Unions: Making them a future strength

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Trade UnionBy Alfie Stroud

Since the results of Labour’s leadership contest were announced, few Tories seem possessed of enough imagination to move beyond ‘Red Ed’ slurs and the ubiquitous claim that Labour’s new leadership will be in the pocket of the unions. This falsehood is the slur of choice today because public understanding of trade unionism is weak and has been neglected. If Labour can begin to make the case again for enlightened unionism, we could not only challenge this lazy line, but rediscover a powerful resource for making our politics relevant, local and responsive again.

The coalition’s critiques of the leadership vote have been confused. They cannot seem to decide whether the villain behind Ed’s victory was the Alternative Vote or the unions. Either way, they imply, by innuendo or omission, that old-style union barons traded their block votes for favours. It’s not Labour that’s gone back to the 70s – it’s the papers.

Criticise perhaps the way that the leadership campaign was financed; criticise the format of the hustings; criticise multiple ballot papers for single members; criticise even the unions’ distribution of electoral material. These were all weaknesses in the campaign, and should probably be reformed, but they do not undermine what was fundamentally a free vote among Labour supporters. Above all, we should be disappointed by the low turnout of 9% in the affiliates section of the electoral college. There is nothing shameful in a democratic poll of voluntary associations which share the principles of our party. If it were called a primary, would the criticisms have been so loud?

This weakness on the union link makes room for slurs, like the Tories’ comparison of Lord Ashcroft’s cash to Unite’s Labour contributions. There’s a world of difference between cheques from a multi-millionaire, and the voluntary contributions of ordinary workers, opting-in to support and influence a party whose principles they believe in.

Far from the Tories’ vision of puppet-master union bosses, Labour’s union link could be the party’s unique strength, just as it was in the earliest days of the movement. It already quietly operates in ways very similar to those gestured at by the selection primaries and supporters’ networks toyed with by other parties. A revived union link could be the foundation for far broader and more meaningful communities of sympathisers and supporters than gesture politics could manage. Some analyses claim Labour is becoming a narrowly public sector party. Certainly it will always defend public goods. And certainly the public sector is today the stronghold of the trade unions. But they still stretch across the sectors, and might – if Labour once again champions their cause – reach still further to become a bridge for the party into parts of the economy it has lost touch with. It should connect Labour every day, in workplaces all over Britain, to the people it wants to serve. It could build a plural, open, listening politics that better reflects new kinds of labour – freelancers, social entrepreneurs, volunteers and career changers; the start of a party politics that means something in communities, not just the commons.

To do this, ‘New Generation’ Labour will need to remake the case for trade unionism, from the beginning – the subtle, responsible trade unionism Ed Miliband spoke of. The core principle itself has been neglected since the unions’ dinosaur days. Employers have power, they have wealth, they have status. Employees have only their labour; and they might have nothing more if they cannot stand together. The next generation of potential union members has forgotten much of this.

On the way to this good goal, we can show that the union vote doesn’t weaken Ed Miliband, and we can begin to turn it into a source of future strength.

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