PRESIDENTS COLUMN - NO FIGHT, NO SAFETY

september 2005 :: RMTnews 25 RMT executive committee member Dave Collinson and I have just returned from Japan following an invitation from Japanese trade unionists who are keen to learn from our Rail Against Privatisation campaign. It was a privilege to meet trade unionists on the other side of the world who were deeply interested to hear about our campaigning methods and who universally described RMT as a “fighting union”. Everywhere we went on our busy schedule, trade unionists wanted to know about our democratic structures and about our high- profile public campaigning work against privatisation and job cuts. We addressed huge rallies demanding the renationalisation of Japanese railways, the right to organise and for the re- instatement of sacked rail workers. This highly developed campaign included women’s groups and co-operatives set up to look after sacked workers. Japan’s rail network was sold off in 1987 and the six new companies sacked over a thousand trade unionists who were blacklisted and have not worked since. These injustices contravened international law yet the government backed the employers and continues to do so. Hundreds of tribunals have found in favour of sacked workers yet the companies have simply ignored these legal finding s in the safe knowledge that the Tokoyo government will back them up. Rail companies clearly put profit first and one outfit, JR West, has cut nearly 20,000 jobs, almost halving the workforce. It is not surprising that JR West was the train operator in charge of the line at Amagasaki, which saw the worst rail crash in Japanese history. The tragedy in April killed over 100 people and left many more injured. Dave and I laid flowers at the site of the crash where I heard how time tables had been tightened up and excessive speeds had been introduced in the name of enforced competition. Both JR West and another private operator Hankyu Rail operate the lines between Takaradsuka and Osaka. JR West boasts that its line runs seven minutes faster than Hankyu in order to win more passengers. Therefore, on what was previously just a local line, drivers were forced to run 120km/h on the straight line and slow to 70km/h on the curve where the lethal accident happened. Japanese rail union Doro-Chiba is determined to struggle against this privatised chaos with the simple slogan “No Fight, No Safety!” and they are clearly winning a lot of support from across the political spectrum. In fact, right-wing Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi has called a snap election this month following a widespread revolt against his plans to privatise the country’s postal system. Left- wing Japanese MPs even exposed a report from US officials showing that the blue-print for postal privatisation had been modified to meet US business interests. So, as you can see, it is clear that we face exactly the same problems in Britain as our Japanese brothers and sisters. After a week of rallies, evening marches through Tokyo, meetings and press conferences with the national media, we left with lasting impressions of a popular movement united in their struggle for progressive change and a peaceful future. Tony Donaghey NO FIGHT, NO SAFETY President’s column