The New Labour

The New Labour

  • Submitted By: peedoh
  • Date Submitted: 11/25/2008 11:47 PM
  • Category: Business
  • Words: 370
  • Page: 2
  • Views: 445

ffMcIlroy is correct to identify the 'missing' explosion of unrest consequent upon the dashing of expectations by 'New' Labour that many of the left expected. Neither the validation of the Tuc general secretary (Financial Times ii September 1995) nor the annual industrial relations surveys from a law firm about the soon-to-be revival of militancy and industrial strife can hide this. Blaming the union leaders for not making their talk of `the members won't stand for this' come true maybe correct in terms of agitation and propaganda but it is not in terms of analysis. Questions of membership confidence and consciousness, atrophy of organisation (intra-and interworkplace) and the limited size and implantation of the left are more important. Union leaders are variously castigated as `out of touch','timid' and `sell-out merchants'. All of these maybe true to some degree but more important is understanding two aspects of their inaction, in addition to their rightward drift that McIlroy notes. The first concerns a continuation of `new realism' whereby union leaders are not keen to `rock the (Labour) boat' too much given the 18 years of Conservativism, now being in from the cold as well as Labour's reforms in employment law. They are thus unwilling to mobilise their membership for fear of castigation and isolation. The post-2001 general election falling out between many of the major unions and the Labour government over the role of the private sector in the public sector does not seem to challenge this analysis. The second is that even if they wished to do so, by either taking an initiative or supporting one, they too have experienced a diminution of confidence in their ability to mobilise their members. The difficulty for socialists in this situation is to use the few clear strikes against Labour (like the Dudley hospital or Scottish local government strikes of 2000) to build a force against Labour (cf McIlroy 2000: 37). Other strikes are potentially less useful in...

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