{"id":16728,"date":"2022-06-09T22:45:36","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T18:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/?p=16728"},"modified":"2022-06-11T07:18:15","modified_gmt":"2022-06-11T03:18:15","slug":"revealed-the-rmt-union-president-who-is-threatening-to-bring-britains-railways-to-a-standstill-this-summer-is-a-putin-apologist-and-senior-member-of-the-communist-party-backing-pro-russian-separati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/revealed-the-rmt-union-president-who-is-threatening-to-bring-britains-railways-to-a-standstill-this-summer-is-a-putin-apologist-and-senior-member-of-the-communist-party-backing-pro-russian-separati\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealed: The RMT Union president who is threatening to bring Britain’s railways to a standstill this summer is a Putin apologist and senior member of the Communist Party backing pro-Russian separatists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0MARK HOOKHAM FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A union baron plotting a summer of rail chaos is a senior member of the Communist Party who has backed pro-Russian separatists in the Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Gordon, president of the RMT union, is a longstanding Marxist who has previously echoed the Kremlin\u2019s propaganda by branding Ukraine \u2018a failed state held to ransom by neo-Nazis\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Moscow\u2019s invasion of Crimea, the militant former train driver protested outside\u00a0Ukraine<\/a>\u2019s embassy in\u00a0London<\/a>\u00a0in 2015 while wearing the black and orange Ribbon of St George, a symbol of Russian military valour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes as the RMT threatens to bring Britain to a standstill with the biggest rail strike in modern history. More than 40,000 staff are being balloted on industrial action in a row over pay and jobs. If members back the move, millions of passengers will endure rail misery as early as next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already Britain\u2019s most militant union, the RMT has veered even further Left over the past year, rail industry sources say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We could never understand why the RMT is calling strike ballots when the railway is on life support and before there have even been any proper talks,\u2019 one senior source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Communists and Putin sympathisers have taken over key jobs in the union leadership. They are trying to drag ordinary rail workers into a confrontation which would deeply damage everyone working on the railway.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Gordon presides over the RMT\u2019s ruling national executive committee. But he is also a major figure in the Communist Party of Britain, sitting on both its executive and political committees. The 55-year-old is also chairman of the Marx Memorial Library in North London, where Communist dictator Vladimir Lenin worked during his exile from Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"It
It comes as the RMT threatens to bring Britain to a standstill with the biggest rail strike in modern history. More than 40,000 staff are being balloted on industrial action in a row over pay and jobs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eight years ago, Mr Gordon \u2013 who jointly owns a \u00a3500,000 flat in London \u2013 helped launch Solidarity with the Antifascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU), a campaign group that spouts the Kremlin line that Ukraine is controlled by a \u2018far-Right regime\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2015, he was among 60 demonstrators who protested outside Ukraine\u2019s embassy in London over the deaths of pro-Russian protesters during clashes in Odesa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the day that Vladimir Putin\u2019s forces invaded Ukraine in February, Mr Gordon branded Defence Secretary Ben Wallace a \u2018delusional blowhard\u2019 for suggesting the UK could \u2018kick the backside\u2019 of Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, it emerged that Eddie Dempsey, the RMT\u2019s assistant general secretary, had visited the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in 2015 where he posed for a picture with a pro-Russian separatist commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An RMT spokesman last night said that the union \u2018does not support either Vladimir Putin or his actions in Ukraine\u2019, adding: \u2018As RMT president, Alex Gordon agrees with the union\u2019s position.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RMT\u2019s ballot closes on May 24, with members expected to overwhelmingly back strike action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union wants Network Rail to reverse plans to cut 2,500 jobs as part of a \u00a32 billion reduction in spending. It also wants train operating companies to give pay rises in line with inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But The Mail on Sunday has learnt the RMT is gripped by a bitter internal dispute that has led to a small group of former members protesting outside its London office for 75 days since January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The row, which centres on the dismissal of former RMT education organiser Petrit Mihaj, has led to calls for union bosses not to cross a \u2018picket line\u2019 outside the RMT\u2019s headquarters. The union says it is not an official picket and has accused Mr Mihaj of \u2018protest stunts\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0MARK HOOKHAM FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY A union baron plotting a summer of rail chaos is a senior member of the Communist Party who has backed pro-Russian separatists in the Ukraine. Alex Gordon, president of the RMT union, is a longstanding Marxist who has previously echoed the Kremlin\u2019s propaganda by branding Ukraine \u2018a failed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16730,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16728\/revisions\/16730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}