills’. Obviously, the new offer will mean a huge attack on firefighters but it is also an attack on public safety and will lead to a massive deterioration of the service, putting lives at risk. The Bain report recommended changes in shifts and working patterns which would mean firefighters could be deployed anywhere and on any duties with 14 days’ notice. This would allow authorities to move staff from station to station and reduce night cover. They also wanted to ban pre-arranged overtime with crew members being asked to put in up to 24 hours extra a month. This was the offer recommended to the membership by the FBU.

Throughout the struggle the FBU has cancelled one strike after another. Each time strikes have been cancelled because of endless negotiations with the employers, often on offers already rejected. Similarly the FBU has gone to the arbitration service ACAS time and again to negotiate on what the membership has rejected. The FBU has backed down on point after point in this dispute. It said it would not agree to cuts in the number of jobs to fund a pay rise as suggested in the Bain report. Then it said it was prepared to accept what it called the ‘strategic heart’ of the Bain report and was prepared to sign key proposals. It said it was prepared to agree to cuts in jobs as soon as the benefits of the new ‘preventative measures’ were in place. It said it would not shift from a 35 hour week and would not agree to overtime. Then it said it would agree to pre-arranged overtime in return for cutting the working week from 42 to 35 hours. Now it is considering lifting the overtime ban while agreeing to employers’ proposals to keep the working week at 42 hours and is looking at more work ‘flexibility’. It has dropped its demands from a 40% rise to 16%. All this pussy footing has been intended to produce confusion and demoralization amongst the firefighters and to some extent the union has been successful in this. The latest manoeuvre of the FBU has, however, exposed in another way how the union supports the key interests of the capitalist class. The latest offer of the employers was hardly different from the offer made a few days before the war broke out. The only difference was that of consultation or “consensus” in the planned restructuring of the fire service. This means in effect that the management is to “consult” with the local fire staff before doing what they want and is essentially meaningless. The FBU, which has been very reluctant to permit strikes anyway, was terrified of striking during the war which our rulers have launched on Iraq. This was given away by Gilchrist, the FBU leader, at the conference of 19 March when he said,

It would be foolhardy to reject this ofer when British troops are about to go into battle.

Here we see quite clearly the FBU lining up with the capitalist class to help its imperialist war to loot the oil of Iraq and the Gulf region. This is exactly the same course as the unions all followed in 1914 when they declared social peace and pledged to assist the war effort and the slaughtering of German workers. For the FBU to support a strike would be foolhardy because it would tie down 19 000 troops whom our rulers would like to send to Iraq to assist those already there in seizing the country and killing Iraqi workers in uniform, conscripted into Saddam’s armies and resisting this adventure. At the same time as the capitalist class is attacking wages and conditions of workers in Britain, as is clearly shown by the Bain report and every word uttered by their spokesman Prescott, they are demanding our loyalty in an imperialist war. They are demanding we suspend all class struggle so they can get on more quickly with their barbaric destruction and butchery. And the FBU is their spokesman advocating this all in the name of patriotism. We repeat the words of Marx,

Workers have no country.

Firefighters have more in common with the Iraqi workers being slaughtered by the US and UK military than with their exploiters in Britain. This is why the class struggle should not be called off because of the war. Firefighters should strike now while the enemy’s forces are stretched and the strike will have more impact.

As we have said in previous texts1, the only way that the imperialist wars, which the capitalist class is now conducting, one after another, can be halted is through class struggle. The FBU turns this into its opposite and declares that the imperialist war must prevent the class struggle. For them, it is only after the bloodletting is complete that the class struggle can resume. Again this is precisely the position adopted by the Social Democratic parties and the trade unions in 1914. We all know also, that after the imperialist bloodletting was over, it was precisely these same parties who saved the day for capitalism by their bloody crushing of the workers’ revolutions in Germany and elsewhere.

Capitalism’s solution

British capitalism, through its representative the Labour government, has announced it intends to impose a settlement on the firefighters by law. By using the 1992 legislation, they expect to be able to pass an injunction through parliament fairly rapidly. A raft of other anti-working class legislation exists which could be used in an attempt to force the firefighters back to work under conditions dictated by the capitalist class. Prescott, the deputy prime minister, announced in parliament that the government had,

lost patience with the firemen.

This is exactly the same language used by Bush when he was proposing to impose a settlement on the US west coast dockers, and shows that, not only is Britain following the US in its imperialist wars but also in its waging of the class struggle.

Imposing a settlement by use of state violence is the final answer of the capitalist class to the struggles of the workers. It exposes, in a brutal way, the real nature of what is going on. Not only are they using the army for strikebreaking, they plan to use other agencies of the state, namely, the courts and the police, to force workers to accept the terms they dictate. All the democratic camouflage is being brushed aside and stark relations of force are being revealed. The fact that all this is occurring at a time when our rulers are preaching sermons about the wonders of democracy and the glorious benefits of freedom we enjoy, and how they intend to bring all these wonderful things to the benighted Arabs by force of arms, reveals their utter hypocrisy. The attempt by the state to impose a settlement by force should be totally rejected. But how can this be done?

The way forward

Events of the last six months have shown how hopeless the present strategy for fighting the struggle is. Although the majority of the firefighters want to continue the struggle they do not see how this can be done effectively outside the union despite the fact that the FBU has sabotaged the struggle.

The strength of the working class is in its collective strength, the strength of the class as a whole. Individual groups of workers, even key ones like the British miners, can be isolated and defeated by our rulers, and their union helpers, at will. However, a more general struggle cannot be defeated so easily. The firefighters are a small group of workers who, like other state employees, do not directly produce profits for the capitalist class. Their primary role for capitalism is to protect capitalist property against fire. Any hope of winning this dispute while firefighters remain isolated is doomed. It is essential that that they break out of their isolation. The strike needs to be spread to other workers, e.g. tube, rail and other public sector workers facing the same attacks. The struggles need to be linked and common demands made. This is the only way to make our rulers take any notice. The struggle needs to be taken out of the hands of the trade unions whose role is primarily to sabotage any effective fight. It needs to be democratically run by mass meetings which elect a fighting committee directly answerable to the meeting. This is the only way forward. Our watchwords must be:

• Spread the struggle to other workers.
• Link up demands to a single pay demand for all workers.
• Pursue this with strikes.
• No concessions to the imperialist war.
• Continue the class struggle.

Such a programme represents the only hope for victory and the only hope for halting the capitalist’s drive to war.

(1) See RP 27, “Spread the strikes, stop the war drive”.