Tariq Ali on the British labour movement: a study in voluntarism

October 20, 2010 at 11:38 pm (capitalist crisis, Champagne Charlie, Guardian, socialism, unions, workers)

All serious socialists are looking with admiration at the militancy of our French sisters and brothers. And most of us are frustrated with the weakness (to date) of the response of the British unions to the cuts. But Tariq Ali, a commentator who even in his activist days never had much feel for the working class movement, has written a truly bizarre piece for today’s Graun (G2 section); here’s a flavour:

“What a contrast (the French and Greek protests are) with the miserable, measly actions being planned by the lily-livered English trade unions. There is growing anger and bitterness here too, but it is being recuperated by a petrified bureacracy. A ritual protest has been planned, largely to demonstrate that they are doing something. But is this something better than nothing?”

Read it all here.

Leave aside for now the strange use of the word “recuperate” and the genuinely ultra-left suggestion that the British unions’ “ritual protest” (presumably a reference to today’s House of Commons rally) might be worse than doing nothing at all…no, the really noticeable point about this piece is Ali’s suggestion that the union bureacracy is holding back the struggle against the cuts. There is not one iota or shred of evidence to support this contention and if Ali seriously belives it to be true (as opposed to using it as a rhetorical flourish for the delectation of Guardian readers) , then it’s proof of just how out of touch he’s become.

Of course we all know that the role of the union leaders has always been one of betrayal and capitulation and that their record over the past thirty years has been especially craven. But the anti-cuts fight is going to have to be built through patient work, concentrating upon local rank and file committees based on stewards, trades councils and branches. Hopefully, it will also involve local Labour parties. The idea that a call to arms by Brendan Barber (or Tony Woodley or Mark Serwotka) could immediately conjure up direct action of the sort presently being seen in France is crazy voluntarism. It’s also profoundly defeatist because (as Ali notes later in the article) “nothing will happen from above,” yet he proposes no other strategy. OK: this was a short piece for the Guardian and not intended as a programme for action. Even so, it must rank as a grossly irresponsible and unhelpful piece of posturing by a middle class poseur: not even a closing quote from Shelly (Ye are many, they are few) can redeem Ali’s miserable little piece.