Scotland On Sunday
By Bob Thomson, former Associate Scottish Secretary of Unison and a former chairman and treasurer of the Scottish Labour Party.
He is co-editor of Scottish Left Review

THE rail and seamen’s union (RMT), as the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, was one of the founders of the Labour party in 1899. That is why it’s called Labour - it is the party representing workers.
New Labour’s decision to expel the RMT from affiliation marks a watershed for the party and the Labour movement. Either Labour goes back to its roots and re-engages with the mass of workers or it will go into decline.
The five RMT branches affiliating to the Scottish Socialist Party give that party a credibility and respectability it has lacked. And there is intense pressure from firefighters and postal workers for their unions to do the same.