Are The Unions Destroying Labour's Hopes For Government?

[naomi24]

With the rail strike disrupting life for millions and more strikes in other areas threatened, are the unions shooting Labour in the foot?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-61827345

[10ClarionSt]

There was no 5C in WW1. That came about in the Spanish Civil War, 20 years later.

[ToraToraTora]

Yes that was the original 5C but the unions in WWI were in effect doing the same.

[10ClarionSt]

I keep seeing references to 'Socialist' and 'Communism'. Nothing like that ever entered my head when I was a trade union activist. Then, as now, all I wanted was fairness and job security. No strikes. Not recommended by me. If the members didn't like what I was doing, I told them to do it themselves and I would stand down. No problem. But I never had to.

[sandyRoe]

If the unions during WW1 had been powerful enough to force the government to the negotiation table millions of lives would have been spared.
Nazism and communism may never have blighted lives a generation later .

[ToraToraTora]

sandy: "If the unions during WW1 had been powerful enough to force the government to the negotiation table millions of lives would have been spared. " - can you expand on that.

[ToraToraTora]

10cs, well you must have been a rarity in the union movement.

[Zacs-Master]

Trouble is, as we see demonstrated on here every day, Labour supporters aren't fantastic at joining the political dots i.e. they wont see the connection between the railways and keeping the economic recovery going.

[sandyRoe]

The unions and their members were as jingoistic as the rest of the country. Had they been much stronger and inclined towards peace the last century could have been very different.
I believe such peace movements as there were were categorised as being peopled by crazy women who wanted peace and the vote.

[THECORBYLOON]

TORATORATORA,

"Drivers are on 60k+ you can exist on that."

I've not checked that figure but I do know they're not in the RMT so they're not on strike.

[Zacs-Master]

But they support it, TCL:
https://aslef.org.uk/publications/britains-train-drivers-union-announces-strike-action#:~:text=He%20added%3A%20'ASLEF%20members%20on,is%20now%20in%20management's%20court.

[ToraToraTora]

sandy: "The unions and their members were as jingoistic as the rest of the country. Had they been much stronger and inclined towards peace the last century could have been very different.
I believe such peace movements as there were were categorised as being peopled by crazy women who wanted peace and the vote" - everyone wanted peace but you need the enemy to want it too. Unless you are proposing surrender and subjugation.

[sevenOP]

sandyRoe, governments during WW1 stuck union activists and anti war protesters in the nick, people like Eugene Debs in USA, and John Maclean in UK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs#Sedition_conviction_and_appeal_to_U.S._Supreme_Court

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maclean_(Scottish_socialist)#Trial_and_imprisonment_for_sedition_(1918)

[ToraToraTora]

almost everyone is anti war, what's your point?

[sandra4444]

Naaa, but the cons have already been destroyed by Boris that's for sure.

[sevenOP]

TTT :" almost everyone is anti war, what's your point? "

How can that be TTT, when we have several going on in the world right now ?

[ToraToraTora]

sevenOP: because being anti war does not mean you have to let an aggressor walk all over you. Fighting WWI/II etc was a necessity not a desire or do you think we should just have surrendered? Similarly Ukraine is ant war but they have been forced into fighting one.

[sevenOP]

TTT : "Fighting WWI/II etc was a necessity not a desire or do you think we should just have surrendered?"

The UK was never invaded in WW1 (nor WW2), we 'volunteered' to fight in both.

[ToraToraTora]

sevenOP, "The UK was never invaded in WW1 (nor WW2), we 'volunteered' to fight in both. " - perlease if we did nowt we'd have been invaded, we acted to save ourselves and Europe.

[FatticusInch]

//Are The Unions Destroying Labour's Hopes For Government?//

In response to the question posed, this from the Sky News live feed.

Tory MP ridiculed over 'vision of Labour's Britain' tweet
While posts supportive of the government and attacking the opposition are common among Conservative MPs, one tweet this morning has become the subject of an unusually large volume of derision.
Mark Jenkinson, the MP for Workington in 2019, appears to suggest that the impact of this week's strikes was "a vision of the Labour Party's Britain".
As has been widely pointed out by people responding to the post, Mr Jenkinson's party has now been in power for more than 12 years, with the last Labour government ending in 2010.

I’m guessing this clown is actually not one of the 148 who want to see the end of Johnson? It’s the sort of tweet one might expect from Mad Nad.

[Gromit]

// Are The Unions Destroying Labour's Hopes For Government? //

No.

The strikes are caused by high inflation, and the electorate blame the Government for that and the resulting strike action.
Heath was dumped in 74, and Callaghan in 79 because they oversaw double digit inflation and worsening strikes. But Boris has a big majority, so may just weather the crisis.