Livingstone = SCAB!
Barry Kade | 25.06.2004 07:08 | European Social Forum | London
Ken Livingstone has just said "if I was a member of the RMT I would cross the picket line next Tuesday."
Should we still tolerate this scab as part of the ESF?
Should we still tolerate this scab as part of the ESF?
Blue Ken Livingstone has just crossed a historic line. This dwarfs all his past sell outs. He said this morning that "if I was a member of the RMT I would cross the picket line next Tuesday."
SCAB!
This is going one step too far.
Livingstone came out with this ultimate betrayal of organised Labour despite the fact that he used the RMT's money and support to win his first round as Mayor, when he was a breakaway candidate.
Livingstone's basic salary is now £108,000 per year. Yet he is prepared to scab on Tube workers who earn a tiny fraction of this.
This is also despite the case that the RMT have also just won another historic victory over pensions. Their threatened strike action on the national rail network has made the bosses cave in, and re-open the final salary pension scheme to new employees upon completion of five years’ service. This is absolute evidence that strike action can win real gains for working people today - over the key issue of pensions.
But tube Workers are still having to go ahead with their strike over pay and conditions. They want the management to shift its position, and improve pay and condistions for the workforce.
Livingstone can have no pretence that he is a 'socialist' now.
His so called "Socialist Action" minions in the GLA are involved in the ESF planning. These are the people who have forced out all the energy and creativity of green gathering organisers, young people, anti-capitalists from the ESF process. All these people are being excluded.
Socialist Action is a fragment of the old International Marxist Group. Livingstone employs them as advisers. They have taken over the ESF, allowing no democracy.
John Ross gets £111,000 per year.
Redmond O'Neill. £111,000 per year.
Neale Coleman. £111,000 per year.
Lee Jasper. £111,000 per year.
How dare these people call themselves socialists?
How can we work towards a more equal society, when these so called leaders benefit from such inequality?
They represent a total corruption, a total abandonment of any kind of socialism. And they are killing the ESF. Another World Is Possible? No, not like this, not with these forces.
Don't be surprised if the ESF fucks up. This is because it has been hijacked by ruling class scabs.
And the SWP is still sucking up to them. Of course.
SCAB!
This is going one step too far.
Livingstone came out with this ultimate betrayal of organised Labour despite the fact that he used the RMT's money and support to win his first round as Mayor, when he was a breakaway candidate.
Livingstone's basic salary is now £108,000 per year. Yet he is prepared to scab on Tube workers who earn a tiny fraction of this.
This is also despite the case that the RMT have also just won another historic victory over pensions. Their threatened strike action on the national rail network has made the bosses cave in, and re-open the final salary pension scheme to new employees upon completion of five years’ service. This is absolute evidence that strike action can win real gains for working people today - over the key issue of pensions.
But tube Workers are still having to go ahead with their strike over pay and conditions. They want the management to shift its position, and improve pay and condistions for the workforce.
Livingstone can have no pretence that he is a 'socialist' now.
His so called "Socialist Action" minions in the GLA are involved in the ESF planning. These are the people who have forced out all the energy and creativity of green gathering organisers, young people, anti-capitalists from the ESF process. All these people are being excluded.
Socialist Action is a fragment of the old International Marxist Group. Livingstone employs them as advisers. They have taken over the ESF, allowing no democracy.
John Ross gets £111,000 per year.
Redmond O'Neill. £111,000 per year.
Neale Coleman. £111,000 per year.
Lee Jasper. £111,000 per year.
How dare these people call themselves socialists?
How can we work towards a more equal society, when these so called leaders benefit from such inequality?
They represent a total corruption, a total abandonment of any kind of socialism. And they are killing the ESF. Another World Is Possible? No, not like this, not with these forces.
Don't be surprised if the ESF fucks up. This is because it has been hijacked by ruling class scabs.
And the SWP is still sucking up to them. Of course.
Barry Kade
Comments
Hide the following 5 comments
What is it with politics
25.06.2004 10:09
Ken Livingstone is the latest in a long line of politicians who when faced with power change their previously commited views. Diane Abbot and private schools spring to mind, Tony Blair and CND, Dennis Skinner and the right of a free press. The Labour Party is of course not alone we've all seen Tories who have banged the drum for "Honesty and Familiy Values" quick to take dosgy money and / or jump the nearest secretary.
Perhaps political power should not be by vote but by ballot. Each year a selection of the population is chosen to represent an area. No elections, no campaigning, no manifestos, no politics. Just a civic duty like jury service or giving blood.
Henry
poor old transport workers.
25.06.2004 13:22
Believe me, i'm all for fair pay and conditions, but for rail workers to strike over money makes me mad.
I mean 35 grand a year is a terrible tiny amount to have to survive on !
Chubba
Bob Crow strikes back
25.06.2004 16:04
The leader of the union at the centre of an impending Tube strike has resigned from the Transport for London (TfL) board after a row with the mayor.
Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) general secretary Bob Crow was annoyed by Ken Livingstone's comments about next week's 24-hour strike.
He said, if he were an RMT member, he would cross picket lines on Tuesday.
Mr Crow said he could not, "in all conscience" remain on the board of the mayor's transport authority.
He said he had been "shocked, saddened and disappointed" by Mr Livingstone's comments.
"I was brought up according to Labour movement principles and to believe that the 11th commandment is `thou shalt not cross a picket line'," he said.
"The mayor should know that the way to settle disputes is not to attempt to break strikes but to negotiate, and that is what he should be getting his management to do."
The walk-out, which begins at 1830 BST on Tuesday, is expected to cause huge disruption for passengers on London Underground.
A simultaneous strike on the railways was called off on Thursday evening following a talks between Mr Crow and Network Rail's chief executive John Armitt.
Mr Crow said Mr Livingstone should follow Network Rail's example by getting executives involved to try to resolve the pay dispute.
But the mayor said the offer of a two-year pay deal worth 6.5% and a pledge of achieving a 35-hour week was "extremely generous" and should be accepted.
But union leaders said there were "major strings" attached and are pressing on with the strike.
Speaking at his mayoral question time on Thursday, Mr Livingstone said: "This position I find completely and utterly unacceptable.
"I have a long history of defending trade unionism... Londoners should not be put to this inconvenience and disruption."
trade unionist
Do pickets count in a non-class-conscious union strike?
25.06.2004 17:25
When the RMT does nothing to help other strikes, and seems to strike only when its own members are involved (please correct me if this is not the case), doe sit deserve anyoen else's support?
I'm not saying it should be ostracised, but its membership should be educated. Democratic procedures should be followed.
Ken Livingstone has been doing things like this for a long time. The regressive taxation nature of the Congestion Charge in London is one of them. Allowing Jarvis (or any private enterprise for that matter) to continue profiting from the Tube is another. Allowing Arriva/Stagecoach to turn public transpoirt into what it is- that's a huge disaster. It's now a domain shared by big-time profiteers and small time crooks. People feel like they are on someone else's turf when they are on public transport, instead of feeling like they have a part to play in running, using, sharing and benefitting in it. Right now most people are in a way held hostage to the minority of petty criminals who "own" what use dot be a public space.
Having said that, not everyone who crosses a picket line is a scab. Would you join a police union picket? Or a prison warders' picket?
Furat
e-mail:
kroolca@hotmail.com
ESF - what me bitchy?
26.06.2004 21:11
The ESF is completely screwed up anyway. The whole process about getting events included in the ESF is closed. The ESF website cost 100K to some private corp where indymedia could have done it for free. The tender for the ESF website was put together by the SWP and handed to the GLA who put the it out and gave it to their buddy corporation. Mate, there is no real ESF in London I'm afraid.
So when you ask "should we still tolerate this scab" please be aware that the joke is on you mate coz "this scab" has taken over the ESF and is presenting it as his own event.
London Activist