This year's TUC annual conference came and went as if the situation of the working class did not warrant any sense of urgency.
Never mind the fact that jobs are still disappearing in their tens of thousands every month and are expected to carry on doing so for the foreseeable future. Never mind either if, at the same time, public expenditure is cut to fill the bankers' coffers and boost company profits!
Of course, union leaders had to be heard condemning the employers' job slashing, wage cutting and pension busting against private and public sector workers. And they did so all the more vocally as words cost them nothing!
But then what? What did they propose that the working class should do, in order to protect its livelihoods - let alone to get back decent jobs for the hundreds of thousands who have already been dumped onto the junk pile? Nothing whatsoever!
A red carpet for Brown
In fact, the TUC leaders found nothing more urgent to do than to provide Brown with a platform for a speech designed to kick off Labour's campaign for next year's general election!
Never mind that, in the present crisis, Brown and his ministers have shown the way to the job-slashers by cutting tens of thousands of jobs in the civil service, the royal mail and post office as well as the state-controlled banks! Never mind that his government has been squandering public funds in order to cover losses caused by the speculative greed of the bankers!
None of this stopped the TUC leaders from letting Brown celebrate his "caring" government, while announcing a new programme of cuts which, allegedly, will not affect "frontline services on which people depend", but just "cut costs, cut inefficiencies, cut unnecessary programmes and cut lower priority budgets".
Yet everyone in the audience knew that Brown was lying through his teeth and that these cuts will not only deprive the working class of vital services, but also destroy public sector jobs. And the delegates knew this, because this is exactly what the cuts currently being implemented by Brown are already doing.
But never mind! Not only was Brown allowed to make this cynical display of crass self-satisfaction from the platform of a conference financed by union members' dues, but his speech was even "welcomed" by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber as favouring jobs against cuts! How spineless can they get?
Fighting off the bosses' offensive
Yet this TUC conference did highlight the fact that in every industry, private or public, workers are confronted with exactly the same kind of attacks. It showed the extent to which the employers' offensive is co-ordinated across the economy, with the help of a government which is at the beck and call of the capitalist class - and which is, in addition, the biggest job slasher of all.
Yes, this is the situation that the working class is facing today. And how else can it be addressed if not by a co-ordinated working-class response to the co-ordinated employers' offensive? If the union leaders were not so terrified of rocking the boat of their "partnership" with the bosses and the government, such a response would have been the main item of discussion at this TUC conference.
Instead, whenever they are forced to organise some kind of fight back, union leaders ensure that it remains isolated - like in the case of last year's Visteon occupation. And even when the number of workers concerned is such that they could not only make a big show of strength, but also get other sections of workers to join them, the union leaders manage to atomise their forces in endless rolling strikes - as has been the case over the past 3 months at Royal Mail.
Such policies are inefficient, they weaken our forces and can only result in demoralisation. Instead, the working class needs an offensive policy - one which is aimed at boosting the numbers of those who are fighting back and, above all, which is aimed at winning.
And since jobs are the main issue at present, we need a policy which is aimed at banning these on-going job cuts for good. We need to show to the bosses and their politicians that attacking our jobs is just too expensive for them, both politically and economically. They must learn that every time they go on the rampage against our jobs, they will face a resistance that they just cannot afford. Because this is the only language they understand!