It took nearly a century for the TUC to return to its radical heartland of Manchester, but the wait was worth it. With the burden of mandatory support for a Labour government lifted from their shoulders, the unions could get down to what they really enjoy, and are best at: whacking the Tories. The venom was almost tangible. It was the most enjoyable Congress for more than a decade.
And what 10 years they have been. THIGMOO – “This Great Movement Of Ours” – has changed a great deal since Labour came to power in 1997. Manufacturing has shrunk alarmingly and unions organising in it have declined accordingly. With the TGWU and Amicus/old AEU merging into Unite, there is really only one big player in the private sector.
Unison has benefited most from Gordon Brown’s jobs upsurge in the public sector and, with allies such as the teachers, has most to lose from Chancellor Osborne’s spending cuts. So the most serious challenge came from that quarter, along with some useful carpet-bombing from RMT leader Bob Crow.
Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, was also on first-rate form, sounding as if he really meant it. Too often, his role as the chief civil servant of the labour movement makes the holder of that office unduly cautious. Not this year, not in Manchester. This was no Barbie doll. He lambasted the Tories and their Liberal Democrat allies for creating a “darker, brutish and more frightening” Britain – a reference to Hobbes’ argument that life is nasty, brutish and short without the civilising hand of government. It’s a long time since I’ve heard a 17th century English Civil War philosopher quoted at the rostrum at the TUC, but it went down a treat.
Except, of course, with most of the media. The last year has seen television and newspapers alike engage in a contest of who can be most slavish in support for the coalition Government. This is in the nature of the political lobby. It operates on a herd instinct. And because so few of them have any direct experience of Congress or the workings of trade unions and their members, the Westminster pack falls back on tired old clichés handed down from a kind of aboriginal dream-time. So, the 1979 winter of discontent was wheeled out yet again to frighten the punters, and all the imagery was of dinosaurs, with The Times being the worst offender.
Some of the scribblers weren’t even born then and none of them would know Ron Todd from Sweeney Todd. It’s pathetic and unfunny, but it’s what passes for serious journalism these days. The unions can rise above it, because they have to. The next year will be the toughest for organised labour since the miners’ strike of 1984-85. There will be demonstrations galore, culminating in a massive day of protest in late March.
There will be plenty to protest about. The GMB has identified 150,000 prospective job losses even before the Comprehensive Spending Review in five weeks’ time and the eventual toll is likely to be double that with the “unknown unknown” of the impact on the private sector. Business leaders in the north are already sounding apprehensive about a secondary recession.
There will be strikes. And under pressure from media inquisitors seeking to elevate the role of the TUC into a central strike command, Brendan Barber agreed that Congress House will play a co-ordinating role as and when industrial disputes are called. But he also cautioned against “getting too excited” about that – a caution that went straight over the heads of the assembled hacks. In truth, the TUC will do what it has always done.
What we don’t know is how much stomach there is for a fight – if not to the death, then to death’s door – among trade union members. As the pit strike demonstrated, action against job cuts isn’t easy to organise if it’s not your job on the line. And the Government must be planning to give every appearance of decentralising the sackings, so a national conflict will be difficult to mount. Without a primary dispute, action would be unlawful, and Tory backwoodsmen (how long since you heard that word, but they still exist) are itching to outlaw strikes in emergency services. The Con-Dems hope to tie down Unison with 1,000 Lilliputian knots. It will be Dave Prentis’ biggest test since the union was formed.
Still, the rhetoric at Manchester gave heart to the troops. The looming battle completely overshadowed Labour’s leadership contest, although the candidates were all there touting for last-minute votes. My best understanding is that Unite has sewn it up for Ed Miliband, with a well-organised campaign to get its vote out. The election has had its lighter moments. Party bosses forbade sending out campaigning material with ballot papers, so the GMB printed a picture of young Miliband on the envelope itself. Hint, hint.
If Ed’s spectacular coup comes off, he will not be in hock to the unions, but it will be harder for him to hold them at arm’s length as his elder brother has. And both the media and the Tories will paint him as Tony Woodley’s poodle, Miliband the choice of the militants. His position will be analogous to that of
Neil Kinnock in 1984, unwilling to betray the miners but afraid of the wrath of Middle England if he became associated with picket line violence. For the inexperienced Ed, it will be a difficult path to tread. But that’s what he wanted.
