Working class must believe 'best days ahead'

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham gave a barnstorming speech at Labour conference on Monday (September 28) that received a standing ovation in the hall.

Moving a motion on rebuilding an economy for working people, Sharon Graham highlighted that many in the working class, “believe that the best years are behind them”.

She explained, “That their children and grandchildren will not have as good a life as they did. That a decent home, a good job and a holiday not paid for by credit is now beyond their reach.

“And as we sit here at the Labour Party Conference they rightfully expect more,” Graham continued. “Because friends, one thing is clear. Workers and the working class are literally on their knees. They have nothing left to give.”

Graham told the conference how the working class have already paid for crisis after crisis not of their making.

“When the politicians bailed out the City bankers, it was the working class who paid with a decade of Tory austerity and wage stagnation,” she said.  “When we suffered Covid, the working class paid, many with their jobs, and some with their lives. When tax thresholds were frozen, the working class paid. And when energy prices soared, the working class paid.”

To thunderous applause in the hall, Graham called on the conference, “Let’s say here from this hall, here and now, this must stop. The working class cannot pay anymore.”

She warned that the very fabric of society is “being torn, not transformed” and democracy is “now at risk”.

Graham said that we now have a simple choice: “More of the same, or terminal decline.”

She called for “real, transformative change that every day people can feel and they can touch”.

Graham went on to likewise call for a new settlement with the markets, which swaps “death by a thousand cuts” for “long-term stability”.

“Political inertia under the banner of sensible politics will not be enough and we will not be forgiven,” she continued to more applause. “Political hands must now reach for the economic wheel again.”

Graham highlighted the injustice of so many everyday people – from nurses and midwives, teachers, crane drivers and others – being asked to pay 40 per cent tax, while being told a wealth tax is “unworkable”.

She also demanded to know how is it right that those on the state pension and those claiming Universal Credit are being pushed into the 20 per cent tax band while “elites take no responsibility whatsoever”.  

“Where is the justice in that?” she asked.

“Labour has a real second chance for change. Now is the time for the working class to see and believe their best days are really ahead of them.”

“This is our collective task,” Graham told conference as she concluded, to a standing ovation. “It can be done and it must be done.”

By Hajera Blagg

Photo by Mark Thomas