RMT to fund Bob Crow for No2EU candidate

The RMT led by Bob Crow and his sidekick Steve Hedley, has been at the forefront of supporting and funding the Socialist Party's Trade Union & Socialist Campaign (TUSC). Recently the TUSC announced it would be standing "hundreds" of candidates in the forthcoming local elections, something bound to put pressure on the unions coffers.

However the Council elections will take place at the same time as the elections for the European Parliament, so today's announcement that the RMT will be handing Bob Crow £35,000 to fund his personal campaign comes as no surprise. Additionally The Times reports that:

It hopes to secure £115,000 more to help ten other candidates.

The report reminds us that:

Mr Crow stood in the previous elections in 2009 on a No2EU ticket. The party won 1% of the national vote. Relaunching the the group at the TUC congress in Bournemouth last year, he said that the EU had severely weakened the power of the unions.

And there's me blaming the Coalition Government, especially Francis Maude whose personal vendetta against the Trotskyist led PCS has led to severe, almost fatal reductions in TU Facility Time and is planning to end the "check off" system in which ever civil service departments he can.

Which EU directive was that I wonder?

Frankly the opposite appears to be the case. Withdrawal from the EEC would likely see an offensive against workers/union rights on a scale we have never seen. 

That's why so many bloody Tories and reactionary UKIP supporters want us out of the European Union. They see the EU as protecting us too much!

Undaunted comrade Crow assures us that:

The only rational course is to leave the EU and rebuild Britain with socialist policies.

Like his kind of Marxist based socialism has ever led to any kind of prosperity!

The workers of Russia and Eastern Europe couldn't wait to throw off the shackles of communism. The fallout still continues in Ukraine today.

Fact is that most people looking for a way out the EU will be doing so for exactly the reasons he opposes (immigration being one of them) and I'm not convinced that RMT members themselves are entirely persuaded of the Crow road to socialism. I was amused by an interview in the Independent back in the Eastleigh by-election (after another TUSC flop) with a member of the RMT who voted UKIP.

Herein lies a problem. The RMT leaderships politics and that of its' rank & file do not always overlap. The No2EU campaign, like the TUSC attracts the support of Socialist Party PCS officials in the PCS union who also have a policy of "standing & supporting candidates". 

That policy has yet to be implemented due to its controversial nature, but one NEC member inside the Serwotka led "big tent" assures me it will never happen. Personally I think it will when the likes off Assistant General Secretary Chris Baugh and Vice President John McInally have the confidence to do so.

With the PCS elections about to take place it might be worth while members raising this issue with the likes of Chris Baugh and his chums when they come touting for your vote!

The No2EU campaign will likely receive derisory votes as will the TUSC in the local elections. The far-left will simply be shouting for no gain.

Meanwhile if we really want to defend workers and trade union rights I suggest people vote Labour.