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| Volume 54 Number 23, September 21, 2024 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
The 156th annual TUC Congress was held from September 8-11, 2024, in Brighton. It had the overall theme, "A New Deal for Working People".
While this theme is taken from the election promises of Starmer's Labour Party, the TUC Congress itself was marked more by the delegates addressing the problems besetting the economy and health, education and other social programmes, as well as the unanimous support for the Palestinian people resisting Israeli-Zionist genocide. The motions reflected the workers' movement grappling with the conditions of the anti-social offensive of successive governments, and speaking out on the challenges working people face.
The 2024 TUC Congress showed that there is a growing awareness that the workers' movement must set its own agenda and programme, and not be concerned with "rocking the boat" for the Labour Party. In particular, the Congress demonstrated that the mood of the workers' movement is to reject the austerity programme and "difficult decisions" that the Labour Party leadership is touting, and in that sense take forward its own resistance movement, encapsulated in the slogan Enough Is Enough!
Some quotes from trade union leaders
TUC Congress 2024
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, said that while she welcomed the election of a Labour government, more radical measures are needed to "fix our broken nation". She added that "the economic path that [Labour] are on is simply wrong". "There is money in our society," she said. "We do not need to pit pensioners against workers. We can and must make different choices."
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, called for Labour to announce significant real-terms increases in public spending to support public services. "We cannot balance the books by cutting off the heating from our pensioners," he said. "Britain's economy needs investment - our infrastructure and communities too. We've had a continuous austerity regime and now we need a labour recovery and the creation of a fair economy that works for our people. Labour has to find a better, fairer way to fix our economy, our NHS, our infrastructure and our communities. We cannot rely on the current fiscal strategy. We can't stick to the Tory economic rules, because that means the Tories still rule the economy."
Paul Fleming, general secretary of Equity, said: "It is irrational to think that the same economic choices of the last 14 years, the same economic structures of the last 14 years, will produce a different outcome from that which we have now." On the New Deal for Working People, he said: "We must not be told the bosses' narrative that this is what will cost and limit growth - in fact, it is what will deliver it."
Matt Wrack, who has served as general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) since 2005, and is at the end of his one-year term as TUC President, cited Margaret Thatcher's drive to promote profit and David Cameron's war against "excessive health and safety" as being responsible for events like Grenfell, describing it as the result of a "grotesque ideology" which "has created a building safety crisis affecting millions". The FBU general secretary also described himself as an internationalist and sent "solidarity to the Palestinian people".
What the situation demands
The situation is demanding that the workers' movement rejects the outlook that the solution to the economic problems of the country lie in various schemes, the essence of which is to pay the rich and deny investment in the most basic social programmes which are a necessity for working people. The situation is demanding that working people elaborate the alternative, with they themselves setting the agenda from the reality of the lives they face with their own actions, reference point and outlook. Defending the dignity of labour and its rights and claims opens a path to set a direction for the economy to turn things around in favour of working people. The workers' movement is quite capable of taking this direction, and it must do so. It is the working class which has on its banner the defence of their rights and the rights of all and averting the danger to humanity threatened and caused by the agenda of war, destruction, austerity and paying the rich. The voices of the working class must be heard, as they establish their own line of march to take hold of what belongs to them!
Unanimous support for the Palestinian people's resistance
Downing Street protest, September 11 2024
The TUC unanimously voted for a complete arms embargo on Israel, the recognition of a Palestinian state, a ceasefire and release of hostages and Palestinian political prisoners, and the government to align its foreign policy with that of international law. Louise Regan of the NEU received a standing ovation when she called for unions to "join together and fight for justice for the Palestinian people". She said, "Palestinians need more than words, they need our actions too."
Louise Regan also criticised the move of the new Labour government to suspend only a fraction of arms sales to Israel and said, "It is obscene to continue arms sales when two senior Israeli leaders stand accused of crimes against humanity." Representatives from the Fire Brigades Union, PCS, GMB, Aslef, BFAWU and UCU also spoke in favour of the motion.
In addition, an emergency resolution was carried unanimously condemning Israel's attacks on its neighbouring countries and calling for support for the country-wide workplace days of action for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The votes indicate that it is not incorrect to say that the workers' movement stands with Palestine and against complicity by the British government in giving the green light to Israeli-Zionism.
As Counterfire wrote: "The problem for Starmer, which clearly goes beyond issues of foreign policy, was illustrated by the contrast between the lukewarm reception he received compared to the enthusiastic standing ovation which greeted the speech from Palestine ambassador Husam Zomlot at the end of the conference."