‘Unite and promote our alternative’

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey gave a rousing speech that prompted a standing ovation on Monday (September 24) at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

Moving a composite on building an economy for the many, McCluskey pointed out that despite at a time when “everything possible has been used to attack and undermine” the Labour Party and its leader Jeremy Corbyn, the party is still ahead of the Tories in the polls.

This, he said “tells us something about our country” and the economy people want.

“People are desperate for hope, crying out for an alternative to austerity, fed up with inequality and the economics of privatisation outsourcing and deregulation and anxious about a blundering Tory ‘no deal’ Brexit,” he said.

“And they can see through the venomous attacks for what they are – the last throw of an elite desperate to hang on to its privileges, perks and ill-gotten case,” McCluskey added.

The Labour Party’s lead in the polls, he went on to say, also “tells us something about our Party and our movement — we are stronger than our enemies.”

“And their abuse is the highest compliment they could pay us – they feel threatened and they are right to be so,” he added, warning that the Labour movement is “coming for their fat cat tax fiddles.”

“We’re going to take back the railways, water, energy,” he said to thundering applause. “We’re going to build houses for the people, not for foreign oligarchs. We’re going to kick the capitalists out of the NHS. We’re going to lift the burden of debt from our young people.

“And we are going to give trade unions and working people their rights back — so we can look the bosses in the eye and end their abuses from McDonalds to Uber.”

McCluskey said that this was the exact programme that last year won Labour the most votes in a century and he cautioned that “we would be insane to retreat an inch from it.”

“The polls prove that that the British people want that agenda put into action,” he added. “They want that change – as soon as the Tories dare risk a general election.”

The Unite leader called for a party that was “was united in promoting our alternative.”

“I’m not talking about an unthinking agreement on everything or blind loyalty,” he explained. “Anyone has a right to disagree and a right to criticise. We are a democratic party.”

“But I am talking about some MPs turning into an echo chamber for whatever line of attack the Tories and the press are deploying against us.

“Yes — anyone with a point of view should be heard,” he added. “But anyone screaming ‘you are a racist’ at Jeremy Corbyn has lost every sense of moral proportion, every shred of decency.

“Nor do we need any lessons on racism from the professional racists of the Daily Mail and the Sun,” he argued. “Not one of them has done a fraction as much for community relations as Jeremy Corbyn.”

McCluskey hailed the Labour Party as one of “unity, equality, and justice” while it is the Tories, he said “who stoke fear and hatred.”

“So we should not let the attacks put us on the back foot for a minute. It’s time we all – each and every one of us – spoke up for our Leader.

The Unite general secretary called Corbyn “the most decent and principled man in politics today”, someone who “should not have to face these attacks alone. And while Unite is here and good comrades like you, he will never have to.”

He warned against those who are pushing for a breakaway party, as he pointed out that “if the centre ground is fighting for a better deal for working people and protecting our communities, look no further. It’s right here in the Labour Party.”

He called on Labour MP Chuka Umunna to “drop the country club plotting” and “listen to working people the length and breadth of the country. Get behind the Party that made you. And join the rest of this movement in fighting to get rid of this rotten government.

“Give our country the fresh start it needs,” he concluded to a standing ovation. “And make Jeremy Corbyn the People’s Prime Minister.”