Trades councils conference shows that workers won't wait for TUC
Kevin Parslow, Waltham Forest Trades Council delegate
Trades councils
- the local arms of the TUC
- held their conference in Cardiff on 14/15 June. This year, there
was a pleasant sting in its tail!
The very last
motion debated was on political representation for the working
class, proposed by Swansea Trades Council. It noted that the
"lack of a political voice representing the needs and interests
of trade union members is a serious concern for the entire trade
union movement".
It then called
on conference to encourage "trades councils to initiate
discussions on how best to secure the kind of political
representatives working class people need, considering all options."
Socialist Party
members Ronnie Job from Swansea and Katrine Williams from Cardiff TC
moved and seconded the motion, explaining how both locally and
nationally, Labour Party representatives were divorced from the real
needs of working class people.
There was
opposition, with some delegates urging conference to 'wait' and be
patient, support Unite's political strategy and other arguments
against the motion that have been heard many times before.
But the
conference decided, by 34 votes to 31, with 4 abstentions, to support
the motion. The announcement was received with spontaneous applause!
No doubt the
TUC leadership will not be best pleased with this resolution nor with
the motion passed earlier in the conference which agreed "to
restate in the 2014-15 programme of work that the TUC should
facilitate a programme of co-ordinated industrial action involving
unions
and local TUCs, up to and including strikes".
These decisions
show that the grassroots of the trade
union movement are not prepared to sit and wait for the TUC to
act but are urging action and a class-based political stance.
