“There is no mention in the Labour manifesto of repealing the restrictions on civil liberties that have been introduced in recent years.”
We’re in the middle of the deepest cost-of-living crisis in generations, which has become a permanent cost-of-living emergency for millions. Yet the whole political establishment seems intent on never-ending austerity.
As a new Government approaches, we need to mobilise for policies that could address the depth of the crises we face, including the 10 Workers Can’t Wait demands. To help build this campaign initiative, we are publishing a daily blog on the importance on each of these demands. Today, Fraser McGuire looks at the need to “Defend and extend our right to organise.”
Our right to collectively organise has been decimated after 14 years of a malign Tory government which has worked tirelessly to attack the rights to take industrial action, organise in trade unions, and have the freedom of assembly and protest.
Unsatisfied with the effects of Thatcher’s assault on trade unions and workers, the last ten years have seen the government introduce of some of the most draconian laws designed to restrict the ability of workers to act and organise in the workplace. The Minimum Service Levels (MSL) Act undermines the democratic right of workers to take strike action, and the clearly politicised nature of the law can be seen in which sectors the government identified for MSLs to be implemented. The law would also put trade unions at risk of major claims for damages, following in the footsteps of the Thatcher government’s attempts to strip the assets and resources of the strongest trade unions.
Alongside the assault on our rights in the workplace, there has been a significant erosion of the right to freedom of assembly and the ability to protest the myriad of unjust laws passed in the last decade. As public anger swelled against austerity, the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis, and the British government’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, police have been handed more powers to restrict protests and search, arrest, and fine individual protestors. The government’s own figures show that more than 650 protesters were arrested in 2023 under the new Public Order Act (2023).
In the past few weeks there have been increased arrests and physical attacks on students participating in peaceful protests and calling for universities to divest from arms companies complicit in the genocidal assault on Gaza. On the 23rd of May 16 student protestors were arrested at the University of Oxford, and on the 27th Greater Manchester Police attempted to use physical force to evict students from a university building- only being stopped by hundreds of protestors surrounding the building.
The crackdowns on our right to organise must be understood as the reaction of an increasingly politically isolated government faced with the threat of growing popular mobilisation against austerity policies, global injustice, and inequality, combined with the uptick in workers taking strike action and building the profile of the trade union movement. The Workers Can’t Wait petition is vital, and the need for mobilising workers and communities around the transformative policies we need to address the depth of the crises we face has never been greater.
We must also recognise that the fight doesn’t stop with the possibility of the Labour Party coming into government in July- already unions have raised concerns about the dilution of the ‘New Deal for Working People’ especially in regarding the clear lack of enthusiasm from shadow cabinet MPs in repealing Tory anti-union legislation. Any attempt to undermine the right to organise must be resisted. There is no mention in the Labour manifesto of repealing the wider restrictions on civil liberties that have been introduced in recent years, and Labour’s record on opposing these Government attacks has been weak.
Without the ability to collectively organise- in the streets, in our communities, and in the workplace- none of us are safe. The biggest victories for workers have never materialised out of thin air, they have been won through struggle and collective organising across every part of society.
- You can find the Worker’s Can’t Wait demands – and join over 22,000 in adding your support here.
- We’re publishing a series of articles for each of the Workers Can’t Wait demands, you can find them as they are published here.
