Workers United will never be repeated

A restructuring of capitalism has made industrial militancy an anachronism

The summer of discontent is over - except that it isn’t. This record year for strikes in Britain continues like its 1975. Hospital consultants and junior doctors in England are taking joint action in pursuit of a 35% pay rise. University staff and academics are threatening to strike again which will further dismay students thousands of whom graduated without grades this summer because of the ban on marking. Oh and of course Aslef train drivers have been walking out as they do.

These are only the high profile profile actions. There are a lot of minor ones scheduled too, like Citizens Advice staff striking in England and even staff in the offices of The Pension Regulator. Civil servants are perennially discontented and even solicitors and barristers have been resorting to industrial action.

Since when have m’learned friends been part of the oppressed masses?  Come to think of it, why are train drivers earning twice average pay regarded as tribunes of the dispossessed? Consultants earning £130,000 are now taking industrial action as if this is perfectly normal.

The only people who don’t seem to be taking industrial action are actual workers - low paid wage slaves. The right to strike is an important democratic right and must be defended without question. But public sector workers asking for 35% on top of very high salaries only plays into right-wing demonology about out-of-touch union “barons”. It is surely the most bizarre development in the history of industrial relations in Britain. Picket lines of hospital consultants sound positively Monty Python. Something very singular has happened to the world of work in the 21st Century. Let’s examine it more closely…