Hell Freezes Over - I Defend Trades Unions, Labour Doesn't

I've recently started reading all of the articles I can find on labourlist.com, the internet site where discredited politicans and newspaper editors go to die. Usually the combination of self-righteous less-racist-than-thou posturing, predictions that the Conservatives will crash and burn at the next election, and absurd attacks on Middle England just mildly amuses me, but today I saw something which makes me furiously angry. It had to do with Keith Vaz, old Latymerian, head of the Black Socialists despite being a Goan Daravidian, and all-round shite.

In the past, he's jumped on any politically-correct cause and bandwagon going, so he looks brave and principled without making a single risky decision; banning violent computer games, attacking Jade Goody for her perceived racism towards Shilpa Shetty, and so on. This time, he's prepared this simple, elegant statement about the recent 'British Jobs for British Workers' which encapsulates the reason why Labour's doomed to second- or even third-party status come the next election.

'Traditional trade union values support the right to work of all workers equally. We should take great care when we try and create a right to work that is dependent on whether or not you have a British passport. Seeking to create opportunities to work that are based on the concept of citizenship that excludes those who are EU citizens or have indefinite right to remain in the UK is dangerous and wrong. It is an unnecessary political gift to the far right.'

Right. For the benefit of readers somewhat out of the unionised loop, I'll go over that statement line by line.

'Traditional trade union values support the right to work of all workers equally.'

No they don't. If they did, than why would picketing trades unionists attack cowboy labour? They support the right of any member of the union to do a fair day's work in safe conditions for fair pay. That is all.

'We should take great care when we try and create a right to work that is dependent on whether or not you have a British passport.'

Erm...Keith? 'British Jobs for British Workers?' For some reason, I didn't you see you standing up for neoliberal economics and outsourcing when Gordon Brown said that, but now that the Government is opposing the strikes, you've jumped on the bandwagon. A bit odd, a Socialist supporting free trade, don't you think?

'Seeking to create opportunities to work that are based on the concept of citizenship that excludes those who are EU citizens or have indefinite right to remain in the UK is dangerous and wrong.'

So the concept of citizenship according to you is membership of the EU. Forgive me if I'm wrong and we're all part of some enormous Orwellian pan-European bureaucracy, but I could have sworn we were all Subjects of her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas Queen, Defender of the Faith, Duchess of Edinburgh, Countess of Merioneth, Baroness Greenwich Duke of Lancaster, Lord of Mann, Duke of Normandy, Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Sovereign of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Sovereign of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick, Sovereign of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Sovereign of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Sovereign of the Distinguished Service Order, Sovereign of the Imperial Service Order, Sovereign of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, Sovereign of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, Sovereign of the Order of British India, Sovereign of the Indian Order of Merit, Sovereign of the Order of Burma, Sovereign of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, Sovereign of the Royal Family Order of King Edward VII, Sovereign of the Order of Mercy, Sovereign of the Order of Merit, Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, Sovereign of the Royal Victorian Order, Sovereign of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, whether you like it or not.

'It is an unnecessary political gift to the far right.'

Ah. The Reductio Ad Hitlerum. Happens every time Vaz makes a statement, it seems. So now Ramsey MacDonald, the Jarrow Marchers, Tony Benn, Sidney Webb and my grandfather are all on the verge of annexing Chechoslovakia and invading Poland and the Low Countries. You utter shit, Vaz.

Still, there's no denying that it's a political gift to certain political parties associated with the far right, most notably the BNP. As two recent council by-election results show, with the BNP picking up safe Labour seats, one in Kent and one in Lancarshire, what was once the core of the Labour party - northern, working-class, Methodists and Baptists - has been ignored for so long by a government made up of out-of-touch, authoritarian Champagne Socialists seemingly only bent on securing as much money and influence for themselves as possible that it's turned to the only visible party which supports the same policies that Old Labour once did - protectionism, opposition to unlimited immigration, trades unionism - with terrifying results for New Labour.

Still, the main purpose of writing this post isn't to defend the BNP against critics, but to defend trades unionism itself. Although a supporter of the Austrian laissez-faire economics of Ludwig von Mises and Lew Rockwell, I hold that in a libertarian state, the right to associate is one of the most important rights enjoyed by the subjects or citizens; thus, the right to collectively bargain for an improvement in conditions or wages is the cornerstone of a civilised society. However, the right to associate must be voluntary and not overseen by the Government, as is the current situation: once the Government made clear its displeasure of the strikers, the TUC, currently run by middle-class Oxford-educated members of the New Labour establishment, rapidly called off the strike in return for crackerjack benefits. The only union to keep going was (surprise, surprise) Solidarity, often accused of being a front group for the BNP. Keir Hardie would be spinning in his grave.