The ugly nationalism of the British refinery workers strikes shows the urgent international need for PLP’s communist politics. The demand of “British Jobs For British Workers” makes immigrant workers the enemy of the striking workers — a division that only serves the capitalist bosses and dooms the striking workers to be pawns in the larger battles between local and international bosses. The strike at the New York City Stella D’Oro bakery may be much smaller in numbers. Yet that strike by predominantly immigrant workers, who have welcomed and embraced PLP’s communist ideas, points to the only direction that truly serves the working class: multi-racial unity, internationalism, anti-sexism and communist revolution.

The oil refinery strike was sparked in February at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire. The refinery is owned by the French corporation Total, the world’s fourth-largest oil and gas company. While hundreds of British-born workers have been laid off, Total brought in an Italian sub-contractor who used workers from Italy, Portugal and Poland.

The unions representing the British workers, the GMB and UNITE, may or may not have authorized the earlier stages of the strikes. The Total bosses called the strikes “wildcats.” This has led some observers to praise the apparent rank-and-file nature of the strike and the strikers’ seeming defiance of their union leaders, while ignoring the strike’s racist and nationalist politics.  Whether the union leaders supported the earlier strikes or not, they now call for larger mobilizations and support the strikes’ nationalist demands. Proof again that the bosses’ labor leaders will do whatever it takes to keep workers divided and chained to their “own” capitalists.

The strikes’ main nationalist demand echoes none other than United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Gordon Brown. At a Labour party conference in September 2007 Brown said: ‘This is our vision: Britain leading the global economy . . . drawing on the talents of all to create British jobs for British workers.” One striker even carried a sign ‘In the wise words of Gordon Brown: UK Jobs for British Workers.’ (The Daily Mail 1/31/09)

These may be “wise” words for the UK bosses but they are poisonous for workers of all countries. Capitalism is based on profits made by exploiting workers at home and in foreign countries. The bosses will use racism and nationalism to increase their profits, divide workers internationally and win workers to ally with their national capitalists against capitalists and workers of different countries. At the same time that refinery strikers carry signs quoting Gordon Brown, the UK bosses and Brown are attacking UK postal and Tube (subway) workers who have conducted strikes of their own. Brown is also an enthusiastic supporter of the U.S. oil wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The bosses and their politicians and labor leaders are no friends of ours. We can only advance the fight against layoffs and unemployment by uniting all workers in mass anti-racist struggle. Internationalist workers’ unity is the communist road we must travel.