PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

President’s column HS2 HYPOCRISY 19th century Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli described Tory government as “an organised hypocrisy”. Times ten for this ConDem coalition. So, what should RMT members make of Transport Secretary, Justine Greening’s plans for High-Speed 2 (HS2) from London to Birmingham? Greening, who previously confirmed Siemens would manufacture Thameslink trains in Germany and sabotaged plans to build Crossrail trains in Derby, now says HS2 is “essential for growth of the UK economy”. But, like Chancellor, George Osborne’s ‘national infrastructure plan’ last November, nobody explains where money for HS2 comes from. Doubtless, as with the Olympic stadium, construction companies will choose the cheapest labour available in the global market, rather than provide training and apprenticeships for Britain’s 3 million unemployed. Investments that boost firms’ profits and share prices without creating new jobs for local workers, produce negligible benefits. Strangely, Justine Greening didn’t seem so concerned about jobs and growth when Bob Crow and I met her last month. In fact, she is preparing a “Command Paper” of Sir Roy McNulty's proposals for a ‘staff-lite’ rail network for the current parliament. Labour Shadow Transport Secretary, Maria Eagle welcomed HS2. Likewise, London mayor, Boris Johnson backed the plan. No doubt the Archbishop of Canterbury and Dalai Lama are writing to The Guardian right now, claiming HS2 can deliver God’s heavenly kingdom on earth. Voices of opposition to HS2 have been parodied as feudal throwbacks and Home Counties nimbys, who don’t want noisy construction workers upsetting their polo ponies. However, for railway workers a very real question arises. What if the government is using the HS2 media circus, as political cover to distract attention from their real objective of launching ‘Beeching Mark 2’ - a massacre of our actually, existing rail network? McNulty’s proposals give train operators carte blanche to close one in three ticket offices, cut ‘loss-making’ services, make DOO-passenger the ‘default mode’ and smash up Network Rail for auctioning to the Tories’ City of London paymasters. McNulty aims for Britain’s rail network to remain fragmented, privatised and easy pickings for government cuts and private profiteers, as part of a ‘Single European Transport Area’ open to privatisation, social dumping and competition from Helsinki to Athens. Already, the new Department for Transport franchise for ‘Greater Western’ from April 2013, specifies closing 29 stations’ ticket offices and cutting opening hours at 17 others - before MPs have even debated McNulty's review. You can see how government ministers might hope to distract opposition to these cuts with futuristic, science-fiction, fantasies of HS2, while they get on with axing jobs and services and ramping up rail fares to boost train operators’ profits. Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth policy and campaigns director points out: "We need to revolutionise travel away from roads and planes, but pumping £32bn into high-speed travel for the wealthy few while ordinary commuters suffer is not the answer.” "High-speed rail has a role to play in developing a greener, faster transport system, but current plans won't do enough to cut emissions overall - ministers should prioritise spending on improving local train and bus services instead." Hear, hear! Paying for HS2 by cutting jobs, services and investment elsewhere, as McNulty proposes, will meet stiff resistance led by RMT. This is why Bob Crow makes clear: "We are demanding HS2 is built, owned and operated in the public sector, free from greed and profiteering of private rail companies, whose exploitation of the travelling public has dragged our railways down for a generation." RMT members will join transport trade unionists from across Europe in Brussels on Wednesday 28 March, to expose the organised hypocrisy of the ConDems, the European Commission and their ‘Single European Railway Market’. Put the date in your diary now and book your leave. Details will soon be available on RMT’s website and from your branch secretary. I look forward to seeing you there. And a very Happy New Year to you and your family! Alex Gordon Congress welcomed the airline pilots’ and the postal workers’ unions as new affiliates to FECTRANS and elected new general secretary, Jose Manuel Oliviera from railway union SNTSF. I brought best wishes from RMT to Portugal’s fighting trade unionists. I told delegates that RMT stands on the side of workers and trade unions who are fighting to ensure their public services and national infrastrucure, including transport services and infrastructure are publicly owned and democratically controlled, not privatised by transnational corporations as the price for EU membership. FECTRANS also hosted an international trade union meeting in Lisbon, which continued the work begun at RMT’s international conference ‘Nationalisation not Privatisation’ held in London in January 2011. The meeting was attended by trade unions and national trade union confederations from Britain, Italy, France, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal. A representative of the World Federation of Trade Unions also attended as an observer. The meeting proposed actions to challenge the European Commission’s 2011 Transport White Paper, and the so-called ‘recast’ of the EU first railway package, which are intended to continue the drive to privatise transport services in a “single European transport area”. An appeal for action was circulated to all transport trade unions (see left). RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2012 :: RMTnews 19