A Year of Critical Decisions for the Working Class

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A Year of Critical Decisions for the Working Class

At the beginning of 2006, it appears that a crucial task on the agenda of the working class is maturing. This is the task of taking up for solution the resolving of the crisis of working class representation. This task is taken up in the context of the working class constituting itself the nation and vesting sovereignty in the people. Perhaps the most important issue in taking up the crisis of working class representation for solution, certainly at the present stage of the working class movement, is the issue of how the problem poses itself. This is the debate which is raging and which was reflected at the open meeting to discuss the crisis in working class representation called for by the membership of the RMT union, and held on January 21 in London. The debate also reflected the sentiment to oppose any ready-made formulas being imposed on the situation but to develop a movement based on the workers’ own experience which takes up the problem for solution.

Recent events, including the 2005 General Election, have served only to underline the depth of the crisis of working class representation as part of the overall crisis of representative democracy. To resolve this crisis is a very important task for all forces in the workers’ movement, and to discuss how to do so in full view of the workers and with their involvement is a most crucial need of the present time. It is necessary to build the opposition of the workers to the retrogression being imposed on society and for the working class to take the lead in political renewal. The problem presents itself in a very immediate way. Who is going to decide the fate of the workers’ collectives, their communities and the social economy? Who are the decision-makers?

The political system as it exists completely marginalises the working class and people from decision-making. How to turn this situation around? How to oppose and turn around the policies of privatisation, the waging of the Iraq war and the attacks on civil liberties? These questions hinge around the workers themselves becoming political, which means that they should collectively identify their interests and fight to defend them.

The debate the workers must engage in to deal with the crisis in working class representation is how they should activate themselves, focusing on advancing their interests as a collective, the general interests of society and recognising and developing the space for change that will favour the working class and people in reality.

The present reality that workers and the people as a whole are faced with every day is the dictate of the monopolies and the financiers, that the people are effectively disenfranchised since their anti-war voice goes unheeded. Public services are being privatised, manufacturing industries are being destroyed with the resulting devastation of not only communities but also the national well being and economy.

It is not even admitted generally by the government that different collectives have different interests, let alone how these should be harmonised in the general interests of society. The general interests of society are routinely equated with the interests of big business and those that seek the maximum return on capital, while the people are asked to become slaves of this general interest so defined.

The leadership of the RMT is quite rightly pointing to the situation 100 years ago in 1906, at the time of the Taff Vale judgment, which underlined the necessity for workers to organise around their own independent programme. The RMT leadership points out that in fact it can be said that the workers as a collective have even fewer rights recognised in law than was the case 100 years ago. The consciousness has grown in the past three or more years, with the Labour government stepping up its anti-social offensive, showing that it is a pro-war government and one dedicated to paying the rich, one using the name of "labour" to attack labour, that once again the workers need their independent voice within and outside parliament. The debate is being joined as to the character of this independent voice, whether it is necessary to wage the struggles of the 20th century all over again, whether the experience of the 20th century can be summed up so as to define the way forward on a new historical basis rather than the old one, and so on.

It is being recognised that the Labour Party has been transformed into a party whose role in the present crisis has been to implement the "Third Way" programme of reaction, chauvinism and warmongering. The emergence of the "left" trade union leaders reflects this movement to build the Workers’ Opposition to this programme. The issue becomes how to strengthen this trend, with the full participation of the workers themselves, the summing up of the disillusionment with the Labour Party and the whole system of representative democracy. The movement is summing up its experience and drawing the warranted conclusion that workers must discuss in a rational and calm way what kind of party favours their interests, what should be the characteristics of a mass workers’ party, and of a party which has the aim of constituting the workers as the nation and vesting sovereignty in the people, under modern circumstances.

The conclusion is being reached that workers themselves cannot afford to voluntarily hand over the initiative to any other force. The task which presents itself to the workers is to fight against the "Third Way" programme which the rich are imposing on society, for workers to fight for the interests of their collectives with a clear conscience, and to get fully involved in the struggle and debate about the way forward for the economy and society. The task is to fight for an economy which serves the well-being of the peoples of Britain, and at the same time take up this task in unity with the workers and peoples of all countries who are fighting the same battles, and oppose all attempts to line them up behind the aims of the global monopolies.

How can workers determine the programme for society and the direction for the economy? Solutions cannot be found by copying forms and mechanisms of the past, or by trying to impose a dogmatic rendering of reality. New methods of mass participation are required. This quality of participation is crucial. In considering the question of working class representation and workers’ empowerment, workers must discuss how matters pose themselves and drawing warranted conclusions. Political affairs and trade union organising alike must be based on mass mobilisation and active participation of the workers in their own organisations. Thus the question of being the decision-makers and of becoming a motive force to oppose monopoly right and the irresponsible anti-social behaviour of government demand both active resistance on a daily basis and organising to plant the alternative in this country, an alternative that charts a way out of the crisis by resolving it in favour of the working class and people.

The present state of affairs reflects the crisis caused in society by prioritising the claims of the monopolies on the social product without any regard to the social consequences and the public good. Workers as a whole create the social product and their claim on it for a life with dignity and a standard of living consistent with living in Britain now must take priority.

The year of 2006 is a year of critical decisions for the working class. WDIE calls on workers throughout Britain to take matters into their own hands, to build the Workers’ Opposition and take up politics. Such decisions will place the workers in good stead as they work right now to move step by step along the line of march of building a society based on social responsibility, of respect for all that human beings hold dear, where the wealth that workers produce is under their control and applied for the benefit of the peoples.