Rover Workers Must
Affirm their Rights and Fight for a New Society!
Statement of the Birmingham Branch of
RCPB(ML)
The BMW sale has proved once again that the interests of
the Rover workers do not lie with the capitalist employers. They lie
with affirming their rights, ending their marginalisation, consciously
organising themselves as a class independent of the capitalist class, and
rallying all sections of society around them in leading the way out of the
crisis, thereby opening the path to a new society in which they will control
that which belongs to them.
The "New Labour" government came to power
promoting the notion that the class struggle was over and outdated. Under these
circumstances Tony Blair came up with the ideology of social partnership
and the "Third Way". The attitude of BMW towards the workers,
which has included ripping up agreements for job security and "jobs for
life", has been totally anti-worker and anti-social. BMW has exploited the
Rover workers as every other owner of the company has done. The workers have
been forced to accept various productivity drives and changes in working
practices in order to maintain their jobs. Now that it has suited the company,
they have washed their hands of Rover without caring at all about the
livelihoods of the workforce.
BMW is pointing, at the moment, to the losses the company
is supposed to have made. Any company in the global market is faced with
intense competition at the moment including BMW. In particular, the car
industry is in cut-throat competition with its competitors to dominate the
market. The market for cars is shrinking at present, particularly in Europe,
where there is a massive overproduction of cars. In order to compete, massive
investment to the tune of many billions of pounds is necessary to update and
invest in new plant and machinery. Every company is faced with this challenge
in the drive to dominate in the global market place. The aim of the huge
monopolies, such as BMW and Ford, is to wipe out the opponent in the field and
make maximum profits. The aims of any large capitalist company have not changed
and will never change, regardless of how it affects the people who are involved
in production.
The only conclusion to be drawn from this can be that
the interests of the workers and capitalists can never be the same. The
interests of the capitalists are anti-social, while the interest of the workers
is to become leaders of society and put the well-being of the people at the
centre of everything.
The effect on communities and the people's lives of the
closure of Longbridge and other Rover plants will be traumatic and devastating.
Many thousands of workers in the West Midlands will be directly and indirectly
affected by the Rover break-up. Working class people are being forced to
shoulder the burden of a crisis, which is not of their making. It is not the
workers who are getting richer by the competition and it is not they who can
easily walk away from Rover. Workers will still have to support their families,
pay bills, etc. The idea that "market forces" are the solution is an
outdated notion, which leads to low pay, unemployment and a general devastation
of the national economy. A modern society, in the 21st century, cannot abdicate
its responsibility; it has to meet the claims of every member of society on it
and guarantee the people’s well-being. Society cannot abandon the Rover
workers and the broad masses of the people of the West Midlands and other parts
of the country. Under these circumstances the working class cannot have any
illusions that here is a "third way" between taking society backwards
towards medievalism and moving society forwards to socialism. There is no
middle path: the workers have their interests, which are consistent with the
general interests of society – the capitalists have theirs, which are
against these general interests! The workers therefore cannot give in to
any idea that class struggle is outdated or over. They must come to the
conclusion, based on and summing up their own living experience, that they must
constitute themselves as the nation, while the capitalists have abandoned any
national interest and are a superfluous class, giving rise to everything
backward which must be swept away.
Workers will have to fight to change the direction
in society, for a programme that does not take society in an anti-social,
anti-worker direction. In fighting for the victory of this programme, class
conscious workers will dedicate themselves to working for a modern socialist
system, where the rights of all people as human beings are put in the first
place and the rights of workers as workers are fully recognised.
Stop Paying the Rich – Increase Investments in Social
Programmes!
For a Socialist Britain!
