Bob Crow – A natural democrat

Bob Crow is a natural democrat of the old school. Of course that school is not one which many of us attended. Having been born in Shadwell, in the East End, it was perhaps to be expected that he might end up as a student at the Marxs and Lenin School for Boys, even though his parents had settled him at an early age in the leafier surroundings of Hainault. It is not difficult to imagine how conflicted the young Bob must have been, finding himself wrenched in such a way from the the colourful culture of the dockyards, and then discovering with some shame that his brother had become a share trader.It’s never really possible to become the person we might have been if circumstances had been different. But the life of Bob Crow is a example of someone trying to do just that, recreating an East End background that never existed, and becoming a man of the people he had never known.

Of course one way of expressing this desire is to work alongside the people you really want to identify with, patiently and humbly, Sharing their experiences and understanding in a very personal manner the pressures they face because they become your own. But it is a rare man indeed who is willing to make such a sacrifice. In fact Bob had decided by the age of only 22 that he wanted to help the people by becoming their union representative, and at the age of 24 he had already taken up a national role in the National Union of Railwaymen. His days on the trackside were over.

Democracy requires such sacrifices. Bob is committed to democracy. In 2002 he was elected as successor to Jimmy Knapp as general Secretary of the RMT, the union formed from the amalgamation of the Railway and Seamen unions. Only 30% of the union voted, and he managed to gain 65% of the vote (an overwhelming mandate in the socialist understanding of democracy). Of course that means that he became General Secretary with only 19% of the vote. But who wouldn’t want to represent the workers of the RMT through such a prestigious office. The demands placed on Bob are so much more onerous than those faced by his membership that he has to draw a salary and benefit package of over £145,000 just to cope. That’s more than the salary the Prime Minister draws. But such is democracy.

Indeed the RMT is so democratic that in the last election for General Secretary, Bob Crow was returned entirely unopposed and therefore didn’t need the votes of any of his membership. So it is worth listening to his views on other political bodies whose representatives do have to face the electorate on a regular basis. Of course as a self-confessed communist, of the more extreme sort, he might not be expected to agree with everything that the London Assembly proposes, but surely he will respect their democratic mandate such as it is?

Unfortunately Bob, as a natural democrat of the Marxist sort, only really recognises his own right to represent the ordinary people. When it is suggested that most of those ordinary people in London don’t appreciate Tube and Rail strikes, his immediate response is not to sympathise with them at all. Instead he accuses the Tory Group on the London Assembly, whose survey had found that 60% of Londoners did not support such strikes, of having the same philosophy as Hitler, Mussolini and Pinochet. It’s rather difficult to imagine the Tory Group having much in common with Hitler. For one thing it is not likely they could get the trains to run on time under any circumstances. But surely Bob is the one who is the inheritor of the democratic principles he abuses in others?

This year Bob will continue to enjoy his position as unelected General Secretary of RMT. He will continue to enjoy a salary package more than 8 times that of an average member of his union. He will undoubtedly continue to suggest that those who oppose him are Nazis and Fascists. But he is a natural democrat, of the communist sort. Bob Crow IS the people and no longer needs the mandate of his members. Having become the demos himself, the will of  Bob Crow is indeed the will of the people.