RMT AGM 2016 - A FIGHTING UNION

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july 2016 :: RMTnews 13 The threats of corporate power, neoliberalism and the de- skilling of transport workers across the world were key themes of RMT’s AGM in Cardiff, which marked 25 years of RMT as a merged union. However delegates, union officers and guest speakers spoke of hope in new organising strategies and alliances. Delivering the general secretary’s report, Mick Cash said that the National Union of Railwaymen and the National Union of Seamen “came together in a different time” but asserted that RMT was “still together and still fighting”. He also hailed “100 years of women in our union”. “It took 100 years to get to a situation where we’ve got two women members of our executive committee. “It shows that we’ve moved a long way, and we’ve got a hell of a long way to go,” he said. The vote to leave the EU and the election of Jeremy Corbyn to lead the Labour Party - both supported by the union - were also recurring themes of the conference. Speakers warned of the threats to Mr Corbyn from Labour’s right wing and the battle for setting the agenda for Britain’s departure from the anti-democratic and neoliberal EU. “We need to seize the opportunity to put forward an agenda to fight against austerity, against cuts and for workers’ rights. “Ordinary working people are sick of the political class and what they’re doing,“he said. FIGHTING AUSTERITY Delegates heard calls to organise for “generalised” strike action with or without a go-ahead from the TUC. Delegates expressed disappointment that fiery rhetoric about defeating new anti-strike laws at last year’s TUC Congress was not followed up with action. Glen Hart, Morden and Oval said that few unions had used their muscle before the trade union bill was passed into law in spite of “some general secretaries referring to Martin Luther King” at the start of the campaign against the proposals. “We really need to get serious about this - not just conversations. “We need to push for action, we need to be presenting these arguments at the TUC and having high profile campaigns - not just fanciful words from general secretaries,” he said. AGM unanimously endorsed a motion expressing concern at the TUC’s “lack of campaigning” on the issue and calling for a “high profile campaign”. AGM also resolved to “seek agreements with specific trade unions to take co-ordinated action” if any union or individual is prosecuted under the new laws. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that strike thresholds in the new Trade Union Act were “fundamentally undemocratic”. But he said that unions must respond to the law by ramping up their organising. “Whatever we do, we’ve got to make sure we get our members’ support,” he said. LEAVING THE EU Delegates welcomed the referendum vote to leave the European Union in line with longstanding union policy. A successful emergency resolution welcomed the result and called on the Labour movement to build on this “shattering defeat for the Tory government”. Paul Reilly, Nuneaton said that workers had inflicted this defeat onto a complacent pro- EU ruling class. “We must continue to fully support Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in the face of renewed attacks following the result “We need to support his commitment to oppose a post- referendum emergency budget which includes any new austerity measures and call for the removal of Labour MPs that seek to undermine the party,” he said. Welsh counsel-general Mick Antoniw, chair of the RMT’s Welsh Assembly group said that it was essential to respect the referendum result for the sake of democracy. He said that it was clear that “how people voted was dependent on wealth” and that there was a “complete class division about way voting occurred”. Irish general union SIPTU leader Joe O’Flynn said that there were “certain parallels” between Britain voting to leave the EU and the Easter Rising 100 years ago. He said that his predecessor union leader James Connolly, a key leader of the Irish rebellion, had been “driven by his problems of what was a very repressive capitalist system”. Sylvain Esnault, president of French CGT’s rail workers’ sector, said that the EU was a “neoliberal and capitalistic project” and called for maximum international solidarity to resist the fourth railway package which imposes the mass privatisation of rail networks on member states without a mandate. Delegates at AGM, which took place as scores of Labour MPs resigned from their party’s front-bench in attempts to remove leader Jeremy Corbyn, also called for unity to defeat the Tories. Mick Cash said that “self- indulgent” parliamentarians had squandered the unions’ best moment to go on the offensive. He said that divisions in the Tory party and shockwaves in the world of capital should have been an opportunity for the left to get his message across. But this had been sabotaged by frontbenchers resigning and calling for Jeremy Corbyn’s head. “What have they done? self- indulgence. “They’ve created division and RMT AGM - CARDIFF 2016 A FIGHTING UNION