15.09.2004

Platitudes and tempura prawns

Last week's TUC congress revealed the weakness not just of the TUC, but of the left as well. TGWU shop steward Peter Jackson reports.

Gale force winds and rain lashed Trade Union Congress delegates throughout the week, as they came and went from Brighton Conference Centre. A small gauntlet of leftwing paper-sellers were herded behind unnecessary crash barriers.

Inside, various unions had stalls, distributing the inevitable pens that do not work and key rings no one will use. Insurance companies and legal firms had also set up shop in the area outside the main hall, though there was a noticeable absence of employers. Many, one suspects, were saving their marketing budgets for the Labour Party, due to arrive the week after next. In fact TUC 2004 was a warm-up for, and dominated by, the forthcoming Labour conference.

Congress chair Roger Lyons kicked us off with ‘Employment rights, equal rights, organising and recruitment’ and delegates clapped politely and dutifully expressed their passionless agreement in the votes on the various composites. The pattern was set and the die was cast. The entire week was one of nodding through and nodding off, although some congress virgins tried and failed to put fire into the ‘debates’.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with providing employment rights from day one for unfair dismissal and redundancy; with paid time off for family-friendly leave; with strengthening protection for migrant workers; with ensuring the right to take industrial action in accordance with ILO conventions; with protecting from dismissal workers taking lawful strike action; with interim relief beyond eight weeks, etc, etc.

However, as with a debate on motherhood and apple pie, there is nothing there to disagree with. Even the terminally dull Strategic review provoked only a half-hearted protest from Anita Halpin, of the Morning Star’s Communist Party of Britain, for not emphasising the role of young workers more. Throughout most of the week empty chairs dominated the hall, as smokers (and non-smokers too) disappeared for a ‘fag break’. At the tea bar one old hand reflected: “At least Arthur Scargill could put on a fucking good row.”

Some have dismissed congress as a waste of time, but unions like my own have been defending the annual gathering as the last bastion of lay democracy. Although, I have to say, the whole compositing and standing orders committee process sucks the soul out of any meaningful decision-making or attempt to grapple with big questions.

For example, why do most workers remain outside union membership, even though the hourly earnings of union members averaged 17.7% more than the earnings of non-union workers in 2003, according to DTI figures? That seems a worthwhile figure, but the harsh reality is that union negotiators, even in the most vulnerable areas for the employers like the airline industry, have managed to achieve on average only inflation-level pay rises since Labour came to power.

Of course, the real business is not what is placed before delegates, but is carried on behind the scenes, where the TUC acts as broker for peace between the unions that matter and New Labour. Congress House plays out its traditional role of conflict resolution between their increasingly agitated affiliates and the labour movement’s official political wing.

Well in advance of Brighton, the line being spun was that trade unionists are not necessarily awkward, but merely enthusiastic negotiators. We like to use phrases like ‘A lot done, a lot still to do’ and identify the ‘common ground issues’ to build on. That brings me to the Warwick national policy forum deal. Despite not being on the official agenda, this is what TUC 2004 was all about.

Monday’s Today programme on Radio Four featured a ‘fighting back’-style interview with Tony Woodley, T&G general secretary. The conversation soon got down to the real meat: whether Alan Milburn would scupper the agreements made at Warwick. For leaders like Woodley and other relative new boys such as Kevin Curran (GMB) and Derek Simpson (Amicus) - who fought internal elections on the theme of standing up to New Labour - it is vital that there is a deal they can confidently sell to their respective executives in return for supporting Labour in the next general election.

The approach from Woodley and co was that of professional industrial negotiators moving from corporate employers to corporate government. Prepare your case, set your top and bottom lines, get in-principle agreements, give yourself some negotiating ‘wiggle room’ and set dates for future negotiations. Wham, bam - business done.

With the unions believing they had a deal, the No10 spin-masters shot Alan Milburn across their bows, ensuring that only a personal appearance by Tony Blair at Brighton would pour oil on troubled waters. As he took centre stage on Monday afternoon, industrial and political correspondents were ready with their notebooks and digital recorders poised for Blair’s polite fuck-off to the brothers and sisters.
In the end it was a total anti-climax. “Tony”, as Roger Lyons introduced the prime minister, declared: “I come to praise Warwick, not bury it.” It was all downhill from there. The applause was hardly enthusiastic and no one was entertained, but Blair had done what he came to do. The big four rushed out to waiting cameras and the ever-present Andrew Marr in time for the evening news bulletins.
Congress had reached its climax prematurely at the beginning of the week. The political correspondents retired to the Queensbury Arms - a small hidden away pub with a fine collection of posters advertising drag queens - to while away the rest of the week.

Brighton will be remembered for a promised spat that never came to blows. The reality is that by confirming the minimal concessions made at Warwick, by appearing to agree to the TUC’s demand for social partnership, Blair actually took the wind out of any meaningful opposition by the unions at Labour Party conference. He had given us our bottom line.

Passing a motion demanding the repeal by Labour of all anti-union laws brought in by the Conservatives was as rebellious as it got. Blair dismissed any “return to flying pickets” and the delegates responded with a disappointed sigh, and not even a solitary heckle.

Apart from Blair’s brief visit, the TUC was dull. The only relief for bored delegates were the endless rounds of lunchtime and evening receptions laid on by corporate hospitality and statutory bodies such as the Greater London Authority.

Ken Livingstone hosted an excellent evening reception at the seafront Grand Hotel (yes, where the IRA nearly wiped out Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet). The Japanese-style tempura prawns were excellent, as was the Thai satay accompanying the Merlot and Chardonnay. Red Ken announced the aim of a minimum wage of £7 per hour for all workers in London, which went down well too.

Tony Woodley wrote in the Morning Star about “taking the fight to the next level” (September 14). But the grassroots themselves must lead the way if we are to go beyond such platitudes. Fighting organisations can only be built through networks of workplace activists.

Congress revealed the weakness not just of the TUC, but of the left as well. Where were the packed ‘broad left’ meetings of yesteryear, the daily newsletters, the prepared slates of motions that represented real calls for action? Where were the left fringe meetings? Where was the communist action plan around the ‘needs of the hour’? It wasn’t there, comrades.

To dismiss Congress in its current form is the equivalent of shooting goldfish. Yet, short of a mass movement, how can this be turned around? No left organisation has any influence worth talking about in the British trade union movement - a point, no doubt, that has occurred to the TUC, the union leaderships and Tony Blair.