Postal workers at Mount Pleasant Mail Centre, Royal Mail’s central sorting and distribution in London, have been speaking to the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) about the US attack on Venezuela, threats against Iran and the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis last week.
A WSWS reporting team distributed the statement “Oppose Trump’s criminal invasion of Venezuela! Release Maduro!” on Wednesday afternoon. Many workers stopped to express their shock and anger, reflecting discussions taking place among co-workers in stark contrast to the Starmer government’s continued support for the US President.
Workers condemned Trump’s actions in Latin America and within the United States, describing him as a “despot” and his administration as being led by “Nazis” with the same ambitions as “Hitler in the 1930’s.”
A long-serving postie denounced the invasion of Venezuela and drew a connection with the death of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of ICE agents. Having viewed the video footage on social media he concluded:
“Trump is like a new Hitler. The killing of Renee Good was the kind of action you would associate with the SS [Hitler’s shock troops]. He wants the oil [in Venezuela] and is threatening everyone. Trump must be stopped; the question is how you stop him. There is escalation towards war everywhere. The media is controlled by the same people as Trump. What kind of world are our children going to inherit?”
He thanked the team for the leaflet and said he would read it with interest.
Due to an almost total media blackout in the UK, workers at the Mail Centre had no knowledge of the widespread anti-ICE protests in the US. The team explained the scale of social opposition in America, referencing coverage on the WSWS: the No Kings protests, popular actions against ICE Gestapo raids, and strikes such as nurses in New York staging the biggest walkout in their history.
The team also informed postal workers of the launch of Socialism AI and how it can help dynamically answer questions—like those posed by workers about the lessons of the 1930s, and how war and fascism can be stopped—from a socialist, historically grounded standpoint.
One postal worker said they wanted to send a direct message of solidarity to their brothers and sisters in the US:
“Stand up, fight and defeat Trump, he is a dictator; we do not want dictators, we need to stop them. We have not forgotten Gaza either. Here in the UK, Starmer’s [Labour Party] government is attacking our rights as well, making us suffer a cost-of-living crisis. We have nothing.”
Some comments were briefer—“I hate Trump; he’s a despot”—while another worker said they appreciated the opportunity to discuss these world-shaking events and address “what is in the back of everyone’s mind.”
A worker warned, “Trump’s actions in Venezuela have set a real precedent. If Trump has done it why can’t everyone else do it. I do not support [Venezuela president Nicolás] Maduro but I believe Trump’s actions have brought us closer to world war than ever. I’m not sure how to stop it but I’ll read what you have to say and thanks again.”
One person drew a connection between Trump and Starmer’s warmongering and ongoing attacks on postal workers:
“Another criminal action by Trump. And now he’s talking about Greenland and Iran. When is he going to stop? Trump is terrible, a real gangster. Kier Starmer is just playing along.
“This Labour government is the most right-wing government we have ever had. I’ll never vote for them again. We should tax the rich, especially that Elon Musk guy, not regular people.”
Speaking on the worsening conditions at the Mail Centre they said, “Labour is privatising the service and the union is in cahoots with management. Postal workers’ wages are going down by £80 a week because they removed overtime pay and driver’s allowance, while management are getting bonuses. The mail is backed up by at least three days all the time.”
These conditions are the result of the Communication Workers Union (CWU)’s collusion with the £3.6 billion take-over of Royal Mail completed last May, bringing the privatised service under the sole ownership of billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. The union bureaucracy has policed opposition from below and worked with management to dismantle the mail service and convert it into a low-wage, parcel-driven operation on behalf of the billionaire-owned EP Group.
The development of mass working-class opposition to the rule of the oligarchy is bound up with the fight against wars waged for control of sources of wealth and key resources. Starmer’s authoritarian government is seeking to maintain Britain’s role as junior partner to US plundering operations around the globe.
The fight to defend jobs, oppose exploitation and social inequality must be combined with opposition to imperialist gangsterism. Workers confront global transnational corporations backed to the hilt by the powers of the state; they require an international strategy to fight back.
As the WSWS statement distributed at Mount Pleasant explains:
The fight against war is a fight against the capitalist system that breeds it. This struggle must be led by the working class, rallying all progressive sections of the people in a struggle to establish genuine democracy and equality.
The alternative to the dictatorship of the oligarchs is socialism: the building of an independent political movement to put an end to capitalism and reorganize society on the basis of social need, not private profit.
The response at Mount Pleasant Mail Centre shows that postal workers are searching for a way forward based on international solidarity and political clarity.
The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (PWRFC), as part of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), advocates a strategy to break the grip of the trade union bureaucracy which acts as a brake on any resistance—as a corporate policeman and adjunct of the government.
We urge all Royal Mail workers to make contact to discuss how to build the resistance and develop this strategy.