Brown Avoids at the TUC the Central Question of Trade Union Freedom BIll
I didn't witness Gordon Brown's speech to the TUC but heard it on the radio on my way down to the Congress in Brighton. I read it in detail afterwards because I thought I must have missed bits of the speech as a result of radio editting. But no, I hadn't missed anything. By all accounts, to quote Tony Woodley, it was "the most uninspiring speech in years." Others went further in expressing their disappointment in the speech.
People weren't bothered about Brown's rhetorical style. Blair became a superb orator but it was the content of his speeches that was the problem. With Brown there was neither style nor content to inspire TUC delegates. Worse, what was increasingly obvious to even those trade union general secretaries who had manoeuvred their unions into backing Brown for the Labour leadership, was that Brown's speech was vacuous when it came to addressing the real world issues facing the 6 million members they are supposed to represent.
There was no mention of the Trade Union Freedom Bill supported unanimously by the TUC and which is coming before Parliament on 19 October. Tuc delegates know that on the changes in legislation thrown as sops to the TUC on agency workers Brown had been working behind the scenes to render unworkable and that his proposed reforms on anti discrimination were actually taking us backwards.
There was understandable anger and dismay not only at his refusal to offer any way out on public sector pay but also that whilst he was demanding pay discipline for public sector workers he failed to utter a word of condemnation of the obscene bonuses in the city and the grotesque inequality in pay between many private sector chief executives and the average pay of their workers.
Instead delegates received the same lecture from Gordon Brown on globalisation that we have heard in virtually every speech from him for the last five years at least. The speech left the impression of a Prime Minister certainly adrift from the trade union movement but also distant from the day to day experience of life in the real world by most ordinary people.
Some media commentators have referred to the prospect of another "winter of discontent" this year as occurred in 1978 with widespread public sector strikes and disputes. Whatever the outcome of the various public sector union pay campaigns Gordon Brown needs to be concerned about another type of winter of discontent. It is the type of ongoing underlying discontent amongst public and private sector workers who feel that they are working long hours under stressful conditions just financially to keep their head above the water. It is a low morale economy with people feeling totally disempowered, undervalued and at times downright exploited at work, witnessing their companies making on average 16% profit gains over the last year whilst average pay has increased only 3.5%, some are having pay cuts forced upon them and chief executive pay under New Labour has rocketted nearly 300%.
This climate of discontent relates directly to the feeling of powerlessness by employees at work because of the one issue Gordon Brown deliberately avoided in his speech, i.e. the lack of a basic code of trade union rights and rights at work in this country ten years after the election of a Labour government. Making sure Labour MPs turn up to Parliament on 19th October and vote for the Trade Union Freedom Bill is one way of forcing the Government to address the key question avoided by the Prime Minister yesterday.
People weren't bothered about Brown's rhetorical style. Blair became a superb orator but it was the content of his speeches that was the problem. With Brown there was neither style nor content to inspire TUC delegates. Worse, what was increasingly obvious to even those trade union general secretaries who had manoeuvred their unions into backing Brown for the Labour leadership, was that Brown's speech was vacuous when it came to addressing the real world issues facing the 6 million members they are supposed to represent.
There was no mention of the Trade Union Freedom Bill supported unanimously by the TUC and which is coming before Parliament on 19 October. Tuc delegates know that on the changes in legislation thrown as sops to the TUC on agency workers Brown had been working behind the scenes to render unworkable and that his proposed reforms on anti discrimination were actually taking us backwards.
There was understandable anger and dismay not only at his refusal to offer any way out on public sector pay but also that whilst he was demanding pay discipline for public sector workers he failed to utter a word of condemnation of the obscene bonuses in the city and the grotesque inequality in pay between many private sector chief executives and the average pay of their workers.
Instead delegates received the same lecture from Gordon Brown on globalisation that we have heard in virtually every speech from him for the last five years at least. The speech left the impression of a Prime Minister certainly adrift from the trade union movement but also distant from the day to day experience of life in the real world by most ordinary people.
Some media commentators have referred to the prospect of another "winter of discontent" this year as occurred in 1978 with widespread public sector strikes and disputes. Whatever the outcome of the various public sector union pay campaigns Gordon Brown needs to be concerned about another type of winter of discontent. It is the type of ongoing underlying discontent amongst public and private sector workers who feel that they are working long hours under stressful conditions just financially to keep their head above the water. It is a low morale economy with people feeling totally disempowered, undervalued and at times downright exploited at work, witnessing their companies making on average 16% profit gains over the last year whilst average pay has increased only 3.5%, some are having pay cuts forced upon them and chief executive pay under New Labour has rocketted nearly 300%.
This climate of discontent relates directly to the feeling of powerlessness by employees at work because of the one issue Gordon Brown deliberately avoided in his speech, i.e. the lack of a basic code of trade union rights and rights at work in this country ten years after the election of a Labour government. Making sure Labour MPs turn up to Parliament on 19th October and vote for the Trade Union Freedom Bill is one way of forcing the Government to address the key question avoided by the Prime Minister yesterday.
posted by John at 8:27 AM
10 Comments:
John, everything that you say is not just ideolically right, insomunch as yoo are centre-left and everything you therefore say is so, but everything from a moral view point is correct and just as well.
Why should the rich get richer and the poor poorer?
Why are the 'labour', supposidly 'socialist' politicians so scared to stick up for the working class?
Why now, and from 1997, when the Conservatives have been of the political map has this government stuck so ridgidly to Thatcherite doctrine?
We wouldn't just like peple like McDonnell and Bob Crowe to run our country, WE NEED THEM TO!
When Labour looses the next election and Brown resigns, we must all get behing the true socilaist candidate, JOHN MCDONNELL!
Good luck John and keep fighting the good fight!
Max
P.S, you should start organising now really for the next leadership election, just incase we do lose in March
I am very glad that you are still blogging John! Your recent blog entries on the TUC and Gordon Brown are some of your best in my opinion.
I agree totally with the previous entry that says you are not just ideologically correct, but morally correct.
I never trusted Gordon Brown and with each day in power as PM, I trust him even less. Particularly when he appoints opposition MPs to advise him!! He doesn't want democratic debate and argument. He wants agreement at any and all costs!!
With the TUC matter, he doesn't want to be challenged, he wants blind obedience.
"Fund our party! Vote for us!! Slog your guts out for us getting elected!!! But under no condition, do you have any right to tell us what to do."
That seems to be New Labour's motto anyway. This is precisely the point you so eloquently put in your leadership campaign. They had a right to have a say when they worked so hard on the party's behalf.
I say this not as a socialist or a Labour party member, but as someone who can see how good of a leader you are and how awful a leader Gordon Brown is!!
Keep Fighting the good fight, John!!
John, you must have guts of steel, especially after that ridiculous Leadership election fiasco and continued support from maybe eighteen Parliamentary colleagues. I am sick of being asked to rejoin the Party and help the fight. I have been fighting from within for fifty years at least and little has changed, except for the worst. I would dearly love to be back in as would thousands like me but my head is sore through banging it against a brick wall. Hope you enjoyed the TUC Conference, especially speeches from the Cabinet members. I have been listening to that sort of rhetoric (Lets work together) from Gaffers all my working life. Good luck John, I will be with you in spirit.
Chip, I find Nurofen works particularly well for coping with New Labour and believe me I understand where you're coming from. However, if we had "thousands like you" in the Party, things WOULD be different. Please re-consider.......
How on earth do you get us all back when there is no incentive, if thats the word.
If the Left rejoined en masse, the result would be that we could control parliamentary selection through controlling the majority of CLPs. We could ensure selected MPs were left wing, and as such guarantee a left-wing PLP, which in turn would result in a left-wing leadership. It won't happen overnight and it will take a long time, but that's how I see it.
I get how infuriating it is. I often think of rejoining the party I left. But, things will change so long as we can control CLPs. But that needs enough left-wingers to outnumber the New Labourites, and 'moderates'. And there ARE enough of us. We're just not all united in one Party. If we were, we could and would force change in the Party. By controlling it at the base, we would control it at the very top.
Chip, there ARE incentives. Loads of us were gutted when Brown became Leader without an election and more or less everything he's done since has confirmed our worst fears ( maybe even surpassed them).Just heard he's hired Satchi and saatchi, for example....but as Jonathan so rightly says the only way to fight is join together, canoaign , stand for election as councillors and MPs and gradually get left influence back in the Party.At the moment, yes, it's mostly disheartening. But I have always believed the Labour Party is the only road.The bottom line is we need more socialists to join , however difficult it is ( and it is)
It gets worse. Todays invitation to Maggie just like his predecessor did. I will say again, how are you going to get everybody back? Everybody and more is what you need. The leadership election was proof that the Parliamentary Labour Party is full of creeps and careerists. I suppose the same lot are praising Brown for re-recognising Thatcher.
Brown is well and truly living in cloud cuckoo land now. I think he is suffering from delusions that he is the American President, welcoming Margaret Thatcher as if she had done some good work internationally since she left office like Jimmy Carter recently did - but unfortunately she hasn't so why she is being so feted is beyond me! Also it seems she will do anything just to get back into Number Ten for a while!! Brown knows perfectly well how the party reacted when Blair courted Thatcher early on; he seems to be either severly incompetent or to have some kind of political death wish -losing the next election here we come!
We must all get our backs behind the trade union freedom bill and fight for some decent working rights as apart from the obvious humanitarian benefits we will find that having people more secure and happy at work will actually improve our economy not destroy it as Brown would have us believe.
If they go through with the effective pay cut for the public secot it will cost more than it saves as everyone starts leaving in disgust when these things happen and less good candidates are attracted to the vacancies so they just have to employ more people/re-employ people in different departments further down the line. It is a fact that inflation is not linked to public sector pay rises when you look into it but the right wing press is playing this card (I forced myself to read the Sun editorial which had been left on the train and found a dismal rant saying exactly this and the "heavier" right-wing papers have been the same from the bits I've seen though I'd rather not!) They are also trying to turn Bob Crow into their Arthur Scargill; he should sue them for libel it something!
In his outgoing speech as TUC President Brendan Barber mentioned John again as he did last year; this year with a joke about him not being able to appoint someone can't remember who as foreign secretary as we didn't have a leadership election. There was again a tinge of regret behind the jokes as if those in Brendan's mould would much prefer a John McDonnell - obviously as he would do the things the TUC is campaigning for immediately i fhe was PM, not ten years later and grudgingly as happens at the momem but BB and the others such as I fear the ingoing President Dave Presntis believe they have not choice in the matter anymore and the Labour PM has to be a right-winger. If they coudl be made to believe the left could sucees they would still prefer what the left is offering. It is a myth that there is no alternative to neo-liberalism and we mus tmake them have a "love Actually" moment and see it "Love Actually is where the PM u-turns on a war supposed to represent Iraq but you get my drift.
Labour members have till 12p.m. tomorrow to respond to the "democracy" consultation - see www.labour.org.uk/membersnet -f you want democracy you should argue agianst Brown's proposals!
Absolutely...except where on the MpURL do we comment. I've looked for ages and not found the place, and the same is true for many others. Seems very suspicious to say the least. I bet they've hid it good and proper to stop the overwhelmingly negative responses, from what i've seen, actually being taken into consideration.
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