PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

In January’s RMT News I said our movement’s response to attacks on public services will be critical. If trade union leaders bow to demands of bankers and politicians for belt-tightening by our class and collude in appeasement of the super-rich, we will fail. As if on cue, the TUC invited Prime Minister David Cameron to address the 2010 Congress. When ‘Dave’ snubbed them, Tory stooge Vince Cable, the ‘ConDem’ coalition Business Secretary was asked. I am glad his invitation has finally been withdrawn. A TUC leadership in the habit of obsequiousness to the powerful may find it impossible to adjust to current reality. Having bailed out banks, bounced through the reviled Lisbon Treaty and cobbled together a new coalition government no one voted for, the ruling class in Britain and Europe have embarked on an all-out assault on the welfare state, the NHS and workers’ rights and living standards. Class war is alive and well and being taught at some of Britain’s finest public schools. Workers have never needed their trade union movement more. That’s why it is the responsibility of every RMT member to recruit and organise workers. Whether you are a rep, branch officer, or a member, if you care about your family and fellow workers, please make sure the worker alongside you is an RMT member too. To join RMT complete the application form inside the front cover of RMT News, or from your branch secretary, online at http://www.rmt.org.uk/ or call our freephone hotline on 0800 376 3706. RMT’s delegation to this September’s TUC Congress in Manchester promises to be lively. Together with sister unions in the Trade Union Coordinating Group, RMT will demand the TUC calls a national demonstration in response to Tory Chancellor, George Osborne’s announcement of massive cuts to public services in his ‘comprehensive spending review’ in October. I am delighted to confirm that RMT’s group of MPs has grown to over 10 per cent of the Parliamentary Labour Party since the general election with Gerald Kaufman (Manchester Gorton), Alex Cunningham (Stockport North), Austin Mitchell (Grimsby), Bryan Donohoe (Central Ayrshire), Chris Williamson (Derby North), Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) and Mike Wood (Batley & Spen) joining us. Our Parliamentary Bus seminar later this year offers the chance to meet MPs. The ‘ConDem’ attacks on public transport fall heavily on rural bus services and threaten free bus travel for pensioners. A Parliamentary seminar is part of the commitment made at this year’s RMT Bus Workers’ Conference to raise the profile of Bus workers’ issues and the political demand for public ownership of the bus industry. RMT’s parliamentary convenor, John McDonnell, MP is also calling for release without charge of Iranian Bus workers’ union leader, Reza Shehabi. Reza was arrested on 12 June this year and is being held in solitary confinement in the torture section of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. Please encourage your MP to sign John McDonnell’s Early Day Motion 633 ‘Arrest of Reza Shahabi’. RMT is already organising to join the demonstration against European Union austerity measures, called by the European TUC in Brussels on September 29. It is essential in our view that a noisy, highly visible and militant delegation of trade unionists from Britain is present to show our current government that their plan has been rumbled. The European Central Bank and EU political leaders, including the ‘ConDems‘ here, are pursuing a class war aimed at rolling back social and economic achievements of the post-war era. Their policies from Athens to London are to make the working class pay for the crisis of capitalism. A defeat for the EU’s attack on democracy and workers’ rights in Greece will be a victory for workers across Europe and the world. I look forward to seeing you there. Alex Gordon President’s column TUC, GET OFF YOUR KNEES! RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: july/august 2010 :: RMTnews 29 collecting interviews and archive footage, but what makes this project more exciting is the knowledge that RMT members and branches have important material hidden away that will give it an added dimension,” he said. • If you or your branch have documents, photos, films or any artefacts that will help piece together the history of our union, please get in touch. The union can arrange to collect materials, which will be handled with great care and returned after copying. • Tell us who to talk to: over the next year or so, Chris Reeves will be travelling the country collecting interviews. If there is someone you think Chris should interview, let us know. • If you have materials or suggestions for the film project, please contact Derek Kotz at RMT Communications, on 020 7529 8803 or at dkotz@rmt.org.uk. TELL US YOUR BRANCH STORY Every RMT branch has a story to tell – and to encourage branches and members to share them, there will be a prize awarded for the item judged by a panel headed by Chris Reeves to be the best. Extracts will also be published in RMT News or on RMTv – and if you need any pointers the RMT Learning team is happy to help with research advice – just give Andrew Brattle a call on 020 7529 8820 or email him at a.brattle@rmt.org.uk In Dover, for example, RMT activist and RMT Learning project worker Mike Sergant is tracing the history of the involvement of rail workers in the cross-channel bombardment of Nazi positions, using the long-range, rail-mounted ‘Bosch Buster’ gun. So whether it’s a branch history, a filmed interview, an essay, individual reminiscences, or the local story of a dispute, get it written or in the can and submit it.