The announcement by the government of its intention to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP should be a warning to the working class in Britain. The increase, which would cost roughly £5–6 billion a year, comes at a time when public services are on their knees, the cost of living crisis continues to erode pay and already government departments are being asked to prepare for up to 11% cuts.
It is a precursor to the possibility of much more significant increases in the near future. It is a clear indication that despite this being a ‘Labour’ government, it clearly intends to prioritise the demands of British imperialism over the needs of working people.
Unfortunately, some trade union leaders like Sharon Graham of Unite, far from mounting a working-class opposition, are jumping on board this runaway train of nationalism and militarism. In a statement released by Unite on 26 February, its leadership welcomed the increase and declares its intention to lobby the defence minister — not to resist the incredible amount of spending at a time of privation for working class people, but to demand the war effort be made in Britain, replacing aging RAF fighter jets with British-manufactured Typhoons instead of US-made F-35s.
Graham justifies this in the press release by stating “the decision needs to be made in the UK’s favour”, and that “any thought of wooing Donald Trump by selling our defence jobs abroad and replacing the RAF fleet with US made F35s will be resisted and would be an act of self-harm.” In a statement from November last year, they went even further, calling on the government to invest in the research for development of the Tempest advanced fighter jet programme, and “new military satellite systems and RAF helicopters to be manufactured in the UK”.
This is not the first time that Graham and the Unite leadership have taken such a stand. During the on-going genocidal slaughter in Gaza, while millions were in the UK and across the world were on the streets, on campuses and in workplaces yearning for an end to the slaughter, the Unite leadership took the road of tacit support through inaction.
While adopting an initial statement rightfully calling for a ceasefire after weeks of pressure, thereafter they were largely silent and even issued an internal memo saying the most important issue was defending the jobs in the arms industry. Disgracefully, this memo stated that “Unite cannot and never will advocate or support any course of action which is counter to that principle. We are a trade union, not a political party or single-issue campaign group.”
A balance sheet of Sharon Graham’s record
Graham’s election as Unite General Secretary in 2021 was generally celebrated and seen as a step forward by those who want our unions to adopt a more fighting stance in the workplaces. Her emphasis on focusing on strengthening industrial militancy and resources has seen a rise in the quantity and relative success of disputes, including substantial pay rises, reported by the union to be equal to almost £500 million in total. As well, her verbal refusal to continue giving a ‘blank cheque’ to the Labour Party was correctly seen as a welcome step forward. It was something that could have been used towards opening the question of how Unite and the trade union movement in general approach the question of the crisis of working-class political organisation.
However, as Socialist Alternative has warned, a growing imbalance in Graham’s approach towards just focusing on industrial-specific issues could transform a progressive policy into its opposite. By seeking to ignore ‘political’ issues, such a position could play a quite conservative role in broader struggles and movements that saw masses of workers and youth move into action, benefitting the status quo.
The results of this mistaken approach was seen in the recent General Election. Unite, while not endorsing Labour’s manifesto, did little to support any political alternatives, such as backing the independent campaigns of the five anti-war independents. The union remained by far the biggest trade union donor to the Labour campaign, with over £500,000 in donations.
Given the mass disillusionment with Labour, Unite’s failure to give a lead to its members on supporting real independent, pro-worker left political alternatives means it opened the road for even the most anti-working class party, Reform UK, to potentially fill the vacuum. Nor is it just a question of elections. Graham’s position on the Gaza massacre has provided inroads for the former bureaucratic clique which previously controlled the union to make some considerable gains in popularity among young members appalled by the current leadership’s essential endorsement of the massacre.
‘Jobs versus politics’?
The emphasis of ‘jobs versus politics’ upon which Sharon Graham is resting is not unique to her. It is also a dangerous false dichotomy, particularly at a time of capitalist crisis where the ruling class is attempting to undermine the potential of the working class further through sewing division. More than just workers at a certain workplace or of a certain trade union, Unite members are first and foremost members of the broader working class. Even from a limited perspective, reflected in the size of the Palestine solidarity movement in this country, there will inevitably be Unite members themselves who are directly affected by the war.
Beyond that, Unite member or otherwise, it will be the working class that bears both the economic and physical brunt of the global slide towards more bloody conflict. No worker will be exempt from the social cuts. No worker will be exempt from the economic consequences for an anemic British economy wracked by consequences of imperialist trade wars. No worker will be immune from their children being the ones pushed to join the military adventures and shed their blood to kill other sons and daughters of workers and the poor elsewhere.
To think, as Graham seems to, that investing in British-made weapons means more control by British workers over the use and administration of those weapons is also false. Graham says in her statement that part of her motivation is that “we simply can’t find ourselves in a situation where Trump wakes up in a bad mood and locks us out of using our own fighter jets”. That has been almost immediately contradicted by Keir Starmer’s statement in meeting Donald Trump that “no two militaries are more intertwined than ours” reflecting the reality of the ‘special relationship’. British imperialism poses no concrete threat to US imperialist might and will ultimately be its servant.
More ‘British control’ under capitalism means more control by the powers-that-be, not British workers or workers anywhere else. The idea of the ‘defence of British jobs’ is a rhetorical tool that actually only benefits the nationalist agenda of British imperialism (such as more war). It obscures the fact that British workers’ allies are all the other workers around the globe bearing the brunt of war and exploitation in the same way — not our own ruling class.
Another road: Workers’ control and transition to socially useful production
At the same time, any concern that some arms and defence workers may have about their jobs is legitimate. Creating an atmosphere of a siege mentality among workers in industries so critical to imperialism as the arms industry is a critical tool in carrying out its bloody wars of conquest.
Despite their best efforts, initiatives like Workers for a Free Palestine (which likely includes some Unite members) largely have not been able to overcome the willful refusal of the Unite leadership to engage with the anti-war movement. This can in fact reinforce the false idea that an anti-war stance is somehow anti-working class, which is of course not true. The UK has a rich history of workers within war industries taking politically-motivated action in defence of the working class, from WWII to Scottish workers in the 1970s, who refused to work on military planes for Pinochet’s military dictatorship in Chile.
Workers should be under no illusion that this is somehow just a problem of one person. It is a political contradiction facing the current trade union leadership. Replacing Sharon Graham with the right wing or some other ‘left’ will not fundamentally change the problem, though they may make better statements, if they continue to accept the same fundamental logic. Imperialism means war. British imperialism will continue to launch and participate in wars to advance its own capitalist interests. And at the same time, Unite will still have thousands of members whose jobs are in the production of arms and associated fields.
Workers in these industries could stop Britain’s war agenda tomorrow by refusing to continue to manufacture and ship arms, but they must find they will be supported by the wider class. Unite could use its high level of organisation within these industries to facilitate discussion and coordination between these workers, anti-war youth, workers and trade unionists from different unions to overcome any barriers between workers inside and outside these workplaces. It could then be used to develop a powerful working class campaign demanding an end to imperialist slaughter and calls for the arms industry to be taken under workers control and management, with no loss of jobs and a transition into socially useful production.
Capitalism is sliding into an era of more aggressive imperialism which means bigger and more significant violence on a global scale. The workers movement has the key role to play to prevent a slide into some version of World War III, but only if it organises independently with a programme for an end to imperialism and its system, not insisting that the bombs be ‘made in Britain’. Ultimately it will require a transformation of the social and economic system to a socialist world free of exploitation, poverty and war.
