Long Before Time

One of the reasons I voted for Sharon Graham in the Unite Union Leadership contest was her manifesto commitment to drastically reduce the funding that the Union gave to the Labour Party each year, a party that in my opinion had stopped being a working mans or woman’s party a long time ago. The announcement from Unite yesterday was very welcome indeed with Sharon saying “The fact that I am being quite robust is because Labour needs to talk about workers, needs to defend workers and needs to defend communities.” Under Keir Starmer (Sir) Labour have moved closer to those who fund the Tory Party rather than defend those who are the members of the Labour Party. Labour stopped being the workers party a long time ago and while I toally accept that someone needs to fund Labour given the Tories are backed by some of the most disgusting individuals and companies anywhere the simple fact is if the Labour Party can’t defend workers, and workers rights, poor communities then they are nothing and should not receive a penny in my opinion.

Sharon goes on to say “this week’s Labour reshuffle, regarded by many at Westminster as a shift to the right, as “white noise” and lamented the lack of a shadow secretary of state for employment rights and protections, saying it was “not a good signal” for the party to send. She said she would instead put money into campaigns, “If we can get in a national care service in Scotland, if we can drive that through, then let’s put the resource in Scotland, let’s get some campaigning going on there properly.”

 Sharon Graham did not attend the recent Labour Conference, instead she was standing on a picket line with Unite members but noted that she had met Starmer, but that Westminster’s obsession with party rules and whether there was “tax [cut] on champagne” during the budget was a sign of how out of touch politicians could become.

“I don’t know what world they’re living in, but [they] don’t live in the one in I’m living in, because [in] the one I’m inhabiting, people are frightened. They feel that they don’t know what’s happening next. They are angry. They are in pain. And the idea that the politicians can’t get their act together and start talking about what to do about it I find outrageous,” she said.

It is so refreshing to hear a union leader focussed on the right things and putting her actions where her mouth is, following through on her manifesto pledge, Unite gave the Labour Party over £3 million pounds leading up to the last election and while nothing compared to the £8 million the Tories got from largely large companies and overseas donors, Labour need to be reminded and learn the hard way of what they allegedly stand for and who they represent, it is time for Labour members to have a serious think about Starmer, what he stands for, and what Labour stand for.

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