The Workers Must Rely on their Own Strength and Organisation – They Have the Solutions, They Must Decide!

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The Fight to Save to Ryton:
The Workers Must Rely on their Own Strength and Organisation – They Have the Solutions, They Must Decide!

French and British Workers Unite to Save Ryton

The workers at Peugeot are resisting the plan to close Ryton and move production to Trnava in Slovakia, making 2,300 workers unemployed in the process. The threat to the Ryton car plant of Peugeot in Coventry, which comes after the collapse of MG Rover and other closures in the West Midlands, underlines once more that the financial oligarchy and the monopoly capitalists, not only of Britain but of Europe and the capitalist world, are perfectly brutal when it comes to pursuing their agenda. They have no hesitation in discounting and attacking the interests of the workers, the communities and the national economies. What is of concern to them is not just the maximum capitalist profit but the amassing of personal riches by any means. The interests served by this agenda are destructive to the collective well-being of the people and to the social economy as a whole. The interests of the workers, on the other hand, are complementary to and support the collective well-being and social economy.

The owners of the means of production at Ryton have no interest in the production of cars in order to serve the needs of society. They do not even give any consideration in their equation to the interests of the producers are Ryton, let alone give them a voice in decision-making. In this they have the support of the government, which washes its hands of the consequences of the neo-liberal agenda for the working class and people. To the government, globalisation has such destruction of the local economies and loss of jobs as its inevitable consequence. According to them, neo-liberal globalisation has no alternative and it is futile and illogical to resist. Indeed, the monopolies utilise the state in their own interests and as their own mouthpiece.

The workers at Ryton are to be applauded for acting to resist the closure of their workplace. They are not prepared, either, just to spontaneously respond and leave the Peugeot capitalists the freedom to follow the logic of competing in the global marketplace. They have made common cause with their co-workers in France, as well as having just completed a ballot on taking industrial action on the closure.

The workers cannot conciliate with the logic that it is necessary simply to convince the Peugeot Citroen capitalists that their reasoning is flawed and that really Ryton is the most profitable option. Rather they must explode the self-serving justifications of Peugeot that businesses’ ability to compete is the only criterion to be brought to bear. The monopolists within this are looking at return on investment, access to markets, the rate of exploitation of the workers, and so on.

It is essential for the workers as a whole to grasp that the logic of the monopoly capitalists that the closing of plants or moving production are just private business decisions cannot be accepted or conciliated with. Such decisions which have momentous consequences are the concern both of the workers and of society as a whole, and it is one of the tasks of the workers to take up this message and mobilise society around it. Such issues must be dealt with collectively and responsibly by society, and a pro-worker and pro-social government would ensure that the monopoly capitalists, whether Peugeot or any other monopoly concern, are not allowed to collect subsidies, up sticks and ride roughshod over the workers as though they were answerable to no-one but themselves.

This means that, as well as resisting the onslaught of the anti-social agenda and uniting as one to defend their interests, the workers must themselves take up the fight for a political power, for a government which is pro-worker and pro-social. An important lesson from the history of the 20th century, one which the workers must add to their historical experience of 100 years ago when they were fighting for an independent political party of the working class, is that the inter-monopoly competition of the capitalist system and the export and import of capital is a factor inevitably leading to war.

Furthermore, the more the interests of these most reactionary sections of capital are threatened, the more they resort to dictate and the denial of human rights, to chauvinism and disinformation. This is another reason why the Ryton workers are to be congratulated. They are building solidarity in action with their fellow workers internationally, with the perspective that workers in each country must defend sovereignty against the agenda of the European and other monopolies and take up the struggle to become the decision-makers and decide their own future and safeguard the future of society.

Peugeot workers across Europe took joint action at the Peugeot AGM in Paris on May 24. They leafleted shareholders and held a press conference. The lobby was organised and co-ordinated by the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF).

The aim of the rally was to drive home to shareholders the European unions' stand which stresses opposition to the closure of the Ryton site and solidarity of all the Peugeot workers. Over 400 French and British workers took part.

Lee Gray, deputy works convenor for the Transport & General Workers’ Union at Ryton, said of the joint action: "The protest was absolutely excellent. The support we received from the CGT [the French workers’ union] was amazing."

A letter of support was also sent to the British workers from Emil Machyna, president of the Oz Kovo Metalworkers Federation, Slovakia, who pointed out that Peugeot did not care about the 2,300 workers who would lose their jobs if the plant closes.

The Slovakian union leader wrote: "We strongly protest against the employers’ practices. We express our full solidarity with our colleagues in the United Kingdom in their fair fight for keeping production in their territory. Our activities are targeted to get higher incomes for our employees the way that any other colleagues in economically stronger countries do not need to face the jobs losses just because of the fact in other countries the labour is cheaper."