Vol. 73/No. 23      June 15, 2009

Among those marching were car workers from Jaguar Land Rover and LDV plants, where workers have faced layoffs; and steelworkers from Teesside Cast Products, where 2,000 jobs are threatened at the Corus plant. A number of young people joined the march, which was organized by the Unite union.

Official unemployment figures show that those out of work now total 2.2 million, a rate of 7.1 percent. The increase over the first three months of the year has been the fastest quarterly rise since 1981. Among those hardest hit have been young workers, with the unemployment rate for those aged 18 to 24 rising to 16.1 percent. The West Midlands, where Birmingham is located, has an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, the highest in the United Kingdom.

Around 20 workers from the Visteon plants in Enfield and Basildon joined the march. The workers there and at the Visteon plant in Belfast have been waging a fight since the end of March, when the company announced it was closing its three UK plants.

“Before our fight, I was confined to my small world. I’d see a picket and not think twice,” said Cindy Green, who worked at the Visteon plant in Enfield for two decades. “I’m a changed person. From now on, if I see a picket, I’ll stop, find out about it, and offer solidarity.” Before the dispute she’d never been on a demonstration.

On May 18 workers at the Enfield plant ended their picket line, marching from the factory to nearby Ponders End, accompanied by firecrackers and cheers. Workers at all three plants had been laid off within hours of being given notice March 31 and told that they would only receive the government’s minimum redundancy (severance) payments. Following a seven-week fight, which included an occupation of the Belfast plant, workers have won a substantially increased redundancy package. Workers at the Belfast plant ended their occupation, and at the Basildon plant the picket lines have also been taken down.

“We were on strike eight years ago,” explained David Jones, “and we got support from other workers. That is why I’m marching today.” Jones was one of several former car parts workers from Friction Dynamics in north Wales who joined the march. They faced a two-year lockout after striking against wage cuts and a longer working day.

John Cooper, from the Vauxhall car plant at Ellsemere Port on Merseyside, joined the march explaining that car workers face short-time working and reduced pay.

The Unite Web site described the demonstration as a “campaign bringing the union together with senior business, academic and political figures.” Marching alongside Unite leader Tony Woodley was Digby Jones, former head of the bosses’ organization, the Confederation of British Industry.

At a rally following the march Woodley sought to divert attention from the capitalist class as a whole, demagogically singling out only bankers and “speculators” for blame. Striking a nationalist tone, Digby Jones told the Sunday Mercury, “If we don’t keep skills in manufacturing in Birmingham when the economy turns round … international manufacturing investors will go to Mumbai, Shanghai and Germany.” One of Unite’s demands at the march was for “action by our government to defend manufacturing on the scale of our EU competitors.”

Nationalism also marks the No2EU campaign, which has candidates standing in the June elections to the European parliament. Its supporters joined the Birmingham march.

No2EU is a coalition led by Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union, and includes the Communist Party of Britain and the Socialist Party. Its policies include opposition to “social dumping of exploited foreign workers in Britain.” It holds up the example of the reactionary strikes this past winter at the Lindsey oil refinery against the hiring of Italian and Portuguese workers. The strikes established preferential hiring for British workers, a blow to workers’ unity.  
 
 
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