The so-called TUSC umbrella group are fielding candidates in this year’s general election. But ahead of that, a major trade union conference this weekend will look at the Labour Party manifesto, and ask what workers will need to do post-4 July in an effort to bring Keir Starmer’s party into line. Interestingly, speakers from trade unions, Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project, and the Green Party will be there – but Labour has declined to send anyone.
TUSC: gearing up to fight Labour
One of the few time-specified promises in Starmer’s 136-page manifesto unveiled on 13 June appears to be the commitment to “introducing legislation within 100 days” drawing from what it calls ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People’.
But a reading of that document, published on 24 May, shows it full of talk of ‘reviews’, “comprehensive consultations” with businesses, and references to many areas “of the New Deal [that] will take longer to implement” than others. Never mind the substance of what’s actually in it.
The whole thing more than justifies the comment of the Unite general secretary Sharon Graham that it “has more holes in it than Swiss cheese”. And that workers will have to fight every inch of the way for any gains they get.
That fight must include establishing their own mass political vehicle, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) chairperson Dave Nellist will be arguing alongside an official speaker from Unite, from the platform at the conference of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) on Saturday 22 June.
NSSN’s yearly conference
When the Labour government does present its Employment Rights Bill, its Procurement Bill, and the other non-primary legislative instruments and reviews in the New Deal plan, Dave will say it will be vital that union pressure to ‘fill the holes’ has its own independent political arm.
The NSSN conference will, as usual, be giving a platform to leaders and rank and file reps from unions involved in industrial disputes to build support and solidarity for their action.
So far, the confirmed speakers are:
- Ian Hodson, BFAWU National President.
- Annoesjka Valent, NAPO National Official.
- Jared Wood, RMT London Transport Regional Organiser.
- Dave Semple, PCS National Vice-President (personal capacity).
- An official speaker from Unite.
- Jason Wyatt, Unite Tata Steel shop steward.
Labour: prepare to fight
But this year, with the conference being held just days before the general election, the event has also been opened up to debate what needs to be done politically – on polling day but even more importantly in the battles that will follow.
Speakers have also been confirmed from Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project, the Green Party, and TUSC, with George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain also invited.
But, significantly, no Labour spokesperson has agreed to attend – a foreshadowing of how the battlelines will shape up after the coming Tory rout on 4 July.
Featured image via TUSC/the Canary
