Shorn of socialism and no longer the army of the organised working class, Labour post-Blair no longer knows what it is for.
In the past it was always in response to another political threat to their power - whether it was internal, from the organised working class, or from abroad.
Once and for all the Labour party could abandon its links with the organised working class, and cut loose its own leftwing and its socialist origins.
Or in the 1980s, which saw the replacement of national capitalism with global capitalism, setting the stage for the marginalisation of national labour unions and the organised working class.
Drawing lessons from the race for the White House ahead of presidential elections in November, they write: "The Democrats, just like Labour, cannot rely only on the New Deal coalition of the organised working class.
"These same old Tories are elected on pathetic turnouts with minority support but they want one form of democracy for a corrupt political class and another for the organised working class," he said.
"While we believe that no single individual … can be solely responsible for all the … ills in our society and while we appreciate that Comrade Jacob Zuma has served our struggle well over the years‚ the organised working class cannot stand idly by … when it is clear that the revolution is taking a disastrous trajectory‚" the union said in a statement.
After the perceived failure of welfare state capitalism in one country, political elites, with some prodding from big business, responded to the stagflation crisis of the late 1970s with successive waves of deregulation, privatisation and liberalisation which disempowered the organised working class.
"These proposed new laws would mean one form of democracy for the greedy political class and another for the organised working class," said RMT general secretary Mick Cash.
The organised working class in the trade unions have the key role to play.
