Unfortunately not on Listen Again, but it was essential listening!

Basically Simon Cox of the Beeb was inciting the bosses to take on the RMT
The gist being that Bob Crow and the union were TOO successful at defending members conditions and increasing their pay!!
2 ballots/week 40K a year, 35 hour week, 8 weeks holiday etc…

The union was “a bit like something out of ‘Life on Mars’” and “dominated by radical elements such as Socialist Action” ( err, what???)

Crow was a self admitted Socialist and Communist, but not a member of any party.
“You don’t have to be a Virgin to go to the Virgin Islands”

Boris Johnson and the Tories are discussing plans to curb them with “No strike” legislation. But as Bob Crow retorted, “What will they do if all the members walk out, put them in Wembley stadium?”

Don’t give them ideas!

Most interesting bit was at the end when the RMT sponsored MP John McDonell discussed the TU coordinating group set up by RMT and including FBU, Lorry Drivers, POA, PCS. It’s set to grow to 12 unions and in discussions around a new “Son of No2EU” type party.

VERY significant that a Labour MP is discussing this favourably on the radio!!!

It was a neoliberal sham of a speech.

Who has gained from Neoliberal Labour’s time in power?
The BNP,Blair,Brown and the Bankers….

If yopu want a real,genuine socialist,progressive party please,,,stop looking at these Tory boys.
Let them die off;the big three will not deliver anything other than Neoliberal sham.

I was one myself once but I never made it to the quarter-deck of a Russian billionaire’s yacht.

FOOTNOTE:
Who is ’southpawpunch’ one wonders. Let him/her write a column regularly!

Brown needs to start heading towards electoral reform early, I think this should move to the top of the agenda. It could help Labour hold on to some very crucial seats in the Midlands where the Lib Dems will paint themselves as the progressive choice against Conservatism.

New Labour having been slvaes to the market are now doing Thatcher’s job of returning us to Victorian values where the feckless and sexually active poor are locked away until they learn how to be “responsible” citizens.

It will go alongside others, that may be slightly more, er, nuanced, from other members of this blog about my site, such as “sexist ultra-left brand of boy wankery!” from Socialist Unity’s very own Louise Whittle, or “situationist art work parodying the left” from Andy Newman.

And, Colin and others, on stating that ID cards will not be compulsory for a while -you introduce ID cards (over Tory opposition) and then backtrack, just temporarily - and that’s moving Left. Hmmm.

Indeed they could Eddie, and what pissed me off was reading one of the fave words of NL and that is ‘responsibility’…. Yes, they have the audacity to come out with that and while we are on the subject of ‘responsibility’ who the hell got the economy into the crap in the first place so before Brown, Mandelson and Darling preach the virtues of ‘responsibility’ they need to take a hard look at their own hideous politics.

NL are languishing in the sewer where they belong, they are morally, politically and financially bankrupt.

“It was chockfull of the usual meaningless oratical rubbish (you know the sort of thing - if you see a hill, you walk up it. only Labour gets to the top quicker…”

That’s one of the finest and most acidic yet informative lines I’ve ever read - worthy even of the great Gore Vidal. Thank you. I’m going to use it all the time, but I’ll reference you for copyright reasons.