EQUALITY IN DIVERSITY

www.rmt.org.uk :: december 2006 :: RMTnews 35 O n May 10, 1926, a group of men removed a rail from the mainline near the village of Cramlington, Northumberland, and the Flying Scotsman was derailed. It may seem strange that anyone could write in RMT News with sympathy for those who could undertake such an act, but that paradox is one of the many aspects that make this book such a good read. These events took place during the General Strike, when rail workers were among millions on strike in support of miners, who had been locked out for refusing to accept a cut in their already poverty pay and an increase in working hours. It was a time of desperation, almost unimagineable poverty and sharp conflict between haves who wanted more and have-nots who had nothing left to give up. It was a strike that pitched the trade union movement on a collision course with the might of the state, and in which any trade unionist that fell foul of the law felt the full force of its vengeance. Such was the fate of the eight Cramlington miners who were singled out as responsible for the derailment of the Flying Scotsman. Never mind that their intention had been to stop scab coal trains running and that they had no inkling that the Flying Scotsman, crewed by scabs, was approaching. Never mind that, once their mistake was realised, attempts had been made to stop the train, and that no serious injuries were suffered. Never mind that far more damage was done during the strike by inexperienced scabs, whose ineptitude resulted in several deaths. In one crash at Edinburgh, at around the same time as the Flying Scotsman came off the road, three were killed and 16 injured thanks to a scab. For the miners, as for the striking railway workers, it was a hand-to-mouth existence in squalid conditions. Such was the poverty that, on the very day of the miners’ court appearance, a mother had been arraigned for killing her baby because she couldn’t bear to watch it slowly starve to death. For the well-to-do scabs the strike was it was all a bit of a laugh, a chance for adventure, to play at railwaymen. The brutal sentences meted out to the miners found guilty of the derailment were greeted a sustained campaign which led to reductions. Full of detail, painstakingly researched and well illustrated with photographs, newspaper clippings and strike bulletins, this is book is well worth reading – and if you order now, they’ll do their utmost to get it to you before Christmas. Derek Kotz Order at the special price of £7 including postage, with cheques payable to M Hutcherson, from PO Box 450, Torquay, TQ1 9AZ, quoting RMT offer, or order online from www.letnowheelsturn.com, using code RMT. T his pamphlet explains how this deeply undemocratic directive seeks to erase national laws that get in the way of large private companies taking over service provision across the EU. Under these plans all public services are treated as “economic activity,” or tradable commodities like any other business. The first chapter reveals how healthcare remains under threat despite the fact that it was removed from the provisions of the directive. The European Commission has got round this little problem by simply drawing up a new directive to cover healthcare, which amounts to 10 per cent of the EU’s GDP and, therefore, a huge potential for private profit. The pamphlet looks at the origins of the services directive which can be traced to the signing of the Single European Act back in 1986 by Margaret Thatcher. We learn that it was the Tory government’s close relationship with big business groups like the European Roundtable of Industrialists which put the EU on this road to the ‘Thatcherisation’ of Europe, as one Tory MP put it. The services directive and the ‘internal market’ principles behind it also represent a threat to jobs, decent wage levels and trade union rights. This easy-to-read booklet also outlines the ongoing ‘Vaxholm’ case, presently before the EU’s own European Court of Justice, which threatens to outlaw Swedish labour law and the right of trade unions to enter into collective bargaining agreements. The argument being put by the Commission and their court is that nothing can be allowed to get in the way of the free movement of ‘services, labour and capital’. This echoes the oppressive Victorian argument that trade unions operate in ‘restraint of trade’ and should be outlawed. However, trade unionists have always maintained, quite correctly, that giving big business the right to do what it likes, where it likes does not represent freedom but the shackling of workers and a threat to representative democracy. I would wholeheartedly recommend this pamphlet as it puts sometimes confusing events into sharp focus. It will prove invaluable for anyone seeking to understand the neo-liberal, right wing direction of the EU and the threat this poses to jobs, manufacturing, trade union rights, pensions, democracy, our public services and our civil rights. Tony Benn Available for £1 plus p&p from Democrat Publications PO Box 46295 London W5 2UG BOOK REVIEWS LET NO WHEELS TURN: THE WRECKING OF THE FLYING SCOTSMAN, 1926 by Margaret Hutcherson THE SERVICES DIRECTIVE – A RACE TO THE BOTTOM by Brian Denny DEMOCRAT PRESS ISBN 1-904260-07-1