A good anti-Tory protest in Brum

October 4, 2010 at 4:19 pm (capitalist crisis, Jim D, SWP, Tory scum, unions, workers)

Sunday’s anti-cuts protest in Birmingham was pretty good. About 7,000 people attended and the mood was militant but up-beat. Several marchers told me that Ed Miliband’s victory had given them heart and that they sensed a new mood of working class confidence in the air. CWU, PCS, UCU and the NUJ had given the protest official support and there were plenty of banners from those unions, as well as trades councils and various campaigning groups and student unions. There were several  Unison banners and a few from tthe GMB, but virtually no presence from Unite (though Jerry Hicks could be seen desperately chasing after the few Unite banners present, gesticulating wildly).

The event was called and organised by the Right To Work campaign, which is a pretty blatant and unashamed SWP front. Nevertheless, credit where it’s due: this was the right thing to have done. For the Tory Conference to have taken place without a major trade union protest would have been a disgrace, and in the absence of any national union taking the initiative, the SWP quite rightly stepped in. It was also good that the SWP had Labour MP’s (Corbyn and MacDonnell) on the patform, and even a representative (Paul Mackney) of the rival Coalition of Resistance (you know, the John Rees-led ex-SWP outfit). 

Less encouraging was the typical SWP popular-frontist inclusion of non-working class forces like the Greens and Respect on the platform. Simultaneously with this popular frontism, the SWP also managed to engage in ultra-leftism:  irresponsible and unserious phrase-mongering about the “General Strike” in their speeches, on their placards and in the present issue of Socialist Worker. This slogan, which actually raises the question of dual power, is far in advance of the present consciousness of the British working class, and amounts to no more than empty posturing on the part of the SWP. Ironically, the last time that the general strike slogan was a serious proposition in Britain – the 1984-5 miners’ strike – the SWP opposed it!

In fairness, it should be noted that the SWP have not (so far) foisted the general strike slogan upon the Right To Work campaign…presumably realising that while it may attract students,  it would only serve to alienate serious trade unionists. 

The scale of the coming cuts demands a serious, united response. This response needs to be led by local trades union branches and trades councils, not front organisations like Right To Work or the Coalition Of Resistance… or indeed, the Socialist Party’s National Shop Stewards Network. These organisations have a part to play, but they should not, and cannot, substitute for the workers’ movement itself.

Meanwhile: well done, Right To Work, for Sunday’s demo.