31. Future of the Unions¶
Core Argument¶
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the attacks of 11 September 2001, the world has entered its most turbulent period since the 1930s, driven by the crises of American imperialism. Globalisation has revealed itself as a global crisis of capitalism, with Japan and Germany trapped in deflationary spirals and stock market volatility destroying pension funds. Lean production has intensified casualisation, particularly for women and immigrant workers. For two decades, the absence of serious leadership drove workers toward individual solutions like voluntary redundancy, while the boom of the 1980s reinforced capitalist illusions, further strengthened by the demise of Stalinism. Reformist “partnership” with management has been thoroughly discredited, as illustrated by steel industry “worker directors” who presided over mass job losses. The trade union bureaucracy has been corrupted by careerism, with officials accepting knighthoods, golden handshakes, and salaries far exceeding members’ pay, acting as policemen over the rank and file.
Yet the pendulum is now swinging leftwards. Younger layers are reviving branches and shop stewards’ committees. The working class is not shrinking but expanding, though into low-wage jobs; call centres and white-collar sectors are ripe for organisation. Beneath a long lull, bitterness and frustration have accumulated. Working conditions, safety, and job security have eroded during the boom, while the gulf between rich and poor has widened. National income has doubled in thirty years, but the poorest workers have fallen behind. MPs earn more than 96 per cent of the population, while employers receive obscene pay for destroying British industry. Millions have been forced from unemployment benefit into low-paid jobs at £4.50 an hour or less, often in sweatshops. Housing Benefit rules have tightened, means-tested benefits go unclaimed due to complex procedures, and council tax has risen 15–20 per cent, cutting real wages. Workers remain loyal to their mass organisations, turning to them in crisis not to prop up capitalism but to change society. Trotsky’s pre-war choice remains: unions must become revolutionary organisations or lieutenants of capital. The battle to transform the unions and the Labour Party has begun, and the grip of the right wing will be shattered, opening a new stormy period of class struggle.