Some 300 people, most of them trade union activists, packed the Small Hall in Central London’s Friends Meeting House on Saturday 21 January for a conference on the ‘crisis of working class representation’ called by Britain’s biggest rail union, the RMT. The meeting began exactly at 12 noon and between 75 and 100 could not gain admission to the room.

The conference took place after the union’s annual delegates meeting had twice voted for the organisation of such an event following the Labour Party’s expulsion of the RMT from its ranks for insisting on its right to give financial support to the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). Chaired by RMT president Tony Donaghey, the conference was barred from discussing any resolutions from the outset. In all, the audience heard from seven platform speakers including the union’s general secretary, Bob Crow, and the convenor of its group of sponsored MPs, John McDonnell. The platform also included SSP convenor, Colin Fox, Jean Lambert, one of the Green Party’s two representatives in the European Parliament, the long-standing Socialist Party councillor from Coventry, Dave Nellist, John Marek, a Member of the Welsh Assembly from Forward Wales, and Liz Greene, a spokesperson from the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and a last minute addition to the platform. Tony Benn had sent his apologies as he was attending the funeral of the late Sports Minister, Tony Banks, and FBU general secretary Matt Wrack, who was apparently absorbed in issues around the union’s brewing dispute with the Government in defence of the firefighters’ pension scheme.

The RMT had not invited a speaker from Respect, which had apparently asked twice for a spot on the platform after George Galloway MP had initially made dismissive remarks about the RMT initiative at a London meeting on 21 November - something of a gift to a core of members of the RMT’s Council of Executives who are adamantly opposed to Respect and most probably still Labour Party loyal. At least five Respect supporters, including senior SWP figures John Rees (who is also Respect’s national secretary) and Paul Holborrow, did, however, contribute from the floor. Rees pointed to the organisation’s success at last May’s general election, not only in Bethnal Green & Bow, but also in three other East London constituencies as well as in one Birmingham seat. The very mention of Galloway’s name, however, sparked a widespread wave of derisory laughter.

The quality of platform speeches varied dramatically and there can be little doubt that the audience’s concentration waned rather badly during at least a couple of the contributions. Still, Bob Crow was entertaining, as he frequently is, and more importantly he put forward the idea of a “new national shop stewards movement” as central to reversing the decline of a union movement which he suggested now organised only 18% of the British workforce. Crow appeared to be arguing that such a movement was also a prerequisite for establishing “a political party that can represent working men and women.”

Confounding the expectations of many attending the conference Labour MP, John McDonnell, made a rather self-effacing speech and did not urge the audience to join the party’s ranks and assist in an attempt to “reclaim” it - a prospect rubbished by Bob Crow in his initial speech. McDonnell spoke instead of the need for “united fronts against capitalism” and suggested the possibility of new organisational forms, though adding “they will emerge through struggle”.

All told the chair allowed some 15 contributions from the floor with several supporters of the Socialist Party plugging a conference on 19 March in the name of the Campaign for New Workers Party. The Socialist Party had a large contingent among conference participants and had obviously mobilised for the event. It speakers generally argued that the RMT’s forerunner, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, had figured among the handful of unions instrumental in the creation of the Labour Party at the turn of the previous century. In essence, the call upon the current RMT leadership was to emulate its ancestors in the context of a mounting disillusionment with the reality of New Labour.

Greg Tucker, a leading RMT member and a supporter of Socialist Resistance, which supports Respect albeit with some increasingly public criticisms, concluded his contribution by suggesting that we needed “something bigger and better” than Respect in its current form. In a thinly veiled reference to George Galloway’s ‘Big Brother’ antics of the previous fortnight, Brian Heron, who had once been in the Arthur Scargill-led SLP indicated that any new formation that might emerge would have to place an emphasis on internal democracy and the accountability of its leaders.

While the event reflected some of the historic strengths of the “old” labour movement, with democratic debate conducted in a comradely atmosphere, it also highlighted the current weaknesses of the unions in that the vast majority attending were men, a still higher percentage were white and all too few were under 40. There was no formal registration process on the day so it was by no means clear what range of unions was present in the audience, though there was clearly no organised FBU presence.

From the chair Tony Donaghey pledged that the RMT’s governing body, the Council of Executives, would receive a thorough report of the day’s proceedings but did not promise any specific action.

There is certainly a compelling case in the light of Saturday’s conference for RMT militants to pressure their Executive into rolling out a programme of similar events across Britain and for a reconvened conference before 2006 is out, one that actually takes resolutions and arrives at clear decisions about the way forward.