Happy Xmas (Class War Isn’t Over) - Support The Strikes

 

It’s no secret that I think the emergence of the RMT Secretary General, Mick Lynch, is probably one of the best things to have happened in 2022. 

Authentic leaders such as Lynch are a rarity. 

You are being told that Lynch is ruining your Christmas, but let’s be honest, are the striking rail workers really ruining your Christmas, or do you think the Tories cost of greed crisis that’s left most of us struggling to get by is to blame for much of the misery that we face today? 

You are being told that Lynch is an enemy of the people, the Mail call him “Mick Grinch”, and the rest of the toxic right-wing media insist Lynch is somehow an obstacle to the aspirations of “hard-working people”. 

Isn’t this a depressingly familiar narrative? 

How long before Mr Lynch is called an antisemite? Perhaps an IRA sympathiser, what with his Irish roots? 

The brass neck of these fuckers is astonishing. They gave you Boris Johnson, the disgraced corrupt criminal Boris Johnson. Why would their opinion of Lynch matter to a single person that is capable of thinking for themselves? 

This is the problem. If you are a socialist you are already in a political minority. This is what happens to a society when it is spoon-fed neoliberalism from birth.

But if you are a socialist that demonstrates the ability to lead, inspire and organise people, and you have that likable authenticity that no amount of money can buy, you will be deemed a threat. 

And put simply, Mick Lynch is a threat because he has the ability to connect with people way beyond our little political bubble. 

Lynch had the guts to stand up to the Tories class war while His Majesty’s official (lack of) opposition were sacking and deselecting their own MPs for having the temerity to stand in solidarity with striking workers on a picket line.

“Oh here she goes, moaning about Starmer again”… Absolutely. 

The blatant state-sponsored euthanasia might not bother Mr Starmer, but honestly, it frightens the living shit out of me, because I’m a socialist. 

Starmer and his shadow cabinet have continuously let down the low-paid working classes. When we looked for leadership from the Labour Party there was none to be found. 

But Mick Lynch stood up to be counted. 

Lynch called for people to take to the streets to protest the Tories cost of greed crisis and people took to the streets to vent their disgust towards the government and the ever-increasing cost of living. 

Lynch stood alongside Zarah Sultana and Dave Ward to state “enough is enough”, and more than half-a-million people signed up to the grassroots campaign within a matter of days. 

Lynch has reminded the working classes that unions are about collective leverage, indeed he has been at the forefront of demonstrating the importance of the power of numbers versus the power of capital.

Lynch advocated the overwhelming benefits of nationalisation. We cannot continue to accept the privatisation of profits and the nationalisation of corporate debt as some sort of inevitably. 

Now ask yourself, where has the Labour Party been hiding throughout the strikes? 

I can tell you. 

They have been hiding behind the media narrative, the one where they say, “well, nobody wants to see strikes”, because they don’t want to lose the Tory voters that Johnson and Truss managed to lose. 

A real Labour Party would stand alongside rail workers, posties, and nurses and demand better pay and conditions for the people we called “key workers”, just two years ago. 

But this isn’t a real Labour Party because optics matter more than the genuine grievances of the low paid working classes, many of whom are struggling to put a meal on the table, despite working full time. 

If you’re not a regular reader of my rants you might be somewhat sceptical when I tell you that this Labour Party is fuelling the Tories class war with their inability to show some solidarity with striking workers. 

Don’t believe me? 

So why did a media briefing from the office of Wes Streeting MP, shadow secretary of state for health and social care, state that Labour would use the army to break strikes? 

If you find yourself supporting this Labour Party because they’re not the Tories you might need to have a little rethink because I’m sure you wouldn’t want to align yourselves with this behaviour, right?

I know from conversations I have had with NHS workers how let down they feel by Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting. They expected so much more from the Labour Party, just like we did. 

Perhaps the hefty donations from hedge fund bosses that used to give their cash to the Conservatives - that are now deposited in Starmer and Streeting’s accounts - come with their own price attached? 

We might not hear much of Mick Lynch if the dispute over rail workers pay, terms, and conditions draws to a satisfactory conclusion, after all, his number one priority is getting the best deal he can for his members. 

But I would be very surprised if Lynch isn’t here to stay, one way or another, because his no-nonsense manner, his ability to speak truth to power, and his authenticity have resonated far and wide across the left. 

The smears and frenzied attacks will continue as long as Lynch is deemed a disruptive threat to the elite’s way of life. 

The government obviously wants these rail strikes because it gives them and their media the opportunity to talk about “militant union barons holding the country to ransom”, and that still works with people that genuinely struggle to think for themselves. 

That’s you, readers of the S*n, Mail, and Express.

But the sensible majority must know it isn’t Mick Lynch that has turned Britain into a capitalists playground? 

Mick Lynch and the RMT have offered strong leadership, not just to their members, but to the wider left. 

Sure, I don’t agree with everything that Lynch has ever said or done. For example, I voted Remain in 2016, and I don’t want Keir Starmer to be the next Prime Minister, even if he is more of a walkover than the current government.

But we have so much more in common because our socialism binds us together. Our shared values of equality, justice, compassion and dignity for all separates us from the moral wastelands that we find to the right of us. 

Solidarity with Mick Lynch and the RMT, and solidarity with all of you standing on the picket lines, fighting for a better future for each and every one of us. 

Thanks for reading, 

Rachael  

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