Against the backcloth of a European-wide ‘crisis of social democratic trade unionism’ arising from the accommodation of Social Democratic and Labour-type political parties to neoliberal restructuring imperatives, Upchurch et al (2009; 2011) have identified the emergence of an alternative model of ‘radical political unionism’ focused on class struggle union organisation ...
(Show more)Against the backcloth of a European-wide ‘crisis of social democratic trade unionism’ arising from the accommodation of Social Democratic and Labour-type political parties to neoliberal restructuring imperatives, Upchurch et al (2009; 2011) have identified the emergence of an alternative model of ‘radical political unionism’ focused on class struggle union organisation and activity, engagement in social movement activity beyond the workplace, and politicised union strategies aligned to new radical left-wing political formations. As an exemplar of this process in Britain, Darlington (2007, 2009a; 2009b; 2009c; 2010a; 2012; Connolly and Darlington, 2012) has documented the way in which a distinctive and relatively successful form of militant and politicised trade unionism has developed within the RMT rail union, involving the repetitive mobilisation of members through strike action, combined with vigorous left-wing ideological opposition to both employers and government.
Yet Mcllroy (2012) has argued that, notwithstanding the RMT’s undoubted industrial militancy, the union has failed to evolve as a distinctive, oppositional political entity; its political initiatives have not engaged substantial numbers of members and have infrequently impacted on mainstream union activity; and the majority of strikes have been concerned with the immediate issues of wages, the labour process, job loss, discipline and safety, rather than ‘external’ political issues, with no necessary connection with political radicalisation (or ‘class consciousness’).
This paper attempts to further probe, document and assess the extent to which the RMT specifically has strong ideological/political orientations and identities to accompany its industrial militancy, and the scope and limits of the term ‘radical political unionism’ to characterise the attitudes and behaviour of its officials, reps/activists and members. It seeks to provide more detailed empirical and analytical evidence than hitherto on the following research questions:
• To what extent does the RMT generalise ideologically (emphasising the roots of workers’ grievances within the totality of social relations within capitalism), politically (arguing for strategies which oppose the role of the state/government) and practically (class warfare)?
• What evidence is there of the interaction between the political initiatives of the RMT and industrial mobilisation and vice versa?
• Does political radicalisation (that embraces class identity and/or consciousness) extend beyond the union’s officials and reps/activists to the members?
The paper utilises a variety of different barometers/measures of ‘radical political unionism’, as well as a range of methods of investigation, and draws on extensive research on the RMT conducted over the past seven years. Re-evaluating a range of existing historical and contemporary literature on the relationship between trade union industrial and political activity, and strikes and political consciousness, it develops an understanding of ‘radical political unionism’ that characterises it as dynamic, contradictory, uneven and a contingent process that is on a shifting continuum subject to wider political developments, and suggests its sustained existence has to be viewed as a matter of degree, relative to other mainstream, less politicised unions.
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