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Monday, June 30, 2003
BBC NEWS | Union's threat to switch allegiance One of Britain's biggest trade unions is considering giving money to a political party other than Labour.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT), said the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) shared common ground with his union.
He told BBC Radio Scotland that union members are getting "fed up" with New Labour and have already cut the amount of money it gives them.
The RMT boss sounded the warning as the union prepared for its annual conference in Glasgow.
Mr Crow said his union was not going to give money to "people who would put the boot into us" and said the union movement would be "kicking up hell" if the Tories had introduced some of Labour's current policies.
He said of the SSP: "They want to renationalise the railway network, new Labour doesn't - so why should our members carry on supporting them?"
Mr Crow said his union's Scottish members were increasingly viewing the SSP as a better alternative to Labour.
"Certainly I believe we will be looking to support the SSP," he said.
"Our position at the moment is that we will remain affiliated to the Labour Party until somebody else comes along.
"That could well be the SSP. If they are going to campaign for stopping Caledonian MacBrayne being sold off, if they're going to fight for the renationalisation of the railway, I think our members in Scotland will look to support the SSP."
The SSP have six MSPs in the Scottish Parliament and can trace their origins to the campaign against the poll tax.
They favour higher taxes, renationalisation and big increases in public spending to end poverty. --
The Scotsman - Rail Union set to dump Labour in favour of SSP THE RMT rail union could dump Labour in Scotland and switch its allegiance to the Scottish Socialist Party, it warned yesterday, writes Hamish MacDonell.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union, sounded the warning as the union prepared for its annual conference in Glasgow later today.
Mr Crow claimed relations with Labour were "very fragile", and declared: "The New Labour government has been a disaster for us." And, in what represented a major fillip for the Scottish Socialist Party, he warned the union was likely to reduce its funding of Labour and to look increasingly to the SSP in Scotland.
Asked about his union’s funding for Labour’s election kitty, he told BBC Radio Scotland’s Eye to Eye programme: "I think we are going to severely reduce it again.
"We reduced it severely last year, and I think we are going to reduce it again this year. We will be looking for people like the Scottish Socialist Party to campaign for us."
He said of the SSP: "They want to renationalise the railway network, new Labour doesn’t - so why should our members carry on supporting them?"
Mr Crow said his union’s Scottish members were increasingly viewing the SSP as a better alternative to Labour.
"Certainly I believe we will be looking to support the SSP," he said.
"Our position at the moment is that we will remain affiliated to the Labour Party until somebody else comes along.
"That could well be the SSP. If they are going to campaign for stopping Caledonian MacBrayne being sold off, if they’re going to fight for the renationalisation of the railway, I think our members in Scotland will look to support the SSP."
At present, however, there was no alternative party for his union in England, although in Wales it backed an independent member of the Welsh Assembly, said Mr Crow.
"In England at the moment, we haven’t an alternative and that’s why we are sticking with New Labour," he said.
"But certainly in Scotland there is an alternative, and if that alternative is the SSP and that’s what our members want, then we will affiliate to them."
