The wave of walkouts and protests by thousands of contract workers up and down the country, which started last week, certainly made front-page news.
But where was it emphasised that these walkouts really stem from the construction bosses' drive to cut jobs and scrap new building projects across the economy, thus reducing the pool of potential jobs for contract workers?
What is highlighted instead, is the call for "British jobs for British workers" which has become the chief slogan of the workers and union officials who organised these protests, as well as the union leaders who are endorsing them.
Regardless of the solidarity one must feel with any workers fighting against rising unemployment, there is no way around the fact that the objectives assigned to this particular protest by union leaders are a dangerous dead-end for workers.
A rotten campaign
These walkouts have not come out of the blue. They are the latest manifestation of a series of protests which started at the Staythorpe power station building site, in Nottinghamshire, last October. Things came to a head when workers walked out at Total's Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire on 28th January, sparking off the wave of solidarity walk-outs at 20 odd sites.
It was not as spontaneous as it seemed. Behind all of this was a coordinated campaign by union officials from Unite and the GMB, against the hiring of foreign contract workers, which amounts to asking the bosses to sack one section of (foreign) workers and to replace them with others (British).
Union leaders, of course, claim they "have nothing against the foreign contractors". In fact, by pointing at their presence as being a "problem", they only strengthen the hand of the bosses, whose game it is, precisely, to play on divisions within our ranks, national or otherwise, in order to turn the screw on us. Today, union leaders are setting "British" workers against "foreign" workers. But what will it be tomorrow? "English" against "Scottish" or "Irish"? "White" against "Black"? Where will their demagogy stop?
Not only are union leaders lying to contract workers, by pretending that they can fight off the threat of unemployment by replacing a few thousand foreign workers, but their demagogy is dangerous for all workers and should have no place within our ranks!
Of course, such "militant" posturing and nationalist demagogy is no coincidence on the part of union leaders who have been conspicuous in their astounding passivity in front of the massive job cuts of the past period! What a convenient cover with which to conceal their refusal to organise any fight against the big companies' attacks on jobs!
This is an echo of what happened in 2006, when the same Unite leaders failed to do anything to organise the 2,300 Peugeot-Ryton workers to fight against the plant's closure. Then too, they covered up their renunciation of struggle with a nationalist boycott of Peugeot under the slogan "Think of England". Ryton workers were left to think of England all the way to the dole office!
Fighting, yes, but all of us together
One thing that the contract workers have proved however, is that, contrary to what union leaders have claimed for so long, it is possible for workers to act collectively on a scale large enough to force the bosses and their men in government to jump to attention.
But if Mandelson and Brown have been taking turns so eagerly on TV to reassure the contract workers, it is not because the bosses have anything to fear from a protest which is setting worker against worker. No, on this account the bosses have no reason to be worried!
However, what does worry the government and its masters in big business, is the precedent set by this protest. After all haven't they proved that it is possible for workers from different companies and different industries to join ranks together, up and down the country, and organise themselves to fight back? Haven't they proved that all the legislation designed to prevent unofficial action and solidarity strikes is impotent in front of a determined wave of protest, which threatens to spread in an unpredictable way?
And yes, Brown is right to be worried. Sooner rather than later, we will have to give ourselves the means to embark on such a fight back, but one which will bring all workers together on a much larger scale, and, above all, one aimed at our real enemies - the capitalists who are responsible for the present crisis. And as the contract workers' protest reminds us, once again, if we want our fights to get us somewhere, we will have to find the means to control and organise them ourselves.