Of course, this is not to deny that trade union members are justifiably angry at the way they have been treated. They pay trade union affiliation fees to the Labour Party at the same time as Labour authorities are scandalously carrying through cuts and redundancies of union members. But would disaffiliation serve to break the Blairites’ control of the Labour Party? You only need to pose the question correctly to get a correct answer. On the contrary, it would strengthen it by removing the influence and votes of the unions. That is why it is a measure that has the enthusiastic backing of all the enemies of the unions and the Labour movement. It is, paradoxically, a measure that would certainly be supported by the Blairites, who are in favour of breaking all union-Labour links. Therefore it is not a question of getting angry, but getting even. While the call for disaffiliation is an understandable reaction to the policies and actions of the Labour right wing, it is a mistake. If successful, it would be a step back in the direction of the non-political trade unionism of 150 years ago.

Nevertheless, Labour still receives substantial donations from trade unions including Unison, Amicus, Usdaw and the TGWU. In fact the trade unions make up eight out of ten of the largest donors to the Labour Party. In 2002 they donated a total of £9.87 million. The Fire Brigades Union – which was in dispute with the government during this period – gave more than £12,000. The Blairites do not want to depend on the unions for finance. They prefer to get money from rich sympathisers, the Ecclestones, Robinsons, the Hindujahs and other fat cats. In the first three months of 2003, four wealthy donors coughed up nearly £3m to the Party. They included the un-elected science minister, Lord Sainsbury, who gave £2.5m – nearly half the £5.4m donated to the Party over the period. The other big donors were Sir Ronald Cohen, who gave £250,000, and the Sunderland football club chairman, Bob Murray, who was recently awarded a CBE for public service. He gave £100,000.

Naturally, these donations do not come without strings. “He who pays the piper calls the tune”. The dependence on funds from big business makes Blair dependent – or rather, even more dependent – on big business interests and more independent of the working class. However, this should not be exaggerated. The amounts of money given by big business to Labour are really very small compared to what they give to the Tories. Most of Labour’s money still comes from the unions.

Blair is therefore considering the state funding of political parties as an alternative, which would, as he sees it, deliver him from the clutches of the unions. State funding now has the support of the Murdoch press and The Sun in particular. This should be sufficient for trade unionists to pause for thought. Trade unionists must not allow frustration with the government to play into the hands of the enemy. On the contrary, a fight against Blairism can only be a political struggle within the Labour Party. There is no other choice.

There is not a hope in hell of influencing things from outside. Left-wing candidates who have stood against the Labour Party in general elections have got nowhere. Even in Scotland, the SSP, which gained six seats in the Scottish Parliament, did so only on the basis of proportional representation. While their vote reflects a constituency of opinion to the left of the Labour Party, they did not come close against Labour in a first past the post election. Even the pre-war ILP, with four MPs in Glasgow alone, failed in its endeavour to replace the Labour Party. Despite the growing disillusionment, Labour still has very deep roots in the working class areas of Scotland.

A more important question is: who elected Blair as Labour leader in the first place? Not only did the capitalist media support him, but also the right-wing union leaders backed him for leader. At every step of the way they supported and assisted Blair in his attempted counter-revolution within the Party. They sustained him and his supporters on the Party’s leading bodies. Betty Boothroyd made things crystal clear in her recent autobiography. According to her: “Before I joined the NEC, John Golding [general secretary of the NCU] organised meetings with allies in the trade unions. He was very much a loner on the executive until reinforcements arrived. In 1982 he widened the group to include Gwyneth, Renee Short, Denis Howell, Charlie Turnock, Tony Clarke, Neville Hough, Ken Cure, Sam McClusky [the last five all elected to represent the trade union section] and me. John, supported by Neil Kinnock, subsequently became chairman of the NEC home-policy committee. It was the beginning of a fruitful partnership that paved the way for Tony Blair’s New Labour Party.”[3]

A recent pamphlet about political funding by Matt Wrack states: “Unfortunately, the union representatives on Labour’s National Executive have been some of the most loyal Blairites going”. “What is the point of electing trade union delegates onto Labour’s executive if they subsequently ignore the policies of their own union at every opportunity?” But surely that is the point? The NEC is made up of 33 members. The trade unions have 12 places, and a further six are reserved for the Constituency Labour Parties. If the 12 union representatives voted with the three CLP lefts from the grassroots alliance, that would make a total of 15 votes. However, if we add the votes of Jimmy Elsby, the Party treasurer, from the TGWU, and Dennis Skinner from the MPs, support for trade union-backed policies should have a clear majority.

It is this cabal of right-wing union leaders that allowed Blair and his cronies to get away with it, and they are still trying their best to continue in this role. Various excuses to support Blair are given, including confidentiality. Naturally! They wish to operate behind the backs of the membership, under the cover of anonymity. Margaret Wall, for example, regularly refused to tell the MSF union conference how she voted on Labour’s highest body. She claimed she was not on the NEC representing MSF, but the representative of “all union members”, and so not accountable to the MSF. So these so-called democrats are completely unaccountable. They think they can be a law unto themselves. The conclusion ought to be clear: if these so-called trade union representatives on Labour’s NEC are not reflecting union policies, they should be immediately removed and replaced with genuine union representatives.

  1. Betty Boothroyd, The Autobiography, pp.112-3, my emphasis

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