300 registered to attend the Trade Unionists for a New Party (TU4NP) meeting, which took place online on 8 June. The discussion, chaired by former Labour MP and chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) Dave Nellist, heard contributions from trade union executive members and activists from ten trade unions. It included Birmingham bin strike convenor Matt Reid, executive members from Unite, Unison, NEU and UCU, as well as PCS Deputy President Dave Semple.
A year ago, the first meeting of TU4NP brought together around 1,000 activists and was followed shortly after by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana announcing their intention to form ‘Your Party’ – to which 800,000 responded.
In the year since, TU4NP has convened groups of activists in the unions to plan how best to campaign within the structures of their individual unions, for steps towards a new party of the working class, led by the trade unions.
Update from the union conferences
As preparation for the meeting, TUSC published a report on its website. The report documents the debates at the union conferences that have taken place to the end of May, with extracts from the various motions and statements that were tabled. In addition there is an update on the situation in Unite, which while it does not have a conference this year, has seen a significant shift in the composition of its executive council following elections that were concluded on 27 April.
There is a report too from the Trades Councils conference which took place 30-31 May. There are also important conferences coming up in June which will be covered in future updates – in the GMB, the BFAWU bakers’ union, Unison, the RMT and, in October, NAPO.
