By Helen Christopher

Striking workers in Britain have shown a remarkable determination to keep going with their campaigns of industrial action to secure increased pay, and to defend working conditions and services. Leading the way RMT members first voted for strike action back in May.

Other workers have not been deterred by the intransigence of the employers and the government who are intent on inflicting defeat on the likes of the RMT and the CWU. In fact more and more groups have taken action. This includes the Royal College of Nursing which used to pride itself on its anti-strike stance. All of this is a measure of how serious the situation is for workers and their families as they increasingly struggle to afford the basic the essentials of life. The stress of working in services which are falling apart and where patients, passengers and others are put at risk takes its toll. In the NHS it is leading to an exodus of staff, compounding the problems. The obvious point has been made by unions that not paying staff is a false economy, but that logic only applies if the government had any concern for the future of the NHS. It does not. It wants to reduce public services further with private companies getting the crumbs of what is left and people with any cash at all forced to go private.

TORY TROUBLES 

Despite the militancy of the unions, the Tories got through the Truss fiasco and are trying to steady the ship. We have yet another Prime Minister, this time it is Rishi Sunak, the markets choice, who is in number 10. Yet the tory civil war continues with Johnson loyalists blaming Sunak for his downfall and prepared to undermine him at every opportunity. He too, as much as Truss (or Johnson), wants to make the working class pay. Sunak is not challenging market orthodoxy and is carrying through the establishment agenda, including trying to edge closer to the European Union and prosecuting the war in Ukraine. This leaves the Tories free to focus on defeating the Trade Unions, driving down working class living standard and destroying public services.

However, there are clearly concerns that the Tories are still not getting the situation with the strikes under control and that their highly confrontational and uncompromising stance is not bearing fruit. Even Keir Starmer, who wants to please capital above all, felt confident enough to reject Grant Shapps’ proposed new anti-union legislation in his New Year speech. Announcing this proposal to enforce minimum levels of service during strikes in different industries, Shapps made the statement that unions should not be able to put lives at risk. In fact it is normal for unions to agree life and limb cover during strikes – it is the Tories who have failed to provide a basic level of service to the British people with hundreds dying, not because of striking ambulance workers, but because the Tories have run the NHS into the ground. Levels of service are already below a safe minimum, so it is difficult to see how anyone would ever be able to strike if this legislation were passed.

Following a familiar Tory script, Government ministers have made outlandish attacks on strikers, including the once revered medical staff, for whom we all applauded during lockdown. There is nothing new in this. Honest toil is only respected so long as workers remain submissive and don’t stand up for their rights. It is not clear, however, that Tory arguments are totally credible with ordinary people. The claim that wage rises would fuel inflation does not wash when clearly inflationary price rises started long before the current wage demands of workers. We are also told that there is no money, yet everyone now knows that money can be found if needed to bail out bankers, for economic support during the pandemic and the energy crisis and for the war in Ukraine. Such basic facts have not been entirely lost on the British people. A Savanta ComRes poll of 16^th-18^th December 2022 showed far more people supporting the strikes than opposing them, with nurses achieving 63% support. Another poll at the same time conducted by YouGov found a similar level of support for the nurses.

The government has tried to hide behind so-called Independent Pay Review Body recommendations for the public sector, but these recommendations came before soaring inflation hit living standards. The GMB union has said it will withdraw from collaborating with the pay review bodies next year. In fact, the pay review bodies covering nine groups of staff in the public sector are not independent at all. They comprise a chair appointed by the Prime Minister, with the other 6-8 members appointed, following a selection process, either by the PM or the relevant Secretary of State. “Independent” is, therefore, only a word attached to government appointed bodies to give some illusion of objectivity.

Realising that the ham-fisted attacks on workers are back-firing the Prime Minister has made more conciliatory noises about being prepared to talk – but at time of writing not actually about the current inadequate pay offers.

The moment of turmoil, of palpable crisis, under Truss has passed, but the Tories problems have not gone away. They are faced with managing capitalism’s continuing crises and a lot of damage has been done. Boris Johnson’s mirage of “levelling up” combined with some vague appeal to making Britain more dynamic in terms of investment and industrial development has largely evaporated. Tory MPs who won former Labour seats in the north of England and elsewhere are already looking for other jobs in preparation for getting turfed out at the next election. On current trends those who shifted their votes at the last general election do not seem to be the harbingers of a new wave of working class Toryism.

FIXING THE TORIES 

A period in government for Labour is all but certain – it would be difficult for Starmer to lose. He has established that he is a safe pair of hands for capitalism, he has the media behind him and is intent on squashing dissent in the party. And he and Wes Streeting have made clear that they will not meet TU demands for decent pay. He will pursue other key policies for British capital, including prosecuting the war in Ukraine and drawing closer to the EU. In respect of the latter, Labour is seen as much better bet for capital than the fractious Tories.

Despite that Labour still remains only a stop-gap for the establishment. It was founded by the, now striking, trade unions and is still seen as home by many socialists, radicals and campaigners – not what the establishment wants in its political party. Labour can get capitalism out of a hole and a spell for it in government provides an illusion of democracy. It also allows time for the Tories to regroup in opposition but it is really the Tories who are the natural party of British capitalism. However, the Tories divisions and problems are deep and enduring – how easy will it be to sort them out?

The Conservative Party, has failed, in recent years to fully represent the interests of British capitalism’s dominant strand. Despite the media stepping back from attacking Sunak, the crisis within the Tories has not gone away. There are Tory MPs plotting against him as they see him as the prime mover in Johnson’s ousting. The absurd premiership of Liz Truss, demonstrated how deep the problems are and reflects of the crisis of declining British imperialism. The divisions which arose from that post World War 2 decline within British capital and the establishment have, since then, played out with increasing intensity in its political party. Some of the fault lines have been; Maintaining an independent world role versus allying with the US and/or the EU; one nation Toryism versus individualist neo-liberalism; the dominance of the city versus industrial policy and regional development.

The defining issue, however, became the EU and Brexit with the two sides of this debate increasingly entrenched and hostile from when Britain first applied to join the then Common Market in 1963 to its actual accession in a decade later. The biggest problem for the establishment is that the dominant Brexiteer wing of the Tory Party does not represent the dominant interests of British capital. Nor does the Tory party ripping itself apart help either. So much is the Party membership distrusted that it wasn’t even allowed to vote on Liz Truss’ replacement, having picked in the last two elections, leaders the establishment didn’t want.

The Tory Party desperately needs reform, but it is a huge task with all manner of right wing diehards now influential in parliament, and a membership that cleaves to their policies.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE UNIONS 

In this situation there are challenges and opportunities for the unions. The government remains determined to defeat them for political as well as economic reasons. But the Tories are in crisis and they are not winning the public argument. Those who have been battling on for months now will welcome the reinforcements joining the struggle. The massive waves of action could be made to count more - be more joined up and involve community campaigns, connecting with the concerns of the vast majority over the cost of living. There is an opportunity for the working class and the trade unions to take advantage of the Tories difficulties, to build greater unity of strike actions and campaigns and make gains. This would represent a huge defeat for the Tories.