France, Alternative Libertaire AL - Obituary: Bob Crow miss the British railway (fr, pt)

Bob Crow died March 11, 2014. Secretary General of the British trade union National Union 
of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) since 2002, Bob Crow has played a 
significant role in the trade union movement in Britain and beyond, particularly through 
the International Federation of Transport (ITF), and the decision to join the RMT World 
Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in June 2013 .. ---- February 6, 2004, the Extraordinary 
Conference of the RMT Union, held in Glasgow, confirmed by a vote of 42 in favor and 8 
against the decision taken at the Annual General Meeting 2003 to support political parties 
and not just the Labour Party (Labour Party). This decision might seem trivial, quickly 
had significant consequences because it marked a break with more than a century of 
systematic affiliation, "natural" and compulsory for all UK unions to the Labour Party. 
The union had already decided to allow five Scottish sections of RMT to join the Scottish 
Socialist Party (SSP). This opened the door for membership in other Scottish SSP sections, 
and more significantly other unions will follow the path of RMT, disaffiliation from the 
Labour Party.

Collect union Left

During the twelve years of his term as General Secretary RMT, Bob Crow argued, organized 
and led numerous campaigns, particularly against the evils of privatization of the rail 
industry and against the European Union; in a British trade union landscape that has never 
really recovered from the defeat of minors to Thatcher, RMT has shown on numerous 
occasions that workers victories were even possible! More than once, Bob Crow has "shaken" 
the hum of ETF, the Federation of Transport of the European Trade Union Confederation in 
which RMT has long tried to organize a gathering current "union left" based on the French 
CGT, the Belgian CSPF in vain. Without being the most fervent supporter of this choice, 
Bob Crow also accompanied commitment RMT union networks in struggles alongside SUD-Rail 
(Solidarity) in France, the CGT of the Spanish State, etc.. Research of an international 
affiliation without compromising the look of class, Bob Crow pushed the accession of the 
British union to the WFTU in 2013, despite Stalinism good complexion of its leaders, and 
making the bet of an opening of its European sector, the Italian and Italian USB or tails 
of RMT.

In the European elections of 2009, Bob Crow led the "Not to EU - Yes to democracy" list. 
Longstanding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, he put all his weight into 
the creation of an electoral coalition (TUSC coalition of trade unionists and socialists), 
seeking the unity of the various organizations 'socialist'. Bob Crow claimed a strongly 
marked by Marxism-Leninism ... while acting union able to gather far beyond its own 
convictions. If our major disagreements about the vision of socialism, the 
characterization of the situation in Cuba or the autonomy of the labor movement, for 
example, we say that Bob Crow is an important character that mark the history of trade 
unionism.

Mouldi C. (Transcom)