Red Flag song commemoration in Meath for local Jim Connell

Borgen is the Danish political programme that made work life balance sexy drama. It also summed up the problems of the Labour movement led by the fictional Bjorn Marrot who said: “The Labour movement faces two problems. One, there are no workers. Two, there is absolutely no movement.”

I wonder does Jack O’ Connor think about this question. I arrived at the Jim Connell commemoration in Crossakiel while he was meant to be speaking.  Meant to be, but he couldn’t and he doesn’t seem to have the skill or temperment to deal effectively with hecklers.  There was less than one hundred in the audience and about ten were heckling.  It was out of place in rural Crossakiel, which is the birthplace to Jim Connell who penned the   famous Labour anthem ‘The Red Flag’ in the aftermath of the London dockers strike of 1889.

Commendations must go to the RMT trade union and the GMB union who sent a brass band from England and representatives to participate at events over the course of the weekend.  Credit also should go to the committee who organised for some top level speakers for the different meetings.

It was quite ridiculous behaviour of the hecklers during Jack O’ Connor’s speech.  It is not what you expect in a rural idyllic location.  Then again Drumcree is also idyllic and it was nearly the scene for civil war.  That aside though, O’ Connor should have stopped talking until the hecklers stop.  They were simply being rude but rather than just wait them out, he tried to outshout them.  Every speaker or comedian has a different strategy to responding to heckling.  The long and short is that I did not really get what Jack O’ Connor was saying at all.

Up next and last was President of the RMT trade union Bob Crowe.  While credit should be given to the RMT for their support for this small festival, the speech of Bob Crowe also missed the mark.  The RMT is the main union behind the TUSC coalition, which has been standing in elections over the last few years since they have disaffiliated from the British Labour Party.

On the victory of UKIP, he observed that this was not a racist vote but a vote against the establishment.  The Labour Party, Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats are the establishment according to Bob Crowe.  While there is much to be said about this statement given the years of Blairism, it is Bob Crowe’s comments on the European Union and immigration, which I would like to address.

He called for the break up of the European Union and said that British people were entitled to vote for UKIP if they wanted to be independent from Europe.  After all he said: ‘it is the policies of austerity which are driven by the EU that is causing so much despair’.  While austerity might be causing despair, it is not a reason to leave the EU. Most people would view exit from the EU for Ireland as madness and for the UK mad but popular.

Then he said: ‘it is not racist to want to debate immigration’.  This is a variation of ‘some of my best friends are black’ line of argument.  It is not racist to want to discuss immigration but the tone of Crow’s comments were such that he wants to compete on the terms of UKIP not on the terms of a labour movement which embraces diversity.  ‘Our friends are the Chinese, Bulgarians, Vietnamese’ he said before calling for stronger immigration controls and cited ‘Socialist Cuba and Austrailia’ as countries who have control of the immigration policy.  He called for other countries to strengthen their social conditions ‘then you can come over’.

These were surprising arguments coming from a socialist who claims the Chinese and workers of all countries as his friends.  Surely the argument is for organisation of workers in unions to protect the pay and conditions of all workers and to show solidarity with those struggling for basic rights elsewhere.  It is one thing for political parties to debate immigration but trade unions do not decide policy.  As it is, the Conservative government are boasting that they have cut immigration by one third.

To respond to the challenge of exploitation of migrant workers and undercutting of wages, effective union organisation must be the answer from unions.  This involves recruitment of workers of all nationalities, if they have the right to work here, and then organisation of those workers with effective and competent shop stewards trained to identify injustice and challenge it.  Bob Crow did not say that, so why is he so admired by much of the left.

SIPTU claims 200,000 members but it is not effectively organised to ensure its President can deliver a speech heckle free. Perhaps Bjorn Marrot was right ‘there is no movement and there are no workers’.