Alex Smith, Liverpool Socialist Party
The last meeting of the Liverpool Trade Unions Council (LTUC) was attended by delegates representing several thousand trade union members in the city.
Invited to the meeting was local MP Ian Byrne, who has had the whip withdrawn by Starmer’s Labour for the crime of voting against Labour’s plan to keep the Tory two-child benefit cap. Delegates warmly congratulated and sincerely thanked Ian Byrne on being the only MP in the city to represent them on that issue, alongside his opposition to the cut to universal Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners.
Delegates then asked Ian to consider calling a meeting of the Unite-backed group of MPs in Parliament, and also inviting Jeremy Corbyn and other independent MPs who have also had the Labour whip withdrawn, as a first step towards a ‘workers’ bloc’ in Parliament. It was highlighted that around the table thousands of rank-and-file workers were represented by delegates. If Ian and other left MPs convened such a ‘workers’ bloc’ meeting it could be the first outlines of working-class political representation that the Labour Party no longer provides.
A Unite representative of Livv Housing workers, who are striking for better terms and conditions against an employer whose CEO is paid more money than the Prime Minister, addressed the meeting powerfully, and was given full support, including a financial contribution to the strike fund.
Among the LTUC delegates present were four Socialist Party members who, in relation to the strike, raised the demand for a mass council house building programme, with directly employed council staff to build and maintain those houses under democratic working-class control, rather than housing association bosses raking in money while telling workers to tighten their belts. In order to pay for this house building programme, the demand was raised for local councils to use their reserves and borrowing powers and then launch mass campaigns together with trade unions, community groups, and young people to demand that the Labour government reimburse councils for any funds used to defend the right of working-class people to live and work in dignity.
After a friendly exchange of ideas, Ian resolved to come to future trades council meetings, a decision which was warmly welcomed and appreciated by delegates present. All the issues discussed at the trades council meeting can be raised again as the need for the trade unions to have genuine, fighting political representation is repeatedly posed in the era of Starmer’s pro-big business Labour Party.
