By Mike Forster, Socialist Alternative West Yorkshire
The election of a Labour Government just two months ago has brought in a new period for the trade union movement which had become regrettably accustomed to 14 years of a Tory Government imposing austerity and anti-working class policies. During the election campaign, Starmer described himself as a ‘socialist’ and promised ‘change’. But Labour’s manifesto contained few concrete promised reforms and Rachel Reeves – now Chancellor – spent the campaign lowering expectations.
Starmer’s government has faced immediate and serious challenges on the international front with the significant escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and Starmer still failing to embrace full and unconditional support for a ceasefire, as well as ending arms sales to Israel. There have also been multiple challenges domestically, including a series of far-right riots, which have not given Labour any honeymoon respite.
Most union leaders campaigned for a Labour government arguing it was their members’ only chance to get rid of the Tories. Back in May 2024, the union general secretaries announced they had reached a ‘New Deal’ for workers rights with Labour, including the repeal of antiunion legislation, an end to zero hour contracts and the iniquitous ‘fire and rehire’ practices of rogue employers. In the King’s Speech, Starmer promised new workers rights legislation. However, Starmer is already watering down some of the union leaders’ demands, especially over the fire and rehire pledges and zero hour contracts. He is offering employers ‘opt out’ clauses on the fire and rehire pledge and has said zero hour contracts can remain for those who want them!
Public sector pay
In her financial statement to Parliament in July, Rachel Reeves announced she would honour the Public Sector Pay Review (PSPR) bodies’ recommendations of an above inflation pay rise, averaging 5.5% for public sector workers. She cited the bigger economic cost of strikes to the economy, especially across the NHS and education, should workers take strike action again, as the reason for conceding £9 billion of the exchequer’s money.
The ongoing strikes of junior doctors had already concentrated minds and was the first outstanding industrial dispute to get settled with a 2 year pay deal which offered an average of 23%. This represents a big breakthrough for the BMA and will raise the bar of workers expectations for the future. Whilst the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR) recommendations fall well behind pay lost by public sector workers over the last 14 years, once again it will not be lost on activists that concessions were made as a result of threatened strike action.
However, the mood music coming out of the Exchequer as a result of Reeves’ statement is that austerity remains on the order of the day. She kept repeating the neoliberal mantra that ‘we cannot have what we cannot afford’ and announced the scrapping or pausing of several vitally needed public sector projects such as new hospitals, the pensioners’ winter fuel payment and failing to scrap the two child benefit cap. The two child benefit cap issue will not go away, with many labour MPs signalling they want it scrapped and a recent academic study showing it would save up to 300 infants’ lives a year! This inability to acknowledge or repair the huge and growing problems in the public sector and welfare state will exacerbate the massive social problems working people face.
Meanwhile pitting the needs of pensioners against those of workers is equally problematic. The winter fuel allowance is a lifeline for thousands of vulnerable elderly people, and it is frequently those most in need who struggle to jump through the hoops required to access benefits when they become means tested.
When Reeves repeats language used by George Osborne, her predecessor Conservative Chancellor until 2016, she is in reality calling on workers and young people to once again pay for capitalism’s crisis. This will very quickly result in massive disillusionment in Starmer’s government. It can also continue to create conditions of poverty and hopelessness the far-right can cynically latch onto – as we saw in riot over the Summer which in turn could feed into growing support for Reform UK.
Health, education and local government workers will rightly be asking where are the funds for the NHS, bankrupt councils, schools and, further and higher education? To repair the damage of decades of austerity would require bold and decisive investment in our crumbling infrastructure. Likewise these workers will require urgent reassurance that their pay rises will not be coming out of already stretched NHS, school or council budgets. This is especially so for education workers who were duped into accepting last year’s pay rise only to be later told that some of it would be funded out of school budgets! All of the promised pay rises must be fully funded by this government.
Business-friendly government
Reeves has failed to confront the cash rich multinationals, banks and energy companies which continue to rake in massive profits without any additional taxation from this government. In fact Reeves and Starmer have gone out of their way to reassure big business that they are a business-friendly government and have ruled out raising corporation tax.
In fact the entire strategy of this government is based on cajoling, encouraging and in some cases, bribing multinationals to invest, and so to bring about the GDP growth this government so craves. A pro-capitalist government will inevitably disappoint the hopes and aspirations of millions of working people. The capitalists only invest their money when they are confident that to do so will be profitable. But why should they be allowed to hold us to ransom in this way? As an initial step, a bold programme of taxing the rich and nationalising the profiteering former utilities and energy giants could begin to repair the damage done by austerity, and would be met with huge enthusiasm from working people and trade unionists and provide some of the funds to invest in public services and our livelihoods.
Tasks for the unions
Socialist Alternative has recognised that Labour will have to be forced to make any concessions to the working class. When seven Labour MPs rebelled against Starmer in July for demanding the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap, they were summarily kicked out of the Parliamentary Labour Party for six months. More than anything this demonstrates the trajectory of Starmer’s New Labour, revealing a fear of opposition but also a doubling down on his pro-capitalist credentials. Trade unions need to understand the challenge facing them. Whilst quite rightly demanding that Labour commits to all of its ‘New Deal’, union leaders need to face up to the reality of a Labour Party that has been captured by the Blairite right wing and continues to move in a rightward direction.
Most unions remain affiliated to Labour but they will need to bring about rule changes which will allow them the freedom of manoeuvre to support independent and left challenges to Labour. In the last election, independents won 5 seats standing on an anti-war and austerity programme, especially Jeremy Corbyn. However none of the affiliated unions officially endorsed them. There has already been a discussion on the NEU National Executive about forming a relationship with the new Independent group of MPs and Socialist Alternative has called on the 7 rebels to break with Labour and form a larger opposition left bloc in parliament.
Free up the political funds
The unions need to urgently make the necessary rules amendments to allow them to formally support such initiatives. All unions have a Political Fund which should be put to use in support of formations, groupings, councillors and MPs who are closely aligned to their members’ interests. It is now vital that socialists in the unions draw up plans for submitting motions to their national bodies and conferences to give unions that freedom.
However, we cannot wait for national bodies to be persuaded on such a course of action. In some unions, there are organised left groupings such as the Time for Real Change in Unison, Education Workers Say No in the NEU, and NHS Workers Say No in the RCN/UNISON/ GMB who need to organise and coordinate now at
local and regional level. Socialist Alternative is calling for Conferences of Resistance to bring together union activists, alongside community, anti-war, anti-oppression, anti-racism and climate campaigners to begin the process of uniting all the struggles. We call for Jeremy Corbyn, as by far the most prominent left MP, to call a conference nationally to discuss how to bring together struggles and build a new left party that is built around them. This can be the basis for the emergence of a new left party of genuine struggle.
Working people and youth need a new political voice which actually articulates and fights for their aspirations. The growing and real threat from the far right nationally and internationally well demonstrates the urgency of building the left alternative now. The British trade union movement has a proud history of standing with and by all oppressed people. The task of creating a new left party of struggle will increasingly become more urgent as Starmer’s government stutters and stumbles along the path of growing capitalist economic and social crises.
WE SAY:
• Repeal all anti trade union legislation and secure decent employment rights for all. Scrap fire and rehire and end zero hours contracts – no to employer “opt outs”
• Fully fund public sector pay awards. For above inflation pay rises that make up for lost ground
• Make the rule changes needed to allow unions to back the political parties and individuals who back workers
• Build fighting democratic lefts in every union
• For a national conference of resistance involving trade union bodies, social movements and oppressed groups
• For a New Left party of struggle!
