It was the unions that started this party

By Cat Smith / @idontdotwitta

The first thing I did this morning was check my Blackberry, only to discover that my Facebook friends were writing about using the tube to get to work. This would be distressing if this had been my ‘down the pub’ friends, but these comments were coming from friends I’ve met through the London Young Labour and working for Labour MPs in parliament. Labour Party members were bragging about crossing picket lines. Twitter was not much better.

This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this worrying distain from party colleagues towards trade union members who are forced to take industrial action. Before the proposed BA strike in August, which in the end was averted through negotiations, I saw members of my CLP attack the workers for making going on holiday difficult for them.

The decision by RMT and TSSA members to strike on London Underground today wasn’t taken to make your journey to work difficult. It was taken because 800 jobs are on the line. So if you are a Labour Party member please stop and think before you cross the picket line. Why are you in the Labour Party and what do you believe in? (Clue is in the name Labour Party for those of you struggling with this concept of solidarity).

The closure of ticket offices is also about your safety as a passenger. The Customer Service Assistants (CSAs) whose jobs are under threat have recently stopped members of the public carrying samurai swords, knives and guns on to the Underground. These CSAs protect passengers and help us when we need them, and as someone who has needed medical attention on the tube, I know that they are helpful and much needed.

I’m part of a generation of Labour Party members who weren’t born when Militant were expelled from the Party. We joined after the war in Iraq, after tuition fees were introduced and mid-way through Tony Blair’s premiership. So don’t call me ‘Old Labour’. I don’t belong to that era and I am looking to the future, but I do worry that I am part of a generation that has forgotten where we came from. The Labour Party only exists because of the Trade Unions’ commitment to parliamentary representation for working people. We must stand shoulder to shoulder with workers when they have voted to take action. They have more of a mandate to strike than Blair had to govern the country in 2005.

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