In 2009 the National Shop Stewards Network took part in some key strikes in the car industry and the construction wildcats led by the Lindsey Oil Refinery workers. Last year's conference saw key militants from these and all the other major struggles take part, such as Rob Williams (Linamar) and Keith Gibson (Lindsey), both in the Socialist Party.

The SP was responsible for many of the steps forward in the car industry, which its activists can be rightly proud of, but there was a downside. The party's dominance on the NSSN steering committee and officers group meant that its political line tended to rule, for instance supporting those construction strikes which fought for British workers to be prioritised over migrant workers.

In the last year this weakness has come to the fore. While the NSSN has organise useful meetings around the Teeside Corus closure and fought the Unison witch-hunts, it has otherwise failed to rise to new challenges. The NSSN has not established any caucuses in any union.

In fact, the NSSN has taken steps backwards. CWU tops shelved the national strike in November after only a couple of days of action, leading to widespread anger among postal workers. The SP supported this unnecessary and undemocratic climbdown and so the NSSN missed the opportunity to organise opposition.

The London NSSN to set up a "permanent solidarity committee of London trade unions" - a great idea. However, it did not include CWU reps, local solidarity committees or orient to workplaces. Instead, the SP proposed it should be made up of three regional officials from the CWU, PCS and RMT, who would run the show above the heads of the rank and file!

Linda Taaffe of the SP/NSSN argued, "If we've got good officials on board, they could move things on with tremendous force." But of course, the London CWU area reps backed the deal - and the "tremendous force" moved the other way.

Broad Lefts
These steps backward are due to the fundamental weakness of the NSSN's orientation. The NSSN has revised its position to allow in elected full-time officials. This follows from the SP's "Broad Left" strategy of uniting union militants with left wing officials. Yet this strategy failed workers in the 1920s and 1970s, just as it failed the NSSN last year.

Left wing officials remain part of the bureaucracy, receiving high wages and remaining unaccountable. Even if they are genuine militants, the union bureaucracy remains an obstacle. Without a mass rank and file movement, how can these "lefts" mobilise members for effective action when the officials are against it?

Restricting membership of the NSSN to shop stewards limits its potential - only the Lindsey reps can join, not the activists who helped organise the mass and flying pickets. Opening the NSSN up to full-time officials creates the danger of it becoming vehicle for them.

Rank and File strategy
Against the Socialist Party's Broad Leftism, we need a strategy to transform our unions into democratic, fighting organisations. Any member of the union who agrees with its policy should be able to join. This is the only weapon that ultimately will allow the layer of militants to break down the bureaucracy in our unions, developing an alternative leadership capable of winning the mass of members to effective action if the official leaders sell out or fail to lead.

Key to this is a policy of independence from the bureaucracy: "with the officials wherever possible, without them wherever necessary". Officials who stand as rank and file candidates should agree to fight for its policy or be recallable by it, and to take a workers wage. They must always accept rank and file control over all disputes: when and for how long to strike, whether to break the anti-union laws, what to demand and agree to in negotiation. They must fight to dissolve the trade union bureaucracy.

To avoid this debate the steering committee has barred resolutions at conference for three years running: shamefully undemocratic for a "grassroots" organisation. The ultimate aim is to avoid a clash with union officialdom that gives the NSSN some limited backing (RMT, CWU, PCS).

As a guarantee to the bureaucracy, the NSSN founding statement promises that the NSSN will not "interfere in the internal affairs and elections of TUC affiliated trade unions". If this were followed would mean the Network could not campaign against a rotten deal or even witch-hunts of its own members!

Similarly the SP officers have sidelined motions voted through at the NSSN steering committee to set up solidarity or anti-cuts committees. Workers Power supports the NSSN, while arguing for a real debate on a strategy to build it beyond the current slow pace. Events are moving much faster now with the Con-Dem coalition in place. Time to step up our response.

Political cul-de-sac
Can the Socialist Party provide the leadership necessary in this new period of struggle? Not unless its members can force its leaders to change direction.

The SP has drawn closer and closer to the left bureaucrats, standing together on the Europhobic No2EU ticket in the Euro elections. This year's Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition was only a partial and limited step forward. In terms of democracy, it failed to call an open conference to decide on its manifesto and arbitrarily excluded some from its list on spurious grounds.

Politically, TUSC put forward some good demands, but it failed to use the election to campaign for the overthrow of capitalism, instead standing for a series of parliamentary reforms. Crucially, it failed to criticise the trade union leaders or to call on their rank and file members to force them to fight or to act in spite of them. Why? Because this would have opened up a split with Bob Crow and the RMT officials.

This is why the SP leaders are in capable of leading an independent revolutionary line for the working class in Britain. They believe rather in a wooden schema, which dictates that the workers must first form militant bureaucratic unions and a left reformist party, before they can be won to Marxism. This was a disaster in the 1970-80s. And it will be a disaster in the 2010s.

If you agree, contact Workers Power and discuss with us how we can defeat the Tories - and turn today's defensive battles into a struggle for socialism.