Sacha Ismail reports on this year’s TUC Congress which showed shifting ground on military spending, Ukraine and climate change
Reversing policy passed amid controversy in 2022, this year’s TUC Congress generated fresh controversy by voting to oppose increased military spending.
The 2022 vote, driven by military industry unions GMB and Unite, was very close. This year’s vote in favour of the “Wages Not Weapons” motion from post-16 education union UCU was more decisive, 55 to 45% on a card vote.
There is a strong case, on anti-militarist, climate-emergency, corporate-power and public spending grounds, to oppose more funds being channelled to the arms industry. But the UCU motion and the campaign for it were not unproblematic.
They did not seriously address the issues raised for the labour movement and left by the breakdown of the post-war “liberal” international security order, increased imperialist aggression and the growth of the far right internationally. They tended towards nationalist arguments, counterposing money sent overseas to spending on living standards at home. And they ignored the increasingly central question of taxing the rich, implying there is a strictly limited pool of social funds that needs to be diverted from one area to another.
For the “Stop the War” wing of the left, a major subtext was opposition to aid for Ukraine. At a Stop the War Coalition fringe meeting a few hours after the motion passed, speakers made clear they saw the vote as a springboard for changing the labour movement’s position on Ukraine.
That was not the case for most of the unions that supported and promoted the motion. UCU has a pro-Ukraine policy and is affiliated with the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign; the same for many others. About 90 per cent of members in unions that voted for the motion are in unions with a pro-Ukraine policy.
The 2023 TUC Congress overwhelmingly passed a pro-Ukraine policy, and there is no indication that the labour movement has shifted against it since then. In fact, the notable change is significant unions shifting in favour of Ukraine – including public-sector union UNISON and school workers’ union NEU, by far the largest to support the Wages Not Weapons motion.
This strong consensus was reflected in the fringe meeting Ukraine Solidarity Campaign organised at this year’s TUC. A packed room heard from an impressive panel of Ukrainian and UK labour movement speakers, including TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak, and we made new links and contacts for the campaign. In the run-up to our AGM on 6 December, the campaign will be building on successes in the labour movement to challenge “Stop the War” type politics and, even more crucially, step up practical solidarity with Ukraine’s workers.
Labour in crisis, labour movement sleepwalks
As usual, TUC Congress passed a raft of left-wing policies – including not only the pro-worker economic policies and progressive social policies one might expect but, somewhat to my surprise, clear opposition to the ban on Palestine Action (proposed by civil service union PCS).
The major “right-wing” vote at the Congress was in some ways a reiteration of the arguments on military spending, but with the opposite outcome. Delegates passed the amendment from Unite the Union to water down the section of a motion from the Bakers’ Union on a Year of Trade Union Climate Action that called for “a rapid, just global transition from fossil fuels… to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown”. The amendment added: “while understanding that future fossil fuel production can only be ended when and where a fully funded workers’ plan for jobs has been agreed and delivered in full”.
The TUC General Council supported the amendment. Notably, the machine broke from normal procedure by not allowing extra rounds of speeches, while the chair refused to allow a card vote.
The climate debate in the TUC and in the unions continues to advance – but far too slowly in the face of accelerating climate breakdown. The Year of Trade Union Climate Action will go ahead, starting this November, and should be a major focus for labour movement activists.
The contradictions, limitations and omissions in trade union policies are not currently the main problem. The problem is that winning progressive policies – including for anything like a just, worker-led industrial and climate transition – requires a militant, mobilised labour movement. The Congress reaffirmed that we are still far from that.
Last year, the TUC warmly welcomed Keir Starmer, with the platform and many delegates giving a standing ovation. Starmer did not attend this year, but there was a warm welcome – including a glowing introductory speech – for Bridget Phillipson.
Thus, delegates unanimously passed a pro-trans rights policy, but feted a minister who in the preceding months had been central to undermining trans rights. The same point can be made about issues across the board.
We face a situation where the far right presents as a dynamic oppositional force to the Labour government and the political “establishment” – while the labour movement appears largely as part of that establishment. That is what socialists in the trade unions, the Labour Party and elsewhere must fight hard to upend in the coming months and years.