Comments on: Developing trade unionism in the crisis

By: steve tunstall

steve tunstall — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 22:08:38 +0000

An excellent article articulating what many of us believe. Organise all those smaller(or larger) splinter groups inti a united front against austerity and the power of the “elite” Forging the path for a true democracy, of for and by the people. So please note Uk Uncut, 38 degrees, Robin Hoods Socialist groups let’s stand together and to quote Ghandi, “Be the change you want to see in the world”

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:26:06 +0000

I agree with much of what Huw says but the likelihood of unions making the fundamental changes to their ideas, practices and organisation in the near future is close to zero. Why so?

The union movement in Britain today has no specific political-ideological foundation. While union leaders and activists often sign-up to the same rhetoric of ‘fairness’ and ‘equality’ the politics of the broader membership is extremely diverse.

This is a source of real weakness.

It is simply not clear that many union members would actively support a ‘coherent resistance movement’.

Of course, by mobilising the same old layer of greying activists any number of ‘new’ and ‘hopeful’ initiatives can be launched. But to have real political weight and momentum they will need to have the active participation of the vast majority of union members – most of whom are not presently active and have only a vague sense of what their union does and thinks on any particular issue.

The broad union membership is as divided over the ‘inevitability’ of the cuts as is the broader electorate.

So a big obstacle to changing unions is the nature of the union membership: inactive, disengaged with internal union politics, but neverthless essential to the financial viability of unions themselves.

By: Derek Cattell

Derek Cattell — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:01:57 +0000

Excellent article which puts very clearly what many of us have been arguing for a while.The unions need to find new friends and allies instead of putting all their eggs in the Labour Party basket.
Could Huw expand on what he means by unions “need to empower their local branches and organisations….” Precisely what does he have in mind? How are union branches disempowered at the moment?
I believe that unions should be part of a wider social movement. My experience is that unfortunately the shop stewards in my branch are not really interested in much outside their own workplace.Our branch is based on the private sector. I got some students who were involved in an occupation over fees to come and speak to the branch.The stewards looked at them as if they were from another planet!