There has
been much discussion in the wake of the disastrous general election result
about the future direction of our party.
A full and frank conversation must take place, involving all parts of our party and country – that includes the millions of people in trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party.
The trade union link is the umbilical cord connecting a party of a few hundred thousand to a coalition of trade unions with a membership of over six million.
The whirling cesspool of some of the British right-wing media continues to smear trade unions, their leadership and their links with the Labour Party.
While millions of people in the UK face huge hardship, the gutter press keep the stories off the front pages, replacing them with crackpot tales of ‘Red Him’, ‘Red Her’ or ‘Red Anyone’.
Shamefully, there are many in our own party who see the aims of the unions as alien to their own and hurl around the lexicon of our enemies willy-nilly.
The phrases trade union ‘barons’, union ‘bullying’ or ‘sabotage’ should have no place in the vocabulary of Labour politicians.
Perhaps some of those from the nouveaux wing of the Party should read their history and understand that the unions created the Labour Party and not the other way around.
We can never forget our responsibility towards working people, the people that the Labour Party was created to represent.
It is trade unions that give a voice to those people, and it is our obligation to respectfully engage with them and their elected representatives.
Unions will participate in the leadership election under rules agreed just last year to broad approval. It would be ludicrous to suggest any further revisions at this stage could be warranted.
Our affiliated trade unions should be encouraged in their endeavours to engage and sign up their members as affiliated supporters of our party, and to treat this with suspicion is absurd.
We must also be clear that elected union leaders have a right and a duty to express their views on policy and on candidates on behalf of their unions.
Those who seek to silence such contributions to open debate within our party only create an impression of intolerance and a desire to limit discussion to a charmed parliamentary circle.
A full and frank conversation must take place, involving all parts of our party and country – that includes the millions of people in trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party.
The trade union link is the umbilical cord connecting a party of a few hundred thousand to a coalition of trade unions with a membership of over six million.
The whirling cesspool of some of the British right-wing media continues to smear trade unions, their leadership and their links with the Labour Party.
While millions of people in the UK face huge hardship, the gutter press keep the stories off the front pages, replacing them with crackpot tales of ‘Red Him’, ‘Red Her’ or ‘Red Anyone’.
Shamefully, there are many in our own party who see the aims of the unions as alien to their own and hurl around the lexicon of our enemies willy-nilly.
The phrases trade union ‘barons’, union ‘bullying’ or ‘sabotage’ should have no place in the vocabulary of Labour politicians.
Perhaps some of those from the nouveaux wing of the Party should read their history and understand that the unions created the Labour Party and not the other way around.
We can never forget our responsibility towards working people, the people that the Labour Party was created to represent.
It is trade unions that give a voice to those people, and it is our obligation to respectfully engage with them and their elected representatives.
Unions will participate in the leadership election under rules agreed just last year to broad approval. It would be ludicrous to suggest any further revisions at this stage could be warranted.
Our affiliated trade unions should be encouraged in their endeavours to engage and sign up their members as affiliated supporters of our party, and to treat this with suspicion is absurd.
We must also be clear that elected union leaders have a right and a duty to express their views on policy and on candidates on behalf of their unions.
Those who seek to silence such contributions to open debate within our party only create an impression of intolerance and a desire to limit discussion to a charmed parliamentary circle.
Ian Lavery MP
Jo Stevens MP
Roger Godsiff MP [a particularly notable name here]
Marie Rimmer MP
At least two diehard Eurosceptics. Presumably four, but the other two have only just been elected.
ReplyDeleteWell, of course. And the updated list is even more so.
DeleteThe EU has done things the most crazed trade union barons couldn't have dreamt of.
ReplyDeleteInstead of trades union barons, we now have the Equality Act, Human Rights Act, the Working Time Directive, Health and Safety Act, and "maternity rights".
It's practically illegal to be a Christian and work in the public sector, run an adoption agency (or even run a bakery) since Harriet Harman's Equality Act 2010.
Who needs trade unions any more? Instead, we have the EU.
Silly boy. Were does even begin?
DeleteOnly one of those things has anything to do with the EU, one of them was done by Michael Foot and another by Barbara Castle, both right about the EU when Thatcher was wrong. Honestly, David, where do you find these people?
Delete