A power that still survives

Although there was precious little new about the concentration of capital - a process that has been going on since capitalism was in short pants - the appearance in common currency of the word globalisation seemed to reflect a new, hairy-chested, aggressive attitude by the world's exploiters.

And, in truth, trade unionists observing the inter-connected web of ownership and cross-ownership of companies, particularly in the oil and gas industries, could be forgiven for feeling a bit intimidated by the transnational power-hungry monolith that appeared to confront them.

For nearly a couple of decades, the trade unions seemed to lose confidence in their ability to resist this massive enemy and hesitant to challenge its apparently irresistable force.

Membership appeared to be in irreversible decline and overwhelming working-class power a thing of the fondly remembered past.

Jobs in industry were shrinking by the day and the gigantic transnationals appeared to have the world by the throat.

And the capitalist press did nothing to dispel this feeling, idealising ostentatious displays of wealth and spurious celebrity while conducting venomous campaigns against anyone who dared to remind them that, underneath all the glitz and conspicuous consumption that they trumpeted to the skies, there was still a real world consisting of workers producing, parents struggling to bring up their families and pensioners desperately trying to make ends meet.

But, in politics particularly, appearances can be deceptive and things are not always as they seem.

Numerically, the size of the industrial working class may have shrunk.

But the power that the working class possesses is not merely contingent on numbers and it doesn't shrink or go away relative to the size of the class.

It exists because of a particular relationship to the means of production and that relationship is constant in nature.

And that power is being displayed in full at the moment by the members of Unite working for Ineos at the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland.

There may be only 1,200 of them, where tens of thousands would once have been involved, but their industrial muscle is no less than that of the trade unionists who preceded them.

In their defence against a predatory boss who, for no better reason than that other companies have got away with it and so, therefore, should Ineos, is insistent on cutting back on a perfectly functional pension scheme, the workers at Grangemouth are showing that they can resist, that they can control their own working environment and that no-one is too big to take on if the cause is right.

The whole of Scotland and large parts of the rest of Britain are dependent on the output of that one refinery and the Unite members are showing that, for the huge concerns which have what appears to be a stranglehold on industry, their apparent strength is, in truth, their biggest weakness.

By their drive to monopoly, these industrial giants have quite simply left themselves with no alternative avenues should their workers find the determination to confront them.

And the Ineos workers have found that determination. This paper and all progressive elements in Britain will hope to celebrate their victory.