Rix win boosts Scargill

Socialist Labour member ousts New Labour's Adams

The election of Dave Rix as general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers' union, has underlined the potential for Socialist Labour to widen its support and influence in the trade union bureaucracy despite its anti-democratic regime and lack of grass roots activists. The unexpected ousting of incumbent Labour left Lew Adams should prompt all honest trends in the workers' movement to reassess their dismissal of Scargill's party.

Comrade Rix is a former member of the SLP NEC who resigned after attending only seven executive meetings. Nevertheless because he is a 'Scargillite' the bourgeois press got into a panic about the whole affair. It has been quite some time since so much attention was devoted to what are normally routine union elections. Victory for "Scargill's man", screamed the front page of The Daily Telegraph (May 7). The Financial Times headline of the same day read: "Hard left ousts rail union chief" and claimed that the "Aslef ballot could herald fresh industrial conflict". The Guardian went straight to the point: "Scargill party takes rail union leader's scalp."

While comrade Rix's election is a shot in the arm for Scargill's project, it also points to a space which could widen as the trade union bureaucracy is further compromised by Blair's 'third way' social consensus with big business. You do not have to do much in terms of workers' rights and pay to stand well to the left of the existing leaderships. While Scargill and his allies will be able to capitalise on Rix's triumph, it seems that the outcome owed more to an anti-Adams vote than a positive endorsement of the SLP. Comrade Rix defeated Adams in a 55%-turnout, second-round election by 4,558 votes to 3,357. Significantly, Adams received 45.1% in the first round compared to Rix's 23.9%.

While the bourgeois press has been unusual in its candour in recognising the importance of the poll, the pro-Labour left is at sixes and sevens. Predictably, the Morning Star - supposedly favouring openness after its recent factional war - led the story as "Rix rejects merger claims: Leeds official beats Adams in Aslef poll". Comrade Rix's political affiliations are mentioned only in passing. In Tribune (May 8), John Blevin claimed that the vote would whet the appetite of those wanting to break the sacred union link, with the definite implication that this was not a good thing. He echoed Adams' lament that he was particularly disappointed that he had lost the election to an SLP member because "as a consequence our union will not now have the same relationship with the Labour government". Adams, regarded as a Labour left, is a friend of deputy prime minister Prescott and thus, in good old Labourite fashion, 'has the ear' of government.

Other elements of the pro-Labour left look sillier, especially those who recently resigned from the SLP because it was supposedly irrelevant. Martin Wicks and Lee Rock of Socialist Perspectives, more economistic and union-oriented than most, must feel particularly foolish. Then there is Workers Power who on past form would, if they had any relevance in Aslef, have campaigned for Adams against Rix, perversely in the name of being with the majority.

SLP democrats, revolutionaries and all partisans of the working class should welcome comrade Rix's success. Within the SLP itself it was a morale-booster, as our modest local election results were coming in. Comrade Bob Crow, assistant general secretary of the RMT, will no doubt be greatly heartened, as he eyes the top spot in his own union's forthcoming election this autumn. Clearly Reclaim Our Rights will gain greater authority, despite Rix's relative isolation on Aslef's executive.

The Aslef result in itself will not automatically produce SLP membership growth, but it does point to a thin layer of left union bureaucrats articulating their membership's discontent through the SLP's ofiicial language of state socialism. Nevertheless a major strike led by an SLPer could yet bring us a wave of recruits.

The bourgeois press has invented a Crow-Rix-Scargill axis. Yet despite Scargill's well known support for industrial unionism, it is significant that comrade Rix did not stand on a programme which included organising unions along industrial lines. Comrade Rix has been making all the 'proper' noises an incoming general secretary should to reassure conservative members and warn off other union leaders. He said: "I don't intend to be the last Aslef general secretary. Aslef will continue into the next millennium as a strong and independent union." Merger rumours have been rife, ranging from a Scargillite triple alliance of the NUM, RMT, and Oilc to a TGWU takeover of both the RMT and Aslef.

All this underlines the fragile nature of the SLP as the party of left trade union leaders that Arthur envisages. Now rid of the 'nuisance' of many SLP revolutionaries (as a result either of the McCarthyite witch hunt or of moralistic walkouts), Scargill must get down to the 'serious business' of keeping the peace between fractious, naturally sectional and, in practice, reformist trade union tops.

Opportunity for rank and file

An Aslef militant looks at the reality behind the defeat of Lew Adams

Dave Rix's election as general secretary of Aslef has thrown the bourgeois press into apoplexy. The reason is not hard to find. Just about every media commentator has read the last rites over socialism and dismissed trade unions as relics of a bygone age. Then out of nowhere comes a leading member of the Socialist Labour Party who deposes John Prescott's confidant and creature, Lew Adams. What rubs salt into the wound is that Adams had to face an election because of Tory anti-union laws that were supposed to stop candidates like comrade Rix. Laws incidentally that the Labour government refuses to repeal and trade union leaders such as Adams refuse to fight.

The bourgeois press are heavily hyping the SLP connection and implying that some conspiracy is being hatched by Arthur Scargill and SLP members within the rail unions. All the papers have suggested that an alliance will be made between Aslef and the RMT and a campaign of political industrial action launched. Unfortunately all this is just fantasy. Comrade Rix's success owed nothing to his SLP membership, which was not mentioned in his election address.

Rix won due to the anger felt by drivers at the way Adams had been instrumental in forcing through productivity changes against their wishes - for example through 'driver restructuring initiatives' (DRI) agreed with the new private operators. Although these deals gave drivers a large increase in basic pay, a sizeable portion was not reckonable for pension purposes. The working week, although reduced to 37 hours, involved shifts of up to 12 hours. 'On call' was introduced and 'lodging' (compulsory stay-overs between shifts) came back. Adams was also blamed for the defeat of the 1995 industrial action over pay when he ignored a ballot result rejecting a renewed offer and accepted terms worse than what had been tabled before the action started.

There is also growing concern with the relationship between Adams, Prescott and Richard Branson. Aslef was praised by the government earlier this year for going into business with Branson to form Millennium Drivers, a company set up to train new drivers for the private operators. Profits are to be split between the two. While Adams turns Aslef into an employer, Branson has started to show his anti-union credentials within Virgin Trains. Senior conductors (guards) at Birmingham who have been active in or supporters of the RMT and who will not be pushed around, are told to apply for redundancy or they will be targeted for dismissal. Drivers applying for vacancies at Manchester who have any record of trade union activity have been rejected out of hand. One of them was told by a manager that Virgin did not want any "Jurassic Park drivers".

The election of Rix however does represent a major change within Aslef. Comrade Rix was well known as a leader of the unofficial left opposition and was a star performer at conference, responsible for many of the progressive policy decisions taken. He is a member of the SLP and was elected onto its first NEC. Comrade Rix has been heavily influenced by 'official communism' and has been a long-standing supporter of the Morning Star. He has been the main negotiator within Regional Railways North East and was responsible for producing one of the best DRI deals, containing safeguards on working hours and 100% pensionable pay.

Dave Rix has promised a lot, not least a more robust attitude to negotiations and towards the anti-union laws and this government. Aslef drivers will be expecting him to deliver on these promises when he takes office in January. The rank and file must organise to make sure he does.