Socialist Party members in GMB

GMB Congress takes place after the hammering of Labour in the local elections.

Labour is continuing Tory austerity and cuts, scapegoating migrants, and has abandoned the working class. Public services continue to be cut to the bone, unemployment is on the rise, our wages fail to keep up with the cost of living.

GMB members have been at the front line. Our members’ demands in local government have been rejected by the Local Government Authority, including a £15 minimum wage, instead offering just 3.3%, when members are facing another energy bills spike. GMB members have voted to reject, so too have members of other local government unions. Unison has announced a strike ballot to run over the summer, GMB should do the same, opening the possibility of coordinated action to really pile pressure on the employers.

In the NHS too, GMB members face a ramping up of attacks on their wages and conditions, and further privatisation.

In the May elections, a large minority of voters expressed their rage against the establishment by voting for Reform. It is a party that poses as standing for the ‘little people’ yet Farage gets a £5 million ‘gift’ from a billionaire, and there are now eight ex-Tory ministers in the leadership of Reform.

Farage is also cynically winning votes by using racism and anti-migrant rhetoric, building on what has already been whipped up by successive Tory, and now Labour, governments. The danger of growing racism and division in the working class is clearly increased by Reform’s gains.

A recent poll of 1,000 public sector union members last week found that support for Reform among trade union members has risen as support for Labour has collapsed. In GMB, more members were found to support Reform than Labour.

This is a reflection of the fact that Labour has abandoned the working class who are desperate for change, leaving a vacuum being filled by the charlatans of Reform who falsely pose as the new party of the working class.

Some union leaders, including in GMB, argue the only way to stop Reform is to continue to back Labour. But this is a grave mistake – Labour austerity is fuelling support for Reform.

By sticking with Labour, the trade union movement is at risk of undermining our credibility and weakening our support amongst workers desperate for a working-class political alternative.

Voting Reform was not the only way Labour was opposed on 7 May. Many voted to protest against both Labour and Reform by voting Green.

But the working class defeating Reform will not be achieved by simply switching from Labour to the Greens. The Green Party’s current structure would not give any trade unions that decided to affiliate to it a democratic say, nor can its elected councillors and MPs be held to account by trade unions via its structures.

Moreover, Greens have just won control of five new councils on the basis of opposing austerity. Some of the new councillors are determined to implement that stand, but unfortunately, the Greens as a whole are not committed to refusing to carry any more austerity, arguing that councils have ‘no choice’ but to implement cuts.

Despite Labour’s attacks on GMB members, the GMB donated £356,632 to Labour MPs in 2024. And what do our members get in return? Labour tramples over GMB policies – including by keeping some of the main Tory anti-trade union laws on the statute books, including the 50% threshold for industrial action ballots, approaching two years into term.

Several motions were submitted by GMB branches to Congress questioning, or even opposing, our union’s support for Labour. Urgently needed is a discussion across the trade union movement as a whole to put on the agenda how a working-class political alternative can be built.

Motions to Congress include motions 231 and 232, which both call for discussions across the GMB about our relationship with Labour, and the need for a political strategy that supports our members to take action on the basis of agreed GMB policies.

Both motions also instruct regional councils to call in members of the GMB’s Parliamentary group, as well as other potentially pro-trade union MPs, to discuss where they stand on GMB policy and their voting record in support of GMB policies – as a step towards forming a strong parliamentary voice for the GMB and the trade union movement as a whole. Motion 232 also calls for a cross-union conference to discuss building a political voice for the trade union movement. At the time of writing, both motions remain on the agenda, and we call for them to be supported.

Public meeting: after the May elections – how do we defeat reform?

  • Hosted by ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’
  • Come and discuss how GMB activists and members can be part of that fightback at the Melville Hotel, Blackpool on Sunday 7 June 5:45pm (after close of Congress)