'Dealing with a many-headed hydra'

Continuing on the fighting the far right theme, Unite delegate Pritpal Singh-Atwal moved the next motion which had come from the TUC Black Workers Conference, on behalf of Unite.

Pritpal opened his moving speech by referring to the gains in electoral support of far and hard right parties, not just here, but across Europe and the rest of the world. He said they were, “both feeding and growing off violent street mobilisations,” which “have been horrifying for all of us.”

He went on, “Language – and beliefs – that we all believed, hoped, had been consigned to history are now also spoken aloud by so-called ‘mainstream’ politicians pandering to this far-right growth.

“But history also tells us that pandering does not work. Fear, grievance and hatred need to be met head on and tackled. This motion is one of many we are rightly debating at Congress as we collectively as a movement work out how best to respond.

“And a many headed Hydra needs to be attacked in many different directions, with many different tools.”

He referred to Susan Matthew’s earlier contribution. “Today we have already spoken about the positive drive of equality reps can add to our workplaces, our movement and our communities. We have heard of the TUC’s Unity Works campaign and other motions that urgently raise how the far-right are impacting on our workplaces and communities.

“Coming up on our agenda this week are motions that concretely deal with the real and deep-seated problems of housing, economic insecurity and under-investment in our public services.

“And crucially we know that we as a movement have solutions to these political and economic problems.

“We know that as a movement we make a real difference to people’s lives and that taking action collectively to improve lives – whether that is taking a stand in your workplace or campaigning in your local community – leads to people recognising they are not powerless.

“In Unite, as part of taking action on racism and the hatred being whipped up against Black and migrant workers, against disabled, LGBT+ and the weaponisation of women’s rights as well as the misogyny of the far-right, we are also piloting ‘Union Towns’.”

He explained, “Union Towns is about rebuilding trade union strength and working to support the connections that exist between industrial organising, community campaigns and political education.

“We want to build real working-class power – across the divides which are being systematically exploited by right-wing political actors – expanding and diversify our activist base and delivering real, local, positive change.”

In his conclusion he urged to the conference to consider this motion and the other motions being discussed.

“[They] need to be properly considered together to build and develop the multi-pronged attack to the growth of the far-right on the scale and urgency that we must have; taking the far right apart piece by piece at the roots.

“I cannot be alone in dreading what will happen if we do not do so.”

The motion was carried.

By Amanda Campbell

Photos by Mark Thomas