The labour movement must speak with one voice – and back workers now

As energy bills soar and prices rise, the Tories have gone full out class war. Tax cuts for the richest, bankers’ bonuses uncapped and a heavy assault on hard-won workers’ rights. At a time of national crisis, with sewage spewing and ambulance waiting times through the roof, the Tory answer in Friday’s bankers’ Budget is to double down on the worker-bashing, trickle-down economics that led us here. It’s simple: they have stopped pretending to run this country in the interests of anyone but their rich friends.

But over the summer, we have seen the beginning of a fightback against Tory hegemony. After more than a decade of declining pay, workers in various sectors across the country are standing up for themselves. In the words of RMT general secretary Mick Lynch, workers are “refusing to be poor anymore”. Bus drivers, rail workers, posties, firefighters, refuse workers, even barristers – the fight they are all showing is an inspiration.

It is this fight back that will have prompted Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to announce plans to introduce anti-trade union legislation that would make it even harder for unions to strike effectively, with minimum services forced to continue and a ballot of workers to be mandated after every pay offer. They can sense the tides are turning and want to quell the unrest. This deeply authoritarian legislation must be opposed by the entire labour movement.

A strong trade union movement is something everyone in the Labour Party should treasure, and history shows us it’s an essential vehicle for social change. Founded by the trade unions, our party’s proudest achievements – the NHS and the welfare state – were only possible because of the industrial strength and class consciousness of the working class throughout the 20th century. It would make sense then, for the party to get behind a revived trade union movement that is under attack from our political enemies.

It would be electorally popular too. With the Tories pushing policies for the rich, a clear dividing line could be established between Labour and an unpopular government by backing workers fighting for their livelihoods. Recent polling showed that a majority of the public backed the rail strikes, proving there is plenty of sympathy amongst the public for striking workers. Indeed, only months ago many of these same workers were hailed as heroes and key workers.

But Keir Starmer’s response has so far been disappointing. He has banned shadow ministers from picket lines and refused to come out in favour of pay rises in line with inflation. At a time of growing poverty and deepening inequality, this stance is out of step with the mood not just within the party, but in the wider country as well. With the Tories now upping their attacks on trade unions, this is a fight that Labour can no longer duck.

Starmer’s position cannot hold. Shadow ministers including Lisa Nandy, Imran Hussain and Navendu Mishra have already ignored the directive by attending picket lines over the summer. Trade union leaders have also been highly critical, from GMB’s Gary Smith to Unite’s Sharon Graham and the CWU’s Dave Ward. Some have even started to question the funding and support their unions provide to the party given that the leadership will not back their members on picket lines. When polled, Labour members were overwhelmingly in favour of pay rises in line with inflation.

We need a united Labour Party. One that takes the Tories to task, rips into our broken economic model and backs workers fighting for a pay rise – together. And we need the leadership, members, trade unions and the Parliamentary Labour Party all pulling in the same direction in this endeavour. That’s how we win – by putting politics on our terrain and uniting behind a popular vision.

At conference, we have the perfect opportunity to kickstart the fight. Our ‘Labour for labour’ motion would commit the party to opposing real-terms pay cuts for workers and Labour MPs and frontbenchers to showing solidarity with striking workers by attending picket lines and vocally supporting strikes. It would also see Labour campaign against existing and new anti-trade unions laws and, when in government, repeal them. If you are a delegate and want the party committed to workers, make sure to vote for workers’ rights in the priority ballot on Sunday.

But our movement cannot stop there. At a time when water, rail, mail and energy company shareholders are raking it in and the Tories are topping up their salaries with tax cuts, the dividing line between the many and the few could not be clearer. Public ownership is a cause that is wildly popular with the public because it speaks to that divide – and our party must affirm its commitment to the policy at conference.

Now is the time for the labour movement to come together and speak with one voice: we back the workers. As the Tories veer off into neoliberal fantasy land, our party is perfectly placed to back the ordinary people of this country in their demands for decent pay and working conditions. Let’s seize the day.