More than 600 workers at Rosyth naval dockyard in Fife walked out in a wildcat strike on June 21 over an attack on their pensions. The former Royal navy base was privatised in 1987 under Thatcher's Tories and is now owned by Babcock International. The situation as it stands means workers who paid into the company pension scheme can expect on average a reduction of around £60-£70 a week on the expected return.

The problem surfaced as Babcock prepared its bid for the proposed building of 2 super carriers worth millions of pounds. They had taken advantage of legislation on pension funds that could have been drawn up by the obese thief and serial crook, Robert Maxwell the late newspaper owner. For 6 of the past 10 years, Babcocks paid zero into the fund for employee pensions, and in the last 3 years they took a "partial holiday", leaving a massive shortfall that the company now expects the workers to make up. The money went instead on fat cat salaries and share dividends.

We doubt there will be many jaws hitting chests at yet another setback for a section of the working class, coming as it does on the same day as bosses at Royal Mail reverted to a new attack on their workforce leaving staff with no option but to strike on June 24, the first for over 10 years. The news about Rosyth is on the surface, another attempt by working people to resist cuts and protect themselves. However, what makes the Rosyth action different is it spontaniety; reflecting as it does a mood of rage among ordinary people. Prime Minister designate Gordon Brown has a home in the area. He was also the MP until boundary changes in 2005 and is a member of the T&G who are represented in the yard. The widespread pessimism rapidly spreading through the working class was clearly reflected in the SNP winning the Scottish parliamentary elections in May. While Fife has a long tradition of socialism and labour politics (Communist Willie Gallacher was the MP for years), the Labour Party has been on the receiving end of some humiliating electoral defeats in the past few years, at every level. In fact, the Labour Party as an organisation is an empty shell, just as it is in many parts of the country. It has Parliamentary Advice Offices and so on, complete with immpressive indoor plants, but as a living, breathing political movement with ideas, debate, accountability and democracy it is found wanting. This is the direct result of the centralisation of the party and the destruction of internal democracy by extremist interlopers who are responsible for the state of the party nationally.

Year on year since the yard was de-nationalised the workers have been squeezed until they are now very badly bruised. At the time it was privatised, more than 7,000 were employed. Now it employs around 1100. At the time of the walk-out the remainder of the workforce was on backshift or nightshift. A lunchtime meeting was conveyened by the representatives of AMICUS, GMB, T&G and Prospect who are in the yard. The workers rejected union officials recommendations to remain at work and held their own mass meeting, voting by 621 - 11 to down tools and walk out for the day.

Socialist Appeal and socialist.net has consistently explained the madness of allowing the boss class to take "pension holidays" and what it meant to workers. It is clear that Babcocks will not be alone among the big employers whose total contempt for their employees is undeniable. It is the economics of Robert Maxwell come Bob the Builder. Socialist Appeal sends a message of solidarity to every worker at the yard. The unions must press for Babcocks to pay their way in this matter. Not a worker should be a penny out of pocket. Every Labour MP and MSP, and especially those who are members of any of the trade unions at the dockyard should have already contacted the workers and pledged support - of course this is unlikely given the DNA of many of the present New Labour upstarts, under who's watch the disgrace unfolded. Gordon Brown must be taken to task by every Labour Party member and the trade union movement and explain his position.

There is no doubt that the big picture in this country is developing as Socialist Appeal and socialist.net predicted. In fact, our perspectives document: Where is Britain Going? written only last month pinpointed these developments in almost laboratory detail. When the radical rhetoric of the SNP is stripped away the situation is illustrated perfectly because the fact is that we live in a global economy. The parasitic (in economic terms) service industries are now larger than the manufacturing industries for the first time. We are now completely at the mercy of successful capitalism - but the success of OTHER countries, not our own! Myopic bosses and spivs continue to ship jobs to other lands where labour costs are less and it is at their feet that the problems must be laid. However, the equally short-sighted Labour Party have facillitated it. New Labour's policies have exhausted the patience of the working class and now their electoral base has begun to rebel.

Please make sure you read "Where is Britain Going" on this site. Better still, for the most comprehensive and accurate insight into politics here and internationally, take out a subscription to Socialist Appeal , the monthly Marxist journal of the labour movement, written in clear, straightforward language, free of the bile of the Heinz 57 varieties of left-wing sects who are all on the fringes of the movement.