A workers’ summit to build strong networks from below

Background Check

The conference in London on 23 September is to discuss linking strikes, resisting bad deals and winning. Charlie Kimber spoke to trade unionists building it

Jess Edwards, NEU education union national executive (personal capacity) and one of the organisers of the Workers’ Summit

The year of strikes has been a year of revival and everyone should celebrate that. The strikes have changed the atmosphere around the ability of the working class to fight back, and have produced new layers of activists.

But it’s not enough to be cheerleaders of what has happened. It’s important to organise at the base of the unions to extend the action so we win—and to avoid poor deals that choke off future possibilities. The Workers’ Summit on 23 September is going to be a positive examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the strikes. 

Plus it’s a place for people to grow the grassroots networks that can help to link together struggles and increase solidarity. We’re not talking about the launch of a fully-fledged national rank and file movement. That would be an organisation of workers everywhere who can amplify the official union initiatives when they are moving forward. And crucially, who act independently within the union when they are retreating.

But we have to make a start, and here we’re building on concrete events. The strikes that have taken place over the last year didn’t appear automatically. In many unions the leaderships were very sceptical about winning a national ballot and hitting the thresholds under anti-union laws.

It often took organisation and pressure to make the ballot happen, to win them, and then to have action. It might not be everything we want, but it’s more than what was on offer at the start. We will hear from activists in the RCN and the UCU unions, and others, who have successfully halted deals that members didn’t want. Others are rightly asking—how can we be successful?

There are big questions around participation and democracy in strikes. How do we grow the influence of clued-up rank and file members in the decision-making of the union? It’s not enough to pass a motion that perhaps goes up to the union executive. 

The model has to be networks of people that are meeting regularly and talking through honestly where they are up to in the dispute. The 23 September summit isn’t about older activists lecturing newer activists about the past. Of course, we don’t start from a blank slate.

There is a history and a rich layer of experience. But the new activists—the women, black, young, LGBT+ and disabled people who have led and aren’t held back by past defeats—have to be at the front of the debates. The 23 September is for people at the centre of the present disputes whether that’s national action, the brilliant Amazon strikes, the local refuse and bus strikes or others.

But it’s also for those who want to know how to get the action started. And it’s for people who aren’t in a union but want to start organising. This is a very important moment to come together and organise so that we can push on to victory.

‘We must resist the union bosses pushing for bad deals’

CWU union member from south west England

I think there’s a big challenge for workers who can see their union leaders are recommending bad deals. Even when lots of workers can see the deal is no good, they’re not sure what the alternative is. That’s made worse because the union that would be at the head of future action is itself the one trying to get you to swallow the deal. 

We can’t have much trust that there is going to be a real shift in strategy because we know the union bosses want us to accept poor offers. This is one of the problems in the Royal Mail. I’m a postal worker in the southwest of England and I know many of my fellow workers will say no to the latest offer. 

Why Royal Mail workers should deliver a reject vote

Others want to say no but aren’t confident that we can have effective strikes if we say no. Still, others say they have nothing to lose and will vote no even if they don’t have any time for the CWU union leaders.

These questions are ones I think the summit should take up on 23 September and it’s why I will try to get my union branch to support it. It’s even more necessary because our union first postponed and then cancelled our conference this year.

We need to pick the brains of others who have overcome these problems, at least in the short term, so we can widen the number of trade unionists who can direct their own disputes. It would be really helpful if there was a network across different unions that work with each other.

Then we could coordinate to get good outcomes from these strikes, stop victimisations and plan for action over the anti-union laws. It’s been a long battle against Royal Mail, which I hope isn’t over yet. This conference can be a help to me and others.

Build the summit and book

On Saturday 23 September a “Workers’ Summit” is meeting in-person in London around the slogan, “Link the fights, reject bad deals, fight to win!” Organisers describe it as “an afternoon for grassroots collaboration”. It was initiated by Lambeth and Hackney NEU, NHS Workers Say No and Strike Map. 

It’s already backed by around 25 trade union branches and trades councils. It’s crucial that workers organise to escalate action, stop union leaders pushing through rotten deals and to unify action wherever possible. 

Strikers should take heart from the RCN union members who rejected the  below-inflation deal their leaders recommended, the UCU members who censured their general secretary, and the CWU members who want to throw out the latest bad offer. The summit is not just for those involved in battles taking place now, but for every worker. 

The summit will host discussion but can also strengthen the networks of resistance at the base of the unions. It’s essential for everyone enthused by this year’s strikes but know we need more.