What should Left Unity campaign for?

 

red-flagA contribution from Mark Boothroyd, signatory to the Socialist Platform and member of Southwark Left Unity.

A lot is being written about how Left Unity should structure and function itself and what principles it should base itself on. This is necessary and should continue. For Left Unity to be effective I believe it needs three things; a sound political basis, advocating a radical socialist alternative to the present capitalist system, have democratic and participatory structures which allow all to have a say and take part in the organising and leading of the party, and finally, an orientation to struggles not just in the traditional political realm of parliament, but all areas of life – education, work, housing, community, health, race, gender and sexuality.

I propose three campaign topics which Left Unity should prioritise in the coming months and years.

  1. 1.       Campaign for a 21 hour working week
  2. 2.       Unionise Tesco
  3. 3.       Develop a national movement against sexism and misogyny

These three areas of activity are strategically important for radicalising the working class and creating a vision of a society beyond capitalism, developing our organised power over key areas of the economy which is a stepping stone towards taking control of it, and challenging the reactionary ideas which seek to divide us and lead to huge levels of violence against women.

Campaign for a 21 hour working week

The first campaign is important as the socialist movement after the Second World War largely abandoned the struggle to shorten the working day, which until then had been a key issue for the workers movement in its fight to wrest control of workers lives from capitalism.

Whether this was due to satisfaction with the 40 hour week, illusions in the capability for capitalism to peacefully transform into socialism through technological advancements, or some other factors, I can’t provide an answer.

However it meant a key tool for the socialist movement was unused. The campaign for the 12 hour, then 10 hour, then 8 hour day, laid the foundations for the modern workers movement. The shortening of the working day was a demand which appealed to all workers, regardless of sex, race nationality or religion, and united people across these divisions in common struggle.

It also crucially appealed to those left unemployed by the system, a group who continue to grow larger daily while remaining marginalised in society.

The shortening of the working week is a potential solution to so many of societies’ problems, from the physical exhaustion of those slaving away for 60-70 hours a week, to the psychological damage to a younger generation left idle with no meaningful activity, shortening the working week to force a more equal redistribution of working hours across society is central to transformation of our society.

Freeing more of our time for leisure, and the creative labour which we wish to pursue ourselves voluntarily provides immense benefits psychologically and socially. It would also lessen our desire and need to consume so much, as we would have more time for non-commodified forms of social activity.

Freeing time for families, friends and communities to spend together would have immense social benefits as well. Not least it would reduce the burden of childcare and allow the redistribution of domestic labour more equally across the family unit, in whatever form that may take.

Reducing working time allows more time to travel in less environmentally destructive ways, reducing the frantic pace which characterises modern life for those in work, while reducing and removing the crawling aspect of time for those who are left unemployed outside the system.

A more detailed explanation of the benefits of a 21 hour week can be found in the pamphlet of the New Economics Foundation, 21 hours. A short video on the idea can be viewed here. The pamphlet can be downloaded here. I recommend everyone in Left Unity read it.

If Left Unity wishes to truly transform society, becoming the party which advocates for a shortening of the working week as part of the solution to the crisis of the system is paramount. Its a central part of the struggle for a society where the economy is configured around our lives, rather than our lives being configured around the economy. A 21 Hour campaign has benefits for employed and unemployed alike, it can cross racial and sex divisions and appeal to all religions and creeds. Its time we started to make it a reality.

How to begin? Firstly producing articles and pamphlets to develop the idea and publicise it would be needed. Public meetings to discuss the potential of a 21 hour week could be organised to create interest and draw in supporters, and create forums for discussing how to make it a reality.

Trade unions, campaigns and community groups could be approached to participate in the forums, and start working groups on different areas of the economy, creating analysis and plans of how we could begin the transition both locally and nationally, and across different sectors.

The aim of this would be to create 21 Hour Committees in most towns and cities with representatives of local unions, workplace reps, community activists and the unemployed which could coordinate campaign activity, protests, leafletings, public meetings and stunts to raise awareness and build the campaign.

The scope of this project is enormous, but is guaranteed to attract the interest of thousands weary of the drudgery of work, and hopeful for a better future for all.

 Unionise Tesco

If we’re going to take power, we need to have power. Power to stop parts of the economy, to wring concessions from the government and employers, and to advocate to take parts of it over ourselves This used to be done by the union movement in its heyday in the 60s and 70s. Unfortunately at present the union movement in this country is in a dire state. Largely confined to the public sector, union membership is unknown by two thirds of the population, and the average age of trade unionists increases each year as trade unions fail to renew themselves and fail to make any concerted efforts to unionise the industries where large sections of young workers work, namely retail.

If Left Unity is to make an impact on people’s lives it has to do so concretely. Developing unionisation among Tesco’s workers, to increase their ability to resist the poverty pay and zero hours contract regime they operate under and help rebuild the power of organised labour in this country will be central to this.

Why Tesco, of all places? Tesco is a massive employer, one of the largest in the country, and controls a significant chunk of the retail market. Its workers are largely ununionised, and are subject to poor pay and conditions.  Its shops and supermarkets are in every town and city around Britain.

Conveniently, that puts Tesco outlets within easy reach of every Left Unity branch in the country.

I am not advocating we attempt to do so alone, but if Left Unity works to create a coalition of unions, community activists and workers which is committed to a several year project of organising Tescos stores, then we can play an influential role in rebuilding union power

And this is important because we can’t advance if we don’t transform the trade union politics which have gotten us into this mess. British unions have become weak and marginalised because they have refused to resist privatisation and cuts, under Labour or the Tories, and restrict their activity to workplace representation and the occasional demonstration against austerity. Where branches are militant and organised, some strikes happen, like the courageous struggle against pay cuts at Mid-Yorks NHS Trust, or when the rank and file gets organised like with the electricians dispute of 2011-2012 and the recently victorious Crossrail Blacklist campaign, protests and movements can develop.

On the whole though the unions approach is largely passive in the face of the austerity onslaught, leaving these militant sections to fight on alone.

We can take as a guide for action the long struggle to unionise Walmart, which is now beginning to score important victories, organise stores and create real gains for workers in Walmart stores and warehouses across the country.

As well, the work of the Fastfood Forward campaign and the Fight for $15 show what several years of committed organising can do for some of the most exploited workers in the United States.

Left Unity being at the centre of an organising drive at Tesco would allow us to agitate for and organise the rank and file unionism which places workers self activity and organisation, coupled with direct action and a willingness to break the anti-union laws, at the centre of a struggle to create gains for workers, and revitalise a much cowed union movement.

Develop a national movement against sexism and misogyny

There is a rising level of sexism and misogyny in society. Partly it is product of the Tories being in power, as well as part of the crisis and attempts to scapegoat women for the lack of jobs and employment. The words of Universities Minister David Willets blaming feminism for keeping working class men out of work, creates its vitriolic echo when young women organise for equality.

There is a groundswell of opposition to this building across Britain, and Left Unity must be part of it. Organising to resist these reactionary ideas and continue the advances made over the last 30-40 years is necessary to establish a bulwark of progressive ideas in the heads of the next generation, so they blame the system, not each other, for the inequality and exploitation they see everywhere.

My perspective is the best place to start such a campaign is in the colleges and on campuses across the UK. There are already many large and organised Feminist and Women’s societies, and many young progressive and socialist activists are present who could support and join such a campaign.

Colleges and university campuses are well placed to launch a national campaign as they have large numbers of young people concentrated in them. As well universities are sites of cultural reproduction, producing trends and fashions, as well as and being targeted by advertising and marketing to try and imbed their latest manufactured ideas in the heads of young people. They’re an ideological battleground where a concerted struggle across campuses could have an impact on beliefs and values nationally, and crucially, in the minds of young people who will then take those ideas with them into the future.

This campus movement is already developing, with the creation of a UK Feminist Society Co-ordinating Group to begin discussing and planning how to create a national campaign around these issues. I encourage all Left Unity student activists to join it and take part in the discussion.

The campaign could be supported by Left Unity Branches, and we could seek to link campus campaigns with activities in communities to address the cuts to women’s services, low and unequal pay and the myriad other issues facing women across the country as austerity tightens its grip.

This is just the start

This article was written to start a debate as to what campaigns Left Unity should take up in the months and years ahead. These are by no means the only issues we should campaign on. The lack of housing, the bedroom tax, supporting the disabled, anti-racism, solidarity with migrant workers, LGBT liberation and many other issues will be central to our work as well.

However I believe these are key areas which we should put at the centre of our strategy to build Left Unity as we organise to rebuild the power of working people to effect change upon society, and attempt to develop a positive vision of the future society we want to create. Just as Kshama Sawant’s election campaign in Seattle has had the struggle for a $15 minimum wage as a central identifying slogan of its work, surely partly responsible for securing them 44,000 votes for a socialist candidate in the election, so Left Unity must become the party identified with the 21 hour week, the party which is actively trying to unionise Tesco, and the party which is spearheading the struggle for women’s liberation.

I hope that in the weeks ahead we can have a constructive discussion as to how to take these and the other proposals which other activists make, forward into practical activity.

 

 


18 comments

18 responses to “What should Left Unity campaign for?”

  1. Guy H says:

    3 great points (and ones which fit squarely within a broad left party’s agenda…)

  2. Oli says:

    So my working week would be over by Tuesday night? What could possibly go wrong?

  3. Patrick D. says:

    Hmm…

    Given most professional people work to the order of 50+ hours per week, perhaps 30-35 hours would be a more realistic transition than 21 hours per week. Even if I was cloned, I don’t think it would be possible for me to do what I do in 21 hours. Presently I am contracted to do 37.5 hours pw, but have to do the other 23.5 hours pw unpaid and at home.

    Unionisation drives are good.. But we need to do that in collaboration with a union! which one? – perhaps it could be the start of a process to prize them from the Labour party.

    Sexism.. I think this is certainly an important topic, but something that requires a complex set of policies to tackle. Most workplaces follow anti-sexism legislation, so in reality the biggest culprits are girls magazines which emphasize body and beauty over all else, and a professional career structure which forces a choice between children and career. It is thus something which would be difficult to force simple positive headlines with.

    If we wanted headline grabbing campaigns, I would suggest:
    1. Minimum wage at £10 per hour
    2. Working week at 35 hours per week
    3. All workers to know the average wage of their peers + a drive to re-unionise the workforce.
    4. Massive public house/flat building program – everyone to have the right to a high quality rented property within 10 years.
    5. Childcare provision to be subsidized so that full affordable childcare is offered to every child from the age of 2
    6. End the closure of Sure start and other local facilities.
    7. Nationalisation of the public transport system
    8. The formation of a national people’s bank linked with regional people’s banks – to allow local (as opposed to computer algorithm) decision making on infrastructure and business development.
    9. Technical Colleges NVQ provision to be given the same priority as university degree provision in terms of prestige. We need to consider ALL our young people not just the 45% who go to university or the 15% who go to the top universities
    10. A massive reduction in military expenditure and redirection of funds into civilian R&D to bring us up to 3% GDP.

    • John Penney says:

      I certainly think your suggested priority policies are a lot more useful than the lead article’s suggestions, Patrick D. Campaigning for a much higher minimum wage has got to be more of a priority than campaigning for a working shorter week at present. Even some Tories are starting to grasp that the current pitiful minimum wage is simply an invitation to the likes of Asda/Walmart, Amazon, etc, who have built their “business models” on exploiting state subsidies for low paid workers, to rip off the taxpayer though benefits paid to employed workers – whilst of course avoiding contributing to the nation’s tax revenues as far as possible !

      Campaigning for an end to “Zero Hours/ very low hours, Contracts” must be a priority too.

      What about campaigning to reverse the privatisation of the NHS, and Postal services too ?

      There’s no shortage of vital policies Left Unity needs to adopt. I find your especially selected “three priority ones” very, very, strange to be honest. Why these three in particular ? “A national movement against sexism and misogyny” as one of the recommended three KEY policies Left Unity should focus on, in the midst of the most severe Austerity Offensive since the 1930’s ? The Bedroom Tax, Youth unemployment, Privatisation of the NHS, the assault on benefits, Workfare, Rising racist scapegoating, etc, etc, etc. What about these vital issues?

      You seem to be inviting Left Unity to become a “limited issue campaigns co-ordinating group”, rather than a fully fledged political party with a huge raft of manifesto policies , appropriate to a party seeking eventually to win political power at national and local level via contesting elections – as well of course as campaigning on a broad range of issues in communities and nationally, and through trades union activity in the workplace.

      • Patrick D. says:

        John,

        Good points…

        On the bedroom tax abolition, That should actually be covered by £10 minimum wage plus housebuilding program. But I agree, given it’s horrendous impact, we would need its reversal upfront.

        Zero hours is another one of those complex ones though. Certainly its use in the retail sector is inexcusable. but if we simply ban all jobs which don’t have a predefined set of hours each week, it may have unforseeable effects – e.g. fishing, some farm work (which may be weather dependent – some weeks no work, some weeks lots of work). I’m not an expert in this.. But it would be worth having a proper policy rather than simply a “No to Zero Hours” slogan

  4. Martin Wicks says:

    USDAW has union recognition at Tesco.

  5. Jim Jepps says:

    Thanks for kicking off the suggestions Mark.

    I think a unionisation campaign is a good idea – although Tesco, I believe, has a sweet heart deal with Usdaw so possibly either something broader or working with an activite trade union (like Unite) to unionise difficult to organise workers like agency workers or perhaps migrant workers, who are often very good trade unionists.

    I’m all for a reduction in the working week, but I think in the context where a key problem many face is underemployment (ie they don’t get enough hours) campaigning for a living wage might get more traction.

    I think an anti-sexism campaign is a good idea – it needs to have some specific direction/demands of course.

    I certainly think that immigration is going to be a key political battle ground over the next year and the left has to get itself together and put the pro-immigration case. Too often it’s anti-racism work is actually anti-EDL stuff and we don’t take on wider social attitudes.

  6. Patrick Black says:

    For Left Unity to be really effective it needs to be a cohernet and genuinely united party in terms of it’s aims and objective.

    The main starting point has to maintaining a broadly agreed and sober assessment of the prospects of Left unity based on the present political situation in Britain, the level of class struggle, the state of The Left and Left unity’s ability to win serious numbers of people to it’s politics especially when there is a great deal of fear about jobs, a deep distrust of mainstream politics as well as of trade union and Left politics.

    A case in point being The People’s Assembly, which in my view represents a potentially very damaging retreat by the anti cuts movement and large swathes of the disorientated and fragmented Left in providing anti austerity platform’s and succour to Labour councillors implementing brutal Con dem cuts but dressed in sheep’s clothing all in the name of a broad vacuious ‘unity’.

    If Left Unity follows this path uncritically then we are destined to get absolutely no where.We are calling for Left Unity outside of the Labour party to oppose and challenge all auserity neo liberal capitalist parties. We oppose Labour because of it’s long list of betrayals of it’s working class base,it’s big business privatisation,cuts and war agenda, started under Blair and Brown and to be surely followed by the two Dick Ed’s in the event, by no means certain or guaranteed,of a Labour victory at the next General Election.

    The Left is more than able saying what is wrong with the present state of affairs but less good on being really focussed in it’s response. The Left is great on endless and exhausting wishlists about the million an one things that ‘we’ the people need to do to change the situation but not quite so intelligent in terms of understanding there are only a certin number of hours in a day and some people have a life (sic) outside left politics and even want to sleep sometimes. So, please can we have a bit more focus and realism to political discussion instead of never ending wish lists of what needs to be done.Thanks

    Quality not quantity

    Let’s not run before we can walk

    • Patrick D. says:

      Patrick

      I think what you are trying to say is that we need a fully thought out manifesto as opposed to a set of campaign slogans.. if so, I agree.

  7. Dave K says:

    Some interesting ideas in this article but I agree with some of the other comments. We need to start a bit closer to where we are in the class struggle a the moment. A 21 hours campaign is way in advance of what we can realistically campaign on at the moment, it would be unlikely to get much traction in my opinion. A more appropriate demand would be 35 hours without loss of pay. As has been pointed out TESCO is already unionised so agree with Jim above we need to look at other areas of priority in the trade union movement such as zero hours and agency workers. Here we have to highlight the LP’s timid response and weak promises. As for the call for a general campaign around sexism it is okay but you need a sharper focus and here it is vital that we listen to feminists and women in struggle rather than coming charging in with readymade proposals.

    I think the method should rather be looking at what the most promising campaigns are already up and running. Foremost among which is the Peoples Assembly which has over 50 groups now going strong. This is not mentioned in Mark’s contribution. LU needs to be fully involved in that campaign. It groups all the unions and many of the best local activists. Campaigns around the NHS, the bedroom tax and possible the Post Office are the obvious areas for us to work rather than inventing totally new structures from scratch as Mark seems to be suggesting. Don’t want to sound negative towards a contribution that is focused on what we should be doing but I think there are some real difficulties with the approach behind these proposals. Left Unity needs to relate effectively to the real existing movements and struggles not engage in what looks to me a little propagandistic.

  8. David says:

    This is hopeful for Left Unity. More on vision and policies and less on class struggle is great. Just one more element required for success – get out in communities supporting individuals in need. This will help people, demonstrate that Left Unity values caring relationships over profit and develop the necessary electoral base.

  9. Andrew says:

    Class struggle and the working week are completely related i think you will find . I have been trying to come to grips with this- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cTcBOnnQ4I

  10. Heather Downs says:

    good ideas; reduction of working week is useful because it removes ‘special treatment’ for mothers who often get pushed into pt hours which exacerbates inquality in the home and the workplace. The same considerations apply to caring for older/disabled adults. It is something I have often mentioned. Paternity leave should not be transferable to mothers; we should encourage men to take equal responsibility for childcare etc.
    The criticism that sexism/misogyny is a distraction from the ‘real’ struggle is not so; 75% of cuts to jobs, benefits, services fall on women who then pick up the slack unpaid and isolated at home. Low pay disproportionately affects women hence the pay gap. Last year, November 7th marked the date after which women effectively worked for free; it varies year by year, but it is a good starting point for a campaign. Ties in nicely with living wage demands.
    Whether Tesco is the best focus is debatable. It is important, but not as much as the NHS, where the largely female workforce is already unionised and held in high esteem by the public.
    The main problem I can see with Mark’s contribution is the omission of male violence against women. The Twitter rape & death threats against Caroline C-P and her supporters illustrated just how widespread and vicious misogyny is. This was for wanting a picture of a woman on a bank note. The suggestion it has no relation to 1 in 5 women disclosing being subjected to sexual abuse, reported in only 15% of cases, resulting in about 0.5% of the perpetrators being convicted is laughable. Add to that, 1 in 4 suffer domestic violence of whom 2 a week are killed – more than soldiers in Afghanistan. We should find this situation intolerable. We would do (correctly) if it was happening to eg Muslims.
    There are lots of online feminist discussion forums to publicise our policies when we finally get some. This is the main issue imo : the fascination with platforms has dominated the debate when our energy would be better spent promoting policies to defend our class against austerity. Make no mistake – the Condems won’t sit still while we reach ideological nirvana before they move into the next stage of capturing the glittering prize of the NHS. They have confidently decided their ‘platforms’ have enough in common to launch their offensive with a comprehensive programme of action. We should do likewise.

  11. John Lewis says:

    How about campaigning for a society where we wouldn’t have to work for wages (work for an employer) but where the principle “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs” would apply? I think it used to be called socialism.

  12. Andrew says:

    Yes John I think that should be the aim without a doubt.
    -WAGES AND WHY WE DON”T BENEFIT FROM A SHORTER WORKING WEEK IN CAPITAISM
    The wage relation just hides the exploitation of unpaid labour. Problem is the higher the rate of exploitation the more time people work beyond the value of their wage the more profit fpr capitalism. This is why wages and hours are such a contested issue and even working life. In all sectors services and all the rest wages and condition and hours have been increased not just commodity production. Not surprising as its human labour that creates value. This is not ideology, it is ideology which obscures this.
    Also we need to look at the roll of technology in capitalism
    Technology should reduce the working week. But technology is there in capitalism to create profit. Why the capitalist robs people of the benefit of increased productivity, which could be used to shorten the working day is explained by marx, this has not changed certainly in commodity production and a commodity could be a cappochino or bread roll. We need to know that part of the working day is used to generate the value of the wage, this is what is needed to sustain the worker, Marx terms this time as necessary labour time and the time worked beyond this which is free for the capitalist as surplus labour time. The more surplus labour time the more the rate of exploitation increases, the more surplus value generated, the more profit for the capitalist. Given that there are only so many hours in a twenty four hour cycle that is humanly possible to make someone work and still expect them to come to work in a fit state again the next day how can the capitalist extract more surplus value? The answer to this perplexing question for capitalists is to increase the efficiency of the production process by technological advance and get ahead of their competitors. More commodities are produced with the new means of production, keeping the workers at work for the same amount of time of course. Although the value of these commodities is actually less because they contain less embedded labour time the price is socially determined- as most of the commodities in general circulation contain the old amount of socially necessary labour time. The capitalist at first contrives to sell his commodities at the standard price and pocket all the extra surplus value but what he ends up doing is selling his commodities a little bit cheaper than than the standard price but still over their real value, pocketing some of the extra surplus value. Eventually the new means of production spreads to all manufacturers and the commodities can only now be sold at the new amount of socially necessary labour time they embody. This provides the drive for more technological innovation. The extra surplus value that capitalists are able to generate whilst any new means of production is limited to a particular or small group of capitalists is called relative surplus value.

  13. Andrew says:

    I think it is very important that we know what we are up against as the global ‘free’ market is foisted on the population. Trying to understand what the social economic relations are is not about adopting ideology and idealism, it is a very necessary thing at this time, because I think as many as possible need to be on board with the thinking of any socialist groups, adding to it interacting with their knowledge and increasing its validity for action.

  14. Andrew says:

    Also we need to encouraging those who have not spoken out before..i thought the post about the guy that just joined was good.
    We are not competing here or defending entrenched positions we have got a lot to loose. Many could end up in the most unbelievable poverty in the coming years, and many people already are in this poverty. Lets not talk to each other in the language of the market which seeks not to understand but sell us ideas and things..Let’s work together to understand this world and how we can change it.


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