In the run up to this year’s TUC conference, over 1,500 people signed a petition in support of the UCU motion asking the TUC to reaffirm its support for a position of “wages not weapons”
The TUC union federation conference this month carried motions that promoted a progressive position on war and Palestine.
The UCU union’s motion built upon last year’s “wages not weapons”, which officially ended the TUC’s policy of support for increasing arms spending.
This motion was opposed by only a handful of unions, albeit powerful ones such as Unite, GMB, Prospect and Community whose members work in defence.
On Palestine, TUC conference backed a motion brought by the AUE union that called to support the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The motions carried reflect a significant shift that has taken place within the trade union movement.
TUC delegates are mainly made up of full-time officials not known for their radicalism. Days before the conference began TUC general secretary Paul Nowak launched an attack on the UCU motion.
He argued that “welfare not warfare” is a right wing slogan, arguing that the progressive position is welfare and warfare.
This was an attempt to shore up opposition to the motion to bring the TUC in line with the Labour government’s policy of increasing defence spending.
Such attempts failed. So what has changed to allow anti-war arguments at the TUC conference?
First, the Palestine solidarity movement. After 30 national demonstrations, workplace days of action and direct actions, millions of working class people have been influenced by anti-imperialist politics.
This has percolated through to the top echelons of the trade union movement.
Second, the ruling class are preparing us for war across Europe. Mark Rutter, the secretary-general of Nato warmongers’ alliance says, “We must prepare for the scale of war our grandparents or great grandparents endured.”
Of course, he doesn’t mean his children must make such a sacrifice but ours. A day does not go by without the mainstream media casually quoting ministers speaking about being on a “war-footing”.
A new arms race is raging which will not bring more jobs—but it will bring war. Some left wing trade union leaders recognise that, if they are to stop the attacks on their members, then they have to take on the question of war. Campaigning over pay or jobs leads us to come directly up against the European-wide drive to war.
Burnham commits to increase defence spending by billions
The Labour government is attempting to straddle not cutting welfare and increases in defence spending. But an arms race means more and more resources will go to warfare rather than social spending.
Trade union reps may well find themselves in negotiations sitting across the table from a boss who says, “We’d love to give you a pay rise, but the money has gone into defence.”
If this argument is accepted, then it will lead to job losses and pay cuts.
The third reason is the new prime minister, Andy Burnham. His room for manoeuvre is limited unless he refuses to increase defence spending and increases taxes on the rich.
Already, we can see the Labour front bench is travelling in the opposite direction. But Burnham becoming prime minister has raised working class people’s expectations, which unions partly reflect with more demands on Labour.
The fourth reason is that socialists and anti-war activists in the trade union movement have organised in their workplaces and unions. We have made sure that these motions were debated, helping to shape the arguments to counteract the trade union leaders who support arms spending.
Over 1,500 people signed a petition in support of the UCU motion in the run-up to the conference.
The passing of these motions should give activists more confidence to drive the case for welfare not warfare down into the workplaces.
UCU will be rolling out its “wages not weapons” campaign into every college and university and other unions.
Trade unionists now need to build for the Palestine national demonstration on 10 October and the day of solidarity with port workers on 30 October. Dockers across the Mediterranean are taking action to stop the flow of weapons to Israel and war zones on the day.
In Britain, we should build for these actions with more confidence knowing that the official trade union movement supports them.
