Railway privatisation didn't work. It was only kept alive by government subsidy... £12.5bn just for last year! In fact the Labour government's "renationalisation" is just completing the job started by the Tories (although they would never admit it) when they launched their Great British Railways project to end the unaffordable drain of funds to private operators.

    Six out of the 17 Train Operating Companies (TOCs) were already in state hands when Labour took over. But the rest are only being taken back one or two at a time over the next five years and never mind the continued running down of the services at workers' and passengers' expense... The new Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, wants to cushion the private operators, allowing their contracts to expire "naturally".

    But will this "gentle" handling of private sharks, after this slow transition to public ownership, end private profiteering in the railways once and for all? Not at alll Private Rolling Stock Companies (ROSCOs), which own 9 out of 10 trains in the country, will continue leasing trains to the public operator. And under the "Open Access" arrangements (which will not be ended with nationalisation), private operators will still be able to run certain services on the most profitable routes.

    But what's most conspicuous, however, is that railway union leaders like ASLEF's Mick Whelan and the (outgoing!) Mick Lynch from the RMT haven't said a word about what's to happen with the railway workforce. Where is the plan to return workers to common terms and conditions across the board? Or to end contracting and subcontracting? What about a guard on every train and an end to driver only operation? 30 years of privatisation cut the workforce up into ribbons, turning the screw on every single worker! Above all it has jeopardised safety.

    That said, given the way that the union leadership has conducted every dispute and struggle - section by section, maintaining all the divisions put there by the bosses - it's obvious they aren't going to come forward with the idea of one great big railway workforce together... let alone address the historical problem of railway workers divided among several unions!

    No, it is up to the railway workforce to end these divisions. We can make a start by formulating our own demands, for a return to common terms and conditions, equal pay for equal work, to one big (Great) British Railway collective force!

As soon as billionaire Daniel Kretinsky became official owner of Royal Mail, he went ahead with the plan to cut the 6-day a week Universal Service Obligation (the obligation to deliver letters to the all 32m addresses in the country). No surprise there, of course. For sure, the RM Board, representing shareholders, has been wanting to shelve the statutory USO since Day 1. And to "ease in" this cut, they now want to reduce 2" Class deliveries to alternate days. They've also got Ofcom to agree that only 90% of 1% Class post needs to be delivered the next day... A trial of this new regime is about to begin.

    Kretinsky and his RM underlings claim that a cut-down USO won't affect jobs. And the Communication Workers" Union, which has been going along with the worst cuts in postal workers' jobs and conditions ever, is singing in unison with the bosses. But that's no surprise either. The union leadership has agreed to the loss of 12,000 jobs since 2022, and now they're collaborating on the pilot to get rid of the USO. In the 37 Delivery Offices where it's meant to start, local managers are already making cuts.

    Of course, the getting rid of the USO is a way for Kretinsky to move fully into the profitable parcel delivery business, without the unprofitable drag of letter delivery. It will be the end of a postal "service" as we know it. And the precondition is to strip postal workers of the terms and conditions we have won in the past through our struggles.

    If we are to prevent this attack from going any further, we will need to start by refusing to participate in the USO frial. And since the CWU is officially going along with it, it is up to us to do this without them. That is, to organise our own meetings - and not just where the pilot is to take place, but everywhere, in all offices around the country - to co-ordinate our action. It's a very long time since postal workers took their struggles into their own hands. But we have done it before and we can do it again. And it could be the first step in the fight to take the entire postal service back into public hands - and moreover, under workers' control!