Britain Gasgowan Archists - Labour and the unions by Honey Bee

The infatuation of the trade unions with the Labour party should be nothing other than 
mystifying for ordinary workers. Whether it is 'Unions Together' or TUC voter registration 
drives, trade union members amongst us should feel deeply insulted at being asked to 
prop-up the Labour party as the best available solution, argues the Anarchist Federation. 
---- The Labour Party was set up in the early twentieth century as a political wing of the 
trade union movement. Despite the rose-tinted view of history, it has continually 
regulated workers under capitalism. It is not a case of Labour having 'lost its way' and 
needing recapturing. To echo the anarchist Rudolf Rocker, political parties and elections 
haven't brought workers "a hair's breadth closer to socialism."

The 'Special Relationship'
The TUC and parts of the left continually present us with a picture of Labour which has 
nothing in common with its actual actions. They tell us that we still have a 'special 
relationship', and that despite its failings, the Labour Party stands-up best for ordinary 
working people. So we should support it 'without illusions', because it is better than the 
Tories. Not that you would notice! All the major parties support austerity against the 
working class. This is irrefutable, and Labour even says as much.

What remains of the dwindling trade union movement is essentially shackled by harsh 
restrictive anti-union laws and a totally compliant TUC leadership. These laws tell us how 
to manage our affairs, seriously restrict our ability to withdraw labour, and tell us who 
we can and can't expel, which means that we have to accept scabbing in our own unions. 
They restrict free association in a way that no other organisation can under British law 
and are regularly condemned by the International Labour Organisation, which is hardly a 
hotbed of radicalism. The only time Labour repealed anti-union laws was when its hand was 
forced by a mass grassroots workers movement in the 1970s.

Overturning these present laws and rebuilding a militant culture around the workplace is 
going to require not the politics of the ballot box, but sheer will and the determination 
to oppose so-called 'representatives' in both the Labour Party and the TUC. Their class 
interests under capitalism are intimately linked; our interests begin and end with us.

https://glasgowanarchists.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/labour-and-the-unions-anarchist-federation/