‘Labour – make different choices’

Unite’s main contribution to the conference came in moving a composite motion, on Building a fairer economy. And the union’s general secretary Sharon Graham gave a virtuoso delivery of what was the best speech the floor had heard so far.

She laid out the union’s view of what was the best way forward for workers now Labour had been elected to government.

She welcomed the fact, but said workers were not to pay the price of the black hole in the economy and what was needed was a wealth tax – which Unite had a plan for and on which she later spoke.

She opened by recalling the Tory years and the effects of austerity.

Addressing conference she said, “Make no mistake that the champagne in the city, it kept flowing whilst the devastation of austerity hung like a noose around the necks of our communities. And then, and then when Covid struck. When Covid struck, it was workers who faced it down. Bus workers, bin workers, supermarket workers, NHS workers, many paying with their lives.

“And what followed for those workers? Pay cut after pay cut after pay cut as profit margins soared. So friends, we are now at the end of the line. The economy is truly broken, with the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. Our workers and our communities, paying the price, time after time. This must stop now.

“And friends, of course, I’d be the first to say it. Labour has signalled some good things, of course they have. But the economic path that they are on is simply wrong. How can the Labour government, a Labour government, remove the winter fuel allowance from pensioners, whilst the top 50 richest families in Britain are worth £500bn?

“How have they left those people untouched while pensioners, their pockets have been picked? Friends, we need a wealth tax now.

“Friends, the top 1 per cent. The top 1 per cent in Britain, just giving 1 per cent more would create £25bn. The so-called black hole gone. What is wrong with that being the choice? There is money. There is money in our society. We are the sixth richest economy in the world. We do not need to pit pensioners against workers. We can and must make different choices.

“Labour can and they must make different choices. Workers and our communities need to see whose side they are on.

“We just cannot wait for growth. We simply do not have time. Britain led the first industrial revolution, and as we sit here in the fourth, we are not even off the starting blocks.

“We cannot be locked into a spiral of doom, too slow to invest, too cautious to grab the opportunity. The talk of green transition, few disagree but where are the jobs in this transition? Who’s going to build the turbines? Who’s going to make the batteries? Who is going to benefit from AI? Look at Germany. They’ve got a green transition pot worth £580bn. And we’ve got a wealth fund of £7.3bn. It’s a joke.

“If we’re serious about fixing the economy, it is going to take money. Oil and gas workers cannot wait. Automotive workers cannot wait. And this movement cannot agree to a jobless transition, where industry after industry become the coal miners of our generation. Investment in British industry needs to start now.”

The composite was carried unanimously.

By Amanda Campbell

Pic by Mark Thomas