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GLOS GREENS VOTE TO SUPPORT RMT CAMPAIGN TO KEEP TRAINS PUBLIC |
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Union chief Bob Crow chooses Greens over Labour
Chief of Britain's largest trade union warmly endorsed Green policies
and slammed Labour in a speech at the Green Party's Spring Conference
in Brighton. Crow(ii) affirmed support for Greens, saying, "the fact is
that the Green Party promote rail workers and seafarers far more
strongly than the Labour Party, who are carrying out policies against
the working people in Britain."
Bob Crow said; "For years, we have given money to a Labour Party that
has done nothing but mug working people. Well the mugging has finished
now, and we1re back out there as a vigilante looking for people that
will look after us..."
- Gloucestershire Greens vote for renationalisation
The speech followed the Green Party vote that overwhelmingly
re-affirmed it's commitment to "keep railways publicly owned, publicly
financed and publicly accountable".
Carol Kambites, South West Green Euro candidate who spoke at the Green
Party conference (i) said: "The Green Party and the RMT are of one
mind: Britain needs a rail network that's publicly owned, publicly
financed and publicly accountable."
Carol Kambites continued: "It is ridiculous. Private rail eats £10 bn
in public subsidy, 1 in 5 trains fail to arrive on times, and two
thirds of the British public believe it should be part of the public
sector. Yet the government are continuing their privatisation agenda
apace. We are calling on the government to stop giving away our public
transport to big business, and to renationalise the rail service."
Notes to Editors:
(i) Detailed media highlights can be found at
www.greenparty.org.uk/conference
(ii) Full speech: Speech to Green Party conference in Brighton - Bob
Crow - RMT General Secretary
The reality of life is that, after we send our sympathies to our fellow
railway workers in Spain, and to the families of all those that have
died, the fact is that this government, and the Spanish government and
the American government have brought it on themselves.
The fact is that the scandalous bombing that took place, along with the
scandalous attacks on September 11, Arabic people and Spanish people
say that they are committing these acts as retaliation for what has
been done to them.
Until there is a political solution to these problems, this is the way
it will continue and continue.
I found it absolutely horrendous yesterday that the first message to
come out of the City of London following the attack was that £24
billion was knocked off shares.
Look at the human carnage!
Our union formed the Labour party 104 years ago, on the basis of
political representation. The minutes of that meeting reflect the exact
situation we faced recently.
104 years ago we were affiliated to the Liberal party, and there were
those that said we should stay and fight, to make that party the party
of working people.
There was others that were saying we should set up a Labour
representation group because our members concerns were not being looked
at, that the environment was being run down by the people in the
Liberal party through the state of industrialisation that was taking
place.
The fact is that, 104 years on - the Labour Party, the Tory Party, the
Liberal party - you couldn't put a cigarette paper between the three of
them, because they all carry out the same policies, and support the
free market, and support capitalism to its fore.
We will now work with the Green Party, and we will work with others
like Plaid Cymru, the SNP, we1ll work with anyone so long as they have
not got racist or fascist views, to get the full representation for
railway workers and seafarers in Britain.
We are an independent trade union - 70,000 members, only 500 of those
are in the Labour Party. So 69,500 of them aren1t in the Labour Party,
but we were forced to affiliate to them. I could never understand
that...why we had to affiliate on the basis of such a minority of
members belonging to the party.
I can’t see how people can argue that we should stay affiliated to the
party after it took a scandalous decision - removing all the Royal Mail
trains from the network, a decision totally against Labour Party
policy, total against global diktats on pollution.
166,000 tonnes of freight, extracted from the rail industry and put
onto the road. It beggars belief. Not only are you creating more of an
environmental problem but they have gone against their own policy of
moving freight from road to rail.
We can’t accept that this is happening when, day after day, more
evidence comes in showing that global warming is taking place.
- Cars
We don’t want to see an end to the car building industry, but we want
it streamlined, diversifying the work into building buses. More buses
on the road. If you provide enough buses with punctual services, take
cars off the road, and have rail and buses complementing each other
instead of competing with each other as they currently do, we believe
that we could turn around the transport industry and limit the damage
done to the environment.
The point is that we want to know who will represent working people
more - will it be Labour, or will it be the Greens? Labour has
continuously failed to offer better rights for working people.
For years we have given money to a Labour Party that has done nothing
but mug working people.
Well the mugging has finished now, and we1re back out there as a
vigilante looking for people that will look after us...
Apart from honourable exceptions like John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn
in the Labour Party, the fact is that the Green Party promote rail
workers and seafarers far more strongly than the Labour Party, who are
carrying out policies against the working people in Britain.
The Green Party are a sincere party. Their policies are sincere, not
only on the environment, but also on the affairs of rail and seafaring
workers.
- PPP on the underground
Attacked privateers and government for collaborating on an agreement
which will see firms pocketing £1.2 billion a year, regardless of
performance. We can1t accept the PPP. They1re now talking about
guaranteeing these private companies £1.2 billion a year whatever goes.
Even if the underground shuts down for a year they will get the profits.
Can people travelling on the underground over the last year tell me
that the service has improved dramatically?
It has not improved, and it will not improve for the next 30 years,
until its contracts are ripped up and handed back to be run
democratically by Transport for London, in the interests of the people
that use it.
- Shipping
Called for equal pay for all seafarers sailing out of British ports -
Malaysian and Filipino sailors work for £1.40 an hour, for the
employer1s gain. British shipping industry is being absolutely hammered.
- Call centres
Workers being paid 80 per cent less than British workers.
People tell me that globalisation is working, but this is just for
profit. They never take this work to countries where the labour1s
dearer or more efficient. They take it to places that they can make
mass profits.
Indian rail workers union has told us that THEIR call centres are being
transferred to Malaysia because the labour is 50 per cent cheaper again.
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