In a live TV news Conference, the UCW has set out its case for going ahead with the strikes, set to begin at Midnight tonight. They have demonstrated that responsibility for the strikes rests firmly with the Management of Royal Mail, whose boss, Adam Crozier, apparently vetoed, the wording of a deal his own Managers had agreed, last night. Responsibility also lies with the Government, which has failed to call an intransigent management to account. But, lest we forget, whilst at least Gordon Brown was calling for conciliation, in Parliament today, the Blue in Tooth and Claw Tories have again showed that they remain the same old crew of class warriors for Capital they have always been, as their boss Cameron, bayed for the blood of posties for daring challenge the power of Capital. In my post yesterday, I wrote that I did not think that the strikes were the best tactic, I still don't, but that is besides the point now. The battle has begun, and every Marxist, and self-respecting Trade Unionist has to mobilise 100% to support the posties who face a determined class enemy.
But, the question of tactics still remains. For now the spearhead will be the strike. But, it seems clear that this management is not going to simply fold, and if the Government is standing behind them, that is even less likely to be the case. This is just the start of the battle. In recent months, workers, faced with similar situations, have rediscovered methods of struggle that have not been seen in Britain for some time. The workers at Visteon and at Vestas occupied their factories. Given the situation facing the posties where one result of the strikes is the shifting of business already to private communications firms, the tactic of the Occupation could be a good start, especially as Royal mail, appear to be trying to break the strike through the employment of large numbers of casual staff.
The UCW is a strong well organised union with many capable activists. If they were to elect rank and file committees in each workplace, and then occupy, turning out the Management, then these Workers Committees could place each workplace under Workers Control. The workers could demonstrate that they can run the business more efficiently than the present incompetent Management. Rather than losing business through strikes, an Occupation and the placing of the business under Workers Control could ensure that the Mail continued to flow winning the support of workers for their actions on a wide basis.
The UCW, in its press conference, stated that, in a discussion with Mandelson, some time ago, he admitted himself that the Royal Mail Management was incompetent. His solution was to suggest its privatisation, and that it be placed in the hands of the TNT management. But, for the working class, the return of State Capitalist business to private Capitalist business is no solution. We want to go forward to Workers Ownership and Control, not backwards to private Capitalism. If the Government believes that the current management is incompetent, if it believes that the State cannot efficiently run the Post Office - and as Marxists we have every reason to agree with that assessment - then the Government should do the obvious thing and allow the Royal Mail workers themselves to run the business, it should hand over the business to them! An immediate occupation of Royal Mail buildings would be a good place to start, in demanding such a solution.
The Visteon workers were able to win their dispute through Occupation, though victory only meant maintenance of the status quo, that is the workers continue to be wage slaves creating profits for the firm's owners. In Argentina, scores of factories have been occupied by their workers, who then turned them into Co-operatives, owned and controlled by the workers themselves, and have turned them into profitable businesses, benefiting the workers and the communities in which they are located.
The workers, at the Zanon factory, in Argentina, recently were assigned official ownership of the factory they have been occupying and running as a Co-operative now for several years. Throughout the world there are more workers employed in Workers Co-operatives than are employed in Multinational Companies. Not only CAN workers run their own enterprises, but they can and do run them more efficiently than can the Capitalists, that is part of our reason for being socialists.
It is time that the working class stopped simply accepting solutions which keep it contained within the existing system of property ownership and property relations, which mean that it is continually faced with the kind of struggle faced by the posties now. We need to begin to take over the means of production, and begin to develop the society of the future today.
If posties began to occupy the Post Offices and Sorting Offices and Depots, they would be a good way towards achieving such a transformation. If the working class physically supported them in that in the way the Labour Movement supported the Visteon and Vestas workers, they could begin to place the Post Office straight away under the Control of the working class, and ensure that it worked to meet our needs.
The old slogans should ring out Occupy, Organise, Kick The Bosses Out.
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