'Public ownership must be at heart of our programme'

Unite delegate Tommy Murphy warns Labour must not retreat from commitment to public ownership

Reading time: 3 min

Unite delegate Tommy Murphy gave his full support for a CWU motion at Labour conference on Sunday (September 26) on the vital importance of public ownership.

“The deep crisis in this country, exposed and accelerated by the pandemic, will not be solved with a belief in the market alone – no matter how fervent that belief is held,” he said in a speech seconding the motion.

“It is vital that as we face the recovery and the long term transition to a green future that this Party does not turn its back on democratic public ownership,” Tommy continued.

“Recent polling confirmed – once again – that the majority of the public back common ownership, rather than face once again the chaotic cycle of deregulation, collapse and bailout,” he went on to say.

Pointing to the unfolding energy crisis, he said that we must stand united in expressing “our solidarity with energy workers in our union and in sister unions”.

But he also said that now was the time to also put forward bold ideas to tackle the crisis head on.

“Why would we not also turn to our own ideas – ideas such as the publicly owned energy network proposed in the 2019 manifesto?” he continued.

“Turning our back on those ideas now for internal reasons can only be utterly self-defeating,” Tommy warned, highlighting that the commitment was made by the Labour Party’s current leadership in their own election.

“It is a commitment vindicated by both events and public support,” he said. “We face a Tory government whose only strategy is based on cronyism, tax cuts and the transfer of public money to unaccountable multinationals.

“Now cannot be the time to argue for a retreat from our commitments – or to be more timid in our calls for intervention in the economy,” Tommy went on to say. “Be it responding to crisis, fixing a decade of Tory misrule, or delivering a Green Industrial Revolution – democratic public ownership must be at the heart of our programme.”

By Hajera Blagg

Related Articles