Rob Williams, Socialist Party workplace and trade union organiser
“Starmer, Starmer, it’s a fact – You’re a Tory tribute act!” This was the chant that met attendees at the annual Trades Union Congress (TUC), as union reps and activists, including a whole number of delegates, spilled out from the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) rally on Sunday 7 September and marched towards the conference centre.
Another chant – “No ifs, no buts, TUC fight Starmer’s cuts” – spelled out the demand that the TUC should pass the motions from the TUC Disabled Workers and Trades Councils conferences. Those motions called for the TUC to “organise a weekend demonstration against Labour austerity as a launchpad for sustained trade union action in defence of workers and young people.”
They were eventually reached in the last session of Congress, and were the most concrete expression of the strategy of struggle needed by the unions to face down Starmer and Reeves’s cuts agenda, and at the same time give workers a lead when the populist and far-right appear to be on the move.
Need to campaign for demo
Congress voted for the motions unanimously, but the top table issued a verbal statement that the TUC General Council would be “consulted” on the “most appropriate action” to call. Union reps and activists, especially those who attended the Disabled Workers and Trades Councils conferences, along with working-class people facing the brunt of Starmer’s attacks, will be expecting the TUC to call a national Saturday demonstration.
The demand was made from Sunday’s NSSN rally: The TUC should pass the motions, but then name the date – proposing Saturday 22 November, just before the Budget on 26 November. The bosses are lobbying Starmer’s Labour government in their interests, and the trade union movement must mobilise to put our demands forward: No to austerity, make the rich pay!
To name the date must now be fought for in every union national executive, union branch and trades council.
Division starting: fight or cover
The debates at Congress show why it will be necessary to launch a campaign to get the TUC and the unions call a demo.
This was the second Congress under the Starmer Labour government. The majority of union leaders have been happy to hitch up to Starmer’s wagon, but the reality of his first year in office has led to the beginning of a polarisation between those unions who have been in battle with Starmer and those covering up for him – still a majority at the TUC.
A whole number of union leaders barely mentioned the fact that we are currently under a Labour government! But given the anger of union members, even those union leaders were not confident to argue against the motions calling for a national demo. But there is a real danger that they, along with the TUC leadership, will look to kick it into the long grass.
Unions such as Unite, the Fire Brigades Union and the RMT transport union called out Starmer, Labour mayors and councils for their cuts and their failure to take on the rich. Unite Executive Council member Kathy Smith said: “Labour’s message to us is that workers will always pay the price, but the really wealthy are left untouched… It is a crisis when the profit margins of the corporations rocket by 30% when the rest of us are living with the effects of the cost-of-living crisis.”
In the debate about Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, some delegates praised the steps forward by Starmer rather than condemning the refusal to deliver for workers. Not one speaker raised his failure to deliver on his promise to scrap the undemocratic 50% strike ballot threshold, 14 months after his election win. The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) motion demanding the return of their right to strike, refused by Starmer, was passed unanimously. But POA members will now want real solidarity from the rest of the unions on this.
The debates over the funding crisis in councils best expressed the contrasting approaches of the main unions. Incredibly, the motions from Unison and Unite on the same subject were separated from each other by a day – presumably the TUC leaders didn’t want Unite general secretary Sharon Graham moving Unite’s motion just before the first Labour guest speaker (Solicitor General Ellie Reeves, sister of chancellor Rachel Reeves) addressed Congress. Later in the week, a Unison delegate paid tribute to “Our Ange” – Angela Rayner, forced to resign as deputy prime minister just before Congress over her property tax issues.
Unite’s role
In contrast, in her speech Sharon Graham hammered Labour for their attacks, especially on the Birmingham bin workers. “A Labour council, backed by our Labour government, using Thatcher’s anti-trade union laws to try and break picket lines. Spending millions on scab labour and injuncting those same picket lines.”
She also warned: “In July of this year, the government amended their own legislation laid down in the Employment Rights Bill so that councils in debt under S114 notices will be able to legally fire and rehire their workers – our members. That same government amendment will also allow any public sector worker to be fired and rehired if the public sector organisation can show financial difficulty…
“Some in Labour have asked why am I attacking a Labour council? I say to them, because they are attacking workers… And any fines we get, from supposed broken injunctions on picket lines – every single penny of it will come out of our Labour affiliation.” With reports of a recent massive fine for ‘contempt of court’, this is another crucial moment for Unite and its link with Labour.
The draconian strike-breaking measures of Birmingham Labour council, backed by Starmer, have pushed Unite into the clash with Labour. Its policy conference in July passed a motion, initiated by Socialist Party members and close allies, that has opened up a discussion in the union, one of the biggest affiliates, about its relationship with Labour.
With Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana launching ‘Your Party’, it is essential that Unite – and all unions – are at the fore of the fight to build a new workers’ party to give a beacon of hope to working-class people.
Trades unions should act now for workers’ party
In a press interview with the Guardian on the eve of Congress, Sharon Graham said: “They have one year to get this right because Nigel Farage is on their tail.”
But the union leaders need to act now. In 2017, Jeremy Corbyn gave a glimpse of what is possible, when as Labour leader his anti-austerity general election manifesto won up to a million voters from UKIP. Imagine what could be achieved by a new mass workers’ party, with the authority of the unions, on a fighting socialist programme on polices such as nationalisation, free education, a revitalised NHS and no-cuts needs-based council budgets.
A BFAWU bakers’ union motion included a demand that the TUC “work with the Socialist Campaign Group, Independent Alliance and suspended Labour MPs” – a welcome step in opening up the debate on a political alternative for workers. But this demand was squeezed out in the compositing process (in which motions on similar issues are merged into one), avoiding an awkward decision for some unions. But this kind of bureaucratic manoeuvring by union leaders won’t be able to prevent this essential debate taking place in the workers’ movement.
This second TUC under Starmer is in a period of increased workers’ struggle, as disputes such as the Birmingham bin strike and the RMT rolling strike action on London Underground show. Just a few days before the TUC, workers at tech giant TikTok launched a struggle against redundancies and for union rights, put under the spotlight by the motion moved by Socialist Party member Deji Olayinka on behalf of the Communication Workers Union and its 5,500-strong United Tech and Allied Workers (UTAW) branch. A new generation of fighters is coming into class conflict.
It is essential that socialist militants put forward the industrial and political programme and approach needed to strengthen the fighting elements in the unions and pose the way forward in this stormy period.
Urgent model motion from the National Shop Stewards Network
This union NEC/branch/union branch committee/trades council welcomes the unanimous vote at this year’s TUC Congress for the motions from the TUC Disabled Workers Conference and Trades Councils Conference.
We fully support the demand in the motions: “For the TUC to organise a weekend demonstration against Labour austerity, as a launchpad for sustained trade union action in defence of workers and young people”.
We welcome that this is now official TUC policy and call on our union NEC to demand that the TUC name the date for such a demonstration. We believe that Saturday 22 November – just before the Budget on 26 November – would be an ideal day for this demonstration, to demand no to austerity, make the rich pay!
