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A class reassertion
The RMT is really striking a chord with the public – the Labour Party, not so much, says ANDREW MURRAY

HOWEVER it ultimately ends, the national railway strike led by the RMT has proved a social and political landmark. 

Its significance does not lie solely in stopping the trains running for three days. The privatised industry can do that unaided, and with great loss of life, as anyone who remembers the Hatfield disaster of 2000 can attest. 

No, its importance is as a reassertion of working-class authority and values, a reassertion both practical and symbolic. 

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