The Labour Party government of Anthony Blair has taken the lead in the bosses’ efforts to defeat the firefighters. Not only have they mobilized troops and cops as strikebreakers, but they have threatened to use antiunion legislation, and spearheaded a propaganda campaign to undermine the support the firefighters have won from other trade unionists and working people.

This effort has been joined by other bosses, capitalist politicians, and the entire big-business media. These enemies of labor are deeply concerned that other workers, starting with those on government payrolls, will follow the firefighters’ example and begin to use union power in opposition both to bosses’ attacks, and to government proposals to offload the effects of the capitalist crisis onto our backs.

The propagandists for the capitalist rulers claim that lower-paid workers have no interest in the FBU’s struggle. Under cover of such arguments they are trying to drive down all workers’ wages. We should reject this divide-and-rule tactic. The real division is not between firefighters and other workers, low-paid, better-off, or laid off, but between all working people and the ruling rich whose interests the government represents.

Beneath their lofty phrases, these propagandists defend the interests of the ruling rich and of no one else. When they say that their "economy" can’t take the load of such wage raises, they’re talking about their profits. When they speak of the need to "reform the public sector," they’re talking about carving off more of the social wage, the conquest of decades of working class struggle.

Opponents of the union make a broad appeal to "national interests" against the "greedy workers." They try to make workers identify with the British ruling rich--their exploiters and enemies--rather than workers and farmers around the globe--their allies. They aim to pressure workers to back off attempts to fight around their interests and the broader concerns of working people as the rulers prepare for war.

The same British government that has sent troops to break the firefighters’ strike also sent troops to participate in the imperialist war in Afghanistan, and maintains thousands of troops occupying Northern Ireland. Today that government is preparing to send tens of thousand of troops to fight a war against Iraq for control of its oil wealth.

The "war against terrorism" is also being used in an attempt to blackmail the firefighters from taking action by accusing them of endangering life. In fact, the best guarantee of effective fire cover is a strong union that puts workers’ safety first. It is the capitalist government that will have blood on its hands should any loss of life be connected with the strike.

The firefighters’ actions objectively run counter to the rulers’ course toward war at home and abroad. Their refusal to put off their fight has earned them the right to the active solidarity of the labor movement, other working people, and all those seeking an effective road to fight back.
 
 
Related articles:
UK firefighters strike as government torpedoes pay deal
Labour prime minister mobilizes troops as strikebreakers  
 
 
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