BOOK REVIEW

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: february 2009 :: RMTnews 35 T his paperback is a must read for every member and activist in the union. It recounts modern industrial struggles and draws parallels with strikes that have taken place in the past. It is also an antidote to those theorists and commentators that say the working class is dead or that we should accept our lot because modern society is as good as it gets. Paul Mason reminds us that the struggle for decent pay, or safety or respect in the workplace is a ceaseless battle that continues to be fought in every continent and that working men and women will fight back and want more than the crumbs offered from the bosses table. The book opens in 1904 on a building site for a new Cathedral in Liverpool. Under cover of darkness, a docker is guided to the spot where the foundation stone is to be laid by the King the following morning. He digs a hole and buries a ‘workers time capsule’, including local labour and left wing newspapers and notes: “To the finders, hail! We the wage slaves employed on the erection of this cathedral, to be dedicated to the worship of the unemployed Jewish carpenter, hail ye! Within a stone’s throw from here, human beings are housed in slums not fit for swine. This message, written on trust-produced paper with trust-produced ink, is to tell ye how we today are at the mercy of trusts”. Trusts at the time were the modern day equivalent of multi-nationals. Paul Mason goes on to tell how there was an anti-trust movement just as there is now an anti- globalisation campaign. The docker was Jim Larkin, later to lead workers in Ireland across the religious divide and unite them in their trade union that, in 1913, secured recognition and better pay during the famous “Dublin lock out”. Paul Mason’s book is full of real life stories and dramas of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the pursuit of dignity and respect and solidarity. Paul Mason is the economics editor of Newsnight and he had to get special permission from the BBC to write this book. Clearly he is sympathetic to the cause of working people and making it to such dizzy heights with such strong sympathies is good going. The book deals with workers struggle for safety in China, the movements against globalisation in India as well as the formation of “new unionism” in the docks of London and the railways of the USA amongst other struggles past and present. Whether you are part of the fight for a living wage for cleaners in London or for safety for workers offshore in the North Sea or, like me, your priority is to get a tea machine installed in your workplace, you need to read this book. Its title is taken from the slogan adopted by the Lyon silk weavers who in 1831 for a short time, took control of the city. Drawing lessons from the past, Mason’s book offers a glimpse of the possible. Read this book - be inspired. Brian Munro LIVE WORKING OR DIE FIGHTING HOW THE WORKING CLASS WENT GLOBAL By Paul Mason,Vintage books, £12.99 PENZANCE PRESENTATION Lynn Burke of Penzance bus branch receives her 25- year membership badge at Penzance bus depot from the branch chairman Dave Grosvenor. Lynn started with National Express and is currently working at Penzance bus station as regulator. Exeter Rail branch expresses great sadness on the death of Sister Alison Langton who died in a tragic car crash on November 6 on her way home from the branch meeting after receiving her 10-year RMT membership badge. Alison was a bubbly and outgoing person she will be missed by all. EXETER RAIL BRANCH MOURNS