Lab12: Last post from Peoples Party Conference

Once again I ran out of time during the 2012 Labour Party Conference to write posts on the last two days. So here is a quick summary of some of the highlights during the last few days of Conference.

Clockwise. Due to disorganisation and meanness I stayed in a hotel in Rushholme which had the worse reviews on Booking.com that I have ever seen. It wasn't that bad but one of the things that kept me fairly sane during Conference was a morning run around the fantastic City green lung Platt Fields Park (the Peoples Park).

Picture of Peoples Republic Newham Crew (and guests) in Midland Hotel bar stairs. Below Gerry Sutcliffe MP, speaking at the EU fringe for Azerbaijan (UK is the biggest investor) ; Ed Balls MP speaking to UNISON reception at the "Peoples History Museum". Ed admitted that he would have lost his seat at the last General election if not for the help of UNISON - "no doubt" and he pledged to never ignore anything that UNISON said but we would not always agree.

Then a very good and sharp fringe on ending poverty by Webb Memorial Trust (lost notes), another on pension auto enrollment with Labour Shadow minster Gregg McClymont sponsored by the Peoples Pension (lost notes); then picture of UNISON reception with Andy Burham MP and Rachel Reeves MP and final centre picture of the great leader with UNISON delegates Mike and Mandy. What a great natural relaxed smile Ed? We never knew!

Roll on Brighton 2013.

TUC 2012: the long march towards the workers idyll?

A week ago the 2012 Trade Union Congress opened in Brighton. I was there as a UNISON delegate although I missed the final day (Wednesday). Here are some random and personal thoughts on this year's Congress.

I suppose the yardstick for deciding if it was successful or not is whether the movement is in better shape after Congress now than before?

Did "ding dong Thatcher gone", heckling Ed Balls and calls for a national strike wreck our image and credibility? or did the election of Frances O'Grady, the consensual chairing of El Presidente Kenny and the lack of blood on the carpet mean that a workers idyll is just around the corner?

Neither is true. While I have my doubts that it is indeed possible or desirable to call a national strike, the threat of it drew more media attention to Congress than even Liz Cameron's savaging of Ed Balls.

The media are even more obsessed with strikesthan the most enthusiastic of ultra left newspaper sellers. The ding dong row was of course a complete and utter ring wing media invention that had nothing to do with the TUC itself.

I do think that Frances O'Grady as General Secretary is a huge advance for the movement. Apart from her many personal qualities and with all due respect to all the good work carried out by Brendan Barber and his predecessors, we finally have a GS that looks and speaks like one of our members and not just one of our activists.

It also seemed to me that the speeches and fringes at Congress this year were more hard headed and realistic than in previous years. There was less grandstanding and pontificating. We still talked to the converted too much and there was some completely off the wall wishful thinking but the starkness and enormity of the threat that faces us concentrated many minds.

 

We are against the wall. We have less than 6 million members out of a total workforce of over 30 million. While austerity, redundancies, pay freezes and attacks on employment legislations mean we either get our act together and organise effectively or we turn into just another protest movement. This makes me think that Congress was a "success" in these terms although it is only the start of a long, long road. During which we need to consider what works and what doesn't?

 

Is the traditional Anglo-American trade union "model" (aka the bosses are all bastards)"fit for purpose"? Do we continue to not want to dirty our hands by providing welfare or financial services pensions to the general public like they do in countries with much greater union density (and income equality)?  

Hat-tip caption Hope Not Hate

TUC 2012: Ed Balls speaks to Congress

Shadow Labour Chancellor Ed Balls addressed Congress followed by a Q&A.

He was introduced as the man according to David Cameron who is "the most annoying person in British Politics".

Ed started off well by taking the mick out of himself over that title. He then talked about how there is an economic alternative to the Coalition policies, there always has been.

He spelt out the Labour Party 5 point plan. While is all good stuff, I don't think you can really call it an alternative policy to getting us out of recession. He admitted that he understood that the unions cannot just wait for the return of a Labour Government but warned that the Tories are desperate for the unions to go on strike because they will then have someone to blame for the stalled recovery.

"Unlike Nick Clegg we will not make spending promises that we don't know we can deliver. We need credibility with the public". He argued that protecting jobs is more important than pay rises.  

"We need radical Banking reform. It was not too many teachers and health workers that caused Lehman Brothers to bust in New York" He finished by saying that the unions should never stop offering "strong advice" to him and the shadow cabinet (no chance of that) and that "the Labour Party must win back the trust of working people".

During the speech he had a little bit of heckling but was given some more stick during the Q&A. He agreed with Vince Cable that lack of demand was the biggest problem facing the economy but the government does nothing about it. Picture is of Liz Cameron from UNISON asking him the question (to loud cheers) why when she as a public sector worker has had a pay freeze for 3 years at then same time that inflation has increased by 12 % - he won't support a pay rise?