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Class War issue 80: The No Fuel Tax Struggle
Class War was impressed by the spontaneity and organisation of the truckers and even a begrudging admiration for the farmers in spreading the dispute so quickly. From a small demo at Ellesmere port (Cheshire) on Friday 8th of September the country was brought to standstill within a week.
To look at this dispute and its' modern context we have to go back to the Miners strike between 1984 and 1985. Here the strike was broken by a lot of Hauliers (small companies) and some self-employed drivers. Sometimes the self employed delude themselves and really believe that they are their own boss and take on board conservative habits - when really they are at the beck and call of larger companies who control their employment. The lorry driving industry does not ready have a vast employer, it has several large ones, and lots of small companies alongside the self-employed lorry drivers who own their own wagons. In effect though they have borrowed their wagons off the bank for around £100,000. Miners have never forgiven the lorry drivers who scabbed in the dispute. Class-consciousness within this situation is the crucial issue. Lorry drivers work within an isolated setting most of the day, and those who sleep out sometimes can group together for a beer with other drivers they know from their firm or those they've met on the road. From what we know they definitely have a classic working class experience.
The current dispute is brought about by the vast recent increases in fuel prices that affect all car drivers as well as lorry drivers and farmers. The price is increasingly unfair (as was covered in the May 2000 issue of Class War, number 79) as the tax burden falls heaviest on those least able to pay and that is the working class.
The genesis - not a dodgy rock band, genesis actually means "site of origin" - of the current campaign can be found in the widespread hatred of tax increases on petrol. And also in the increases in the price of tobacco and alcohol that hit lorry drivers hard. Even the Sun newspaper has been warning the government about unrest over this issue. The farmers and in particular certain action groups have sprung up to push for their own agendas, that includes promoting foxhunting. There are undoubtedly right wing forces at work behind some of the people encouraging action. Whether it is the Tory councillor and magistrate in North Wales, or some of the hauliers and petrol companies who were content to see the crises escalate whilst being under their control. There were several regional action groups coordinating things via in cab phones and radios. It was the drivers not driving out of the fuel depots that created a largely peaceful situation. These were not picket lines, because if they were they would have been illegal under the secondary picketing laws. They were more of a peace camp than anything else.
In The Privy
The frightening thing about this is that the Queen as the head of the Privy Council agreed Emergency powers so that Blair could order the armed forces to intervene, up to and including military action. Movement Against the Monarchy (MA'M) issued the following press release during the struggle:
12.9.00
Keep Your Nose Out MA'AM
MA'M condemns the Privy Council meeting at Balmoral yesterday that decided the authorities strategy during the current fuel crises. That this policy, up to and including military action should be discussed in secret is wrong.
That the head of the meeting was the Queen and her private secretary Robin Janvrin is a national scandal. We doubt that Blair or Brown have a mandate to tax anything at 70%. We know for a fact that the Queen and Mr. Janvrin have no mandate whatsoever to take action against protesters.
We urge all anti fuel tax protesters to consider where the billions raised in tax has gone. Our public transport does not work; our schools and hospitals are failing. Where has the money gone? MA'M spokesman Steve Edwards today said, "It's alright for the Royals, they can afford private schooling, private health care and private transport - the rest of us cannot. We're taking action to put this view across".
Tony Blair showed his true authoritarian colours - his instinct is to batter us into submission. The union chiefs showed how bankrupt of ideas and fighting spirit they are as well. They would have us put up with a Labour government under any circumstances so they can hob-nob at No. 10. But we'd be better off if they went round 10 Rillington Place.
For John Monks to compare the Labour government to that of Allende (not that we think he was great) is totally laughable - it shows the sycophantic nature of the TUC once again. The unions brought down Jim Callaghan's governments that got what it deserved, and Blairs' deserves a lot more. He's more Pinochet than Allende.
Lefty and anarchist analysis has been woefully inadequate at describing this movement, and it has also shown their conservative (!!) reluctance to get involved that only illustrates their detachment from the working class. Class War cannot claim to have full organic links with the working class in all industries and workplaces, but at least we have published this interview with a lorry driver.
To coincide with the Prague S26 demonstration Reclaim The Streets produced a pun on the Financial Times newspaper called 'Financial Crimes' and they have been busy distributing it. Whilst it has a lot to say about world economic conditions and the 'environmental crises' it was a poor expression of working people's needs in opposition to capitalism.
What they failed to say is that it was an environmental agenda that means governments have been able to push up the price of petrol and help to price working people out of our cars. Also you cannot call the protests 'indirect action' as RTS did, when really they were examples of people taking the political agenda into their own hands and acting on it - Direct Action. RTS contradicted themselves as earlier in the same article they describe what happened more accurately. The working class needs decent public transport and it also needs its cars.
Class War encourages autonomous working class activity. We realise that it is reactionary to promote the clampdown on working peoples' autonomy and freedom by helping to price us all off the roads without a realistic replacement. Contrary to a lot of weak analysis the car is also an expression of peoples ability to act for their own needs and interests as well. For example Class War regularly uses such a mode of transport to get our people around, as do other groups e.g. a lot of demonstrators at the Hillgrove Cat Farm demonstrations did so as well, and these are also likely to be the more environmentally concerned.
That the Boss of the TUC, John Monks can compare the Hauliers beginning the right wing coup against Allende in Chile in the early 70's with the situation in Britain today is not only wrong but also stupid. That was a classic right wing political manoeuvre, but this has been applied to Britain without any real evidence of FBI or other right wing involvement. Blair is of course closer to the right anyway, as some excellent research on the Red Star Research website has proved: www.red-star-research.org.uk.
The situation here is not the same, although the fact that petrol bosses were content to NOT send their drivers out proves that there was some other motives amongst some of the participants. Time will tell here as it gradually leaks out, but we cannot wait because we have to participate in struggles as best we can at the time. It's only the politically correct ideologists or idle academics who will never be able to influence anything that can afford to wait and then preach from behind.
That a lot of the participants only wanted a fair fuel price is obvious, but the political process has broken down so fully that direct action was the only way of making anger known. It's up to people like us to point out that we can expect no real justice from the system. Also the self and community empowerment that taking direct action creates takes authority away from government, and is necessary as one of the ways by which we will finally get real workers power. The limitations of the current dispute must be pointed out though.
Even some police were supporting this campaign, and so this was a campaign that involved all classes of people. A genuine popular movement that resents the price of petrol.
Police turn into pigs
Obviously any dispute that has real impact will have the police ordered in to take action against protesters. As it was the Queen agreed emergency powers to use up to military action to get the oil rolling again.
The 60 day deadline (ends November 13th) to reduce the price of petrol has created an interesting situation. The government will have better emergency plans in place, and so perhaps the protesters should have taken their dispute further rather than call it off for nothing. This really showed the 'respectable bosses' leadership of the dispute who were content to call off the campaign after a token campaign, it created inconvenience but there was never a real crisis.
The lorry drivers were operating largely with the support of their management and bosses. A real dispute would mean that we had to physically prevent the lorries from leaving the depots and this would quickly 'sort out the men from the boys'. Unfortunately from what Class War knows, the mass of the lorry drivers could not protest and wouldn't have the backing to conduct a real fight at the current time without management support.
Though there are ways that such a process of widespread community support might unfold. Firstly, the way forward would have been for the protesters at each centre to not only organise the provision of emergency supplies for the Health service and firefighters, but to have organised the provision of FREE FUEL supplies. This would have the duel effect of keeping widespread and active community support to defend this resource, but also would have challenged the capitalist system itself and proved whose side the oil companies and police are really on. This may have worked with elected stewards co-ordinating with petrol station staff, or advertising alternative 'Peoples Pumps' by word of mouth and at mass meetings. Of course with the current level of political consciousness this isn't going to happen, but this is still what needs to happen.
That we have to get our hands in the thick of things may make them a little dirty, though it is experience of struggle that educates people and so is worthwhile in itself. Class War car drivers and couriers hate the price of petrol too, so we do have an interest in this campaign.
The real problem we have with the campaign is the Farmers in such groups as "Farmers for Action", who are 'represented' by the Countryside Alliance who are opportunistically using this to try to involve more people in their pro-foxhunting campaign. We cannot allow these village idiots to get away with that! The Countryside Alliance immediately issued a press release in support of the Ellesmere Port blockade that kicked off the national protest. The extensive involvement of farmers, and in particular the smaller farmers of north Wales does deserve some careful thought. These are likely to be some of the few 'socialist farmers' in Britain, and there were what appeared to be genuine popular community carnivals in support of the action.
Other farmers in some regions have been incorporated in groups like the Ringwell Rural Action group in the south east. These are the conservative direct action wing of the Countryside Alliance who took action on Sunday the 17th of September on the M25. The fact that the farmers and landowners get the massively subsidised Red Diesel should warn people that they may not really be on our side and could be using the dispute for their own ends.
The real importance for the working class is that direct action works and that it is the workers who control the country really. Everything else is just a facade. Hopefully this will strengthen people's resolve to fight other struggles and that we can become a class for ourselves and against the other classes that currently rule us. We do have a degree of autonomy in our activities at work, although the bosses want to curtail this. To fight against the bosses takes more resolve because you will be operating without their permission. But this is the only way we can win for good.
Stop Press: We have just heard an announcement that fuel supplies will be guaranteed if there is a similar dispute again. This only shows the real nature of the system and the truth of the comments above shine in the dark. This will mean that once again class struggle has been successfully managed against us by the middle classes, or the working class will have to take things into its' own hands and take the struggle further. Time will tell.
Bollocks To Traffic Wardens
While fuel tax is a heavy burden on the working class motorist there are even heavier and more aggravating taxes we face. Not only do many local authorities have 2 council taxes - one for your home, the other for your car, the most evil of all tax enforcers and often the most unreasonable are traffic wardens.
These are people who are considered either too stupid (if that is possible) or too weedy to be coppers. Fortunately they are an easy target to hit back at. Traffic warden Ogunleye Adebayo fled along Hampstead Road after a motorist pulled out what appeared to him to be a pistol. Mr Adebayo was found hiding in the entrance to London Greater House in Mornington Crescent in Camden a notorious area for badly behaved traffic wardens. He was treated for shock and cuts, he fell while running away. Unfortunately he did not hurt himself seriously.
Eye witnesses also describe the weapon as an axe or a pole. So it probably was not a gun but the traffic wardens are feeling jumpy and know they're very unpopular.
Working class people would have their cars taken away if we tried what small business men do when they own haulage companies, but that does not mean we are helpless. To date no one has been caught we guess there are too many suspects with a motive...
Remember to check your parking ticket and the road signs before paying a fine as a large proportion of traffic wardens now work for private companies who give their "workers" very little training, and motivate them by paying them by results so the tickets may be incorrect and so unenforceable.
Back to issue 80 contents
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