Tony Woodley's speech to the United Left launch meeting

Comrades

This is a historic meeting today.

I know historic has become an over-used word in our union.

But that’s the way it is when creating something as vital for the future as Unite, this great instrument for social advance that we have come together to build

Today is the first attempt to bring together the left on a Unite basis

Reaching out past T&G and Amicus

The Left you are starting to create today

A left that I am personally proud to be associated with

A left which must go outward from this meeting

Has a vital, indispensable role to play in realising the hopes so many people have placed in Unite

Let me remind you of something I said when moving the resolution for the merger at the special BDC of the T&G

I pledged that “Our new union has to be a PROGRESSIVE union”

It has to stand in the best traditions of our political past

Socialist

Internationalist

Democratic

Campaigning for social justice, equality and peace

These are words that trip easy off the tongue

But making sure we live up to them is not so easy

Particularly in the circumstances we are facing today

But making those words a part of the daily life and the fabric of Unite is the job

Yes, of the general secretary

Yes, of the Executive Council

But above all it is the job of those of you here and those you represent in the regions and the industrial sectors

Creating a broad left which must reach into every corner of our multi-industry, multi-sector union which is just about as broad as the working population of Britain and Ireland itself

That is the best – ultimately the only – guarantee that Unite will stay progressive

***

But make no mistake, powerful forces in the world would like to see this union either fail, or be handed over to the right-wing

The antics of Rupert Murdoch’s Times are the proof of that

They feel that such a takeover is a possibility

For us it must be a warning

And it should motivate everyone here to build a broad left which cannot be overcome or dislodged

Because its roots run deep in our organisation

And deep in the aspirations of the membership

So what we are about creating here is an open, democratic, strong Broad Left rooted in the membership in the workplaces

And rooted in the 350 plus lay committees we are going to be setting up over the next few months, the democratic core of our union

Today’s meeting is of course just the vital first step

We know that there are good comrades on the left not represented here

Not yet in the room with us

That is not a result of any political disagreement

Or any split on principle

It is a consequence of the difficulties we have had in bringing Unite together, with its multitude of different industrial and democratic cultures, over the last eighteen months

I believe that the great bulk of those problems are behind us

So I hope that the Broad Left will take the opportunity to reach out to other left comrades

Who share our values and our vision in all essentials

And build a still stronger fighting, political, left organisation in Unite

***

You hardly need to tell me how important that is right now

If we have left most of the problems of the merger behind us

We – Unite and indeed the movement as a whole – face still more serious problems all around us and stretching ahead of us

Real world problems

With what looks like the biggest capitalist crisis any of us have ever seen

You all know what is going on, because you live and work in the midst of it

Job losses by the bucketful day in day out

Closures and cutbacks

Pressure on wages and conditions

And the perspective that none of this is going away anytime soon

This is, as the old saying goes, both a problem and an opportunity for this Broad Left, as it is for all socialists and progressives

The problems are obvious

Our union is going to face enormous financial pressures in the next year and beyond

Even running fast to stand still in terms of membership will be unattainable, this year at least

We are going to have to fight to maintain and develop our forward-looking organising agenda –

Bringing forward the next generation of activists, those thousands of shop stewards, fighting back, progressive comrades, the lifeblood of our union.  Organising is the down payment on our future and we cannot and must not let it wither

It remains the only way/the best way we can secure the future of trade unionism for reasons you have heard me spell out many times

More importantly still, we have to give strong leadership at a time of difficulty for millions of working people, including most of our members

We are going to have to prove the industrial and political worth of fighting back trade unionism in the depths of recession

Our greatest enemies are despair and fatalism

The sense that nothing can be done – we can’t accept that

While the lives of working people are in the grip of blind forces over which we can have no control

To challenge this we need a clear political strategy

Lively campaigning

And a willingness – always – to back up our members when they fight to save their jobs or for justice in the workplace

***

But what about the opportunities?

For a Broad Left

For all us who call ourselves socialists this SHOULD be our time

And we need to make it so

Capitalism is displaying its ugliest face for more than a generation

We hear a lot – rightly – about the need for an apology from the bankers, the spivs and speculators, who have brought the world to the point of ruin by their greed

But there is another apology we need

From all of those in our movement – yes, including the Prime Minister, not to mention his unlamented predecessor – who sold us this dud bill of goods:

Let the market decide

Light touch regulation

Seriously relaxed about getting filthy rich

And all the rest of the neo-liberal claptrap

Some of them have still not got the message even now

Prattling about the benefits of globalisation when everyone can see that the benefits of international economic integration have overwhelmingly gone to the top of the political agenda

Ministers are still casting around for a way to refloat the failed Thatcher-Blair model of society including the attack on the poorest and neediest in society with their despicable work-for-your-benefits scheme

It’s time to stop flogging the dead horse

And time for our movement to tell the government

Get a grip without any more dithering

Stop shovelling money at the bankers

Who are not doing anything useful with it beyond paying themselves bonuses as if nothing had happened

If the existing banks won’t do the job, then let’s back the idea of a Peoples Bank based on the Post Office that will

And Labour must start acting to save real jobs for real people, with a strategic plan for manufacturing

And nationalisation if necessary

Government should launch a real public works programme for construction, transport and other key infrastructure industries

Do the things that will stop a disaster made in the City turn into a catastrophe for millions of people

Never mind criticising solidarity action they should repeal those Thatcher laws

That is what Unite needs to be fighting for

And give direct subsidy for people on short-time working/Fighting to keep people in jobs

And if we don’t get those changes made then the only certainty is

That Labour will lose the next election and our people, in the midst of a vast crisis, will be left to the tender mercies of Toryism

***

What should the agenda of the Broad Left be

It’s for you, the lay members, to decide…

Incidentally, I’ll be a lay member soon

(but won’t be able to hold office…. Since at long last I will no longer be an accountable representative of workers)

And of course your statement of aims makes your general position clear and I warmly welcome it

But if I may make a general suggestion

It is that any left organisation needs to be mainly focussed on

Politics and policy

Not the internal agenda, fascinating as it undoubtedly is

Peace – in Iraq, Afghanistan

Justice for the Palestinian people

Solidarity with Cuba and freedom of the Miami Five

Backing for trade unionists in Colombia

Public ownership – an idea whose time has surely come again

Tackling racism– how do we stop the BNP exploiting the crisis

These are the issues the left needs to be talking about

And Socialism

If we can’t campaign for it now, we never can

How do we get our members and the working class as a whole

To see that there IS an alternative

As your founding statement calls for

A different way of running the economy in the interests of ordinary people

Of putting social aims above profit

Of subordinating the market to public, democratic priorities

Comrades,

Socialism is not about the next union election or the next committee post

It is not even about winning better wages and conditions for our members

Or about repealing the anti-union laws

Important as all of those things obviously are

It is about power in our society and the world

About challenging the divine right to rule assumed by the bankers and bosses

Unite our union has the capacity to start to alter the balance of power in our society

If we use that capacity with determination and vision

So I am not here to ask for your support for the leadership of the union

Or to endorse any plan for running Unite

Today, I only want to pledge my own support for your efforts

And my commitment to working in unity with the Broad Left

In the spirit of Tom Mann

A founder of the dockers’ union and the Workers Union as well as a General Secretary of the AEU

Perhaps the first Unite member of all

Who said more than one hundred years ago

“the trade unions are the instrument by which the working class must achieve its ends.  So we must all work within them to ensure that they develop along the right lines.”

That is our still our challenge today

Let’s ensure that Unite develops along the right lines

So that in turn we can make sure

That this is the LAST capitalist crisis our members and their families have to endure

Thank you – Have a good conference