{"id":7361,"date":"2016-01-19T13:36:02","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T13:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7361"},"modified":"2016-01-19T16:41:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T16:41:24","slug":"tyrants-fall-at-every-foe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7361","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Tyrants fall at every foe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Unity was at the heart of Unite general secretary Len McCluskey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech to Unite Scottish delegates at the first ever Scottish policy conference held in Glasgow on January 16 and 17.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Len said it was \u00e2\u20ac\u015ban honour to address Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first Scottish conference\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He called it \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba landmark in the life of our union and the development of our democratic structure,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 adding, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe passion and enthusiasm which marked the independence referendum debate in 2014 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c whichever way you ended up voting \u00e2\u20ac\u201c always seemed to me a model of how politics ought to be discussed and debated in our nations.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe all have a lot to learn from that. This conference shows the strength of our democracy of Unite and its flexibility to meet new challenges and changes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt means that the voice and views of Unite Scotland will be heard still louder and clearer. Not just within Unite itself \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that was always the case. But in Scotland, in your workplaces and communities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is one of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s founding principles that decisions are taken by the members who are affected by them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo it is right that on matters were the decisions are taken by the Scottish government and other Scottish institutions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur Scottish members should decide our attitude and policy within the overall framework of our common Unite vision and values.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur union unites working people throughout Britain and Ireland. We stand for a class unity across all borders and all national or religious differences, just as we unite across gender and ethnic differences.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the founding ideals of our movement. But unity is also a burning necessity just to get our routine business done in the interests of our members.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThroughout these islands we have to deal with the same employers and the same problems caused by big business and global capitalism. Exploitation and economic crisis respect no frontier posts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd when capital is already footloose and roaming the world looking for the highest rate of profit and the cheapest labour, it is not time for the organisations of working people to be fragmenting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd let me say here, while talking about the unity at work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that I am proud to be the leader of the union of Stevie Deans, Mark Lyon and all our members who stood up for the trade unionism at INEOS in 2013. They sought to destroy us.\u00c2\u00a0 They failed.\u00c2\u00a0 We are still there and will be long after they are gone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need our democracy and our unity if we are to measure up to the immense challenges we face today: the savage and partisan trade union Bill, which brazenly sets out to diminish, if not destroy, free trade unionism politically, industrially and organisationally; the renewed crisis in manufacturing, with the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMarch of the Makers\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 now exposed as the hot air of a Party that remains 100 per cent in hock to the City of London; and the continuing obsession with austerity, which can now be seen for what it is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not an emergency attempt to balance the books, but a determined drive to dismantle the welfare state and the National Health Service through cuts and privatisation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is up to meeting those challenges on every front.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Work Voice Pay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAt last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s national sector conferences, we launched our Work Voice Pay<\/em> campaign to help refocus the union on our core function \u00e2\u20ac\u201c winning in the workplace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers join Unite above all to help them at work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with job security, decent pay and other conditions, and giving them protection when they need it and a voice at all times.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat means different things in different places \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the issues in a finance sector call centre will be different to those in a bus garage or a building site.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut all Unite members whether public services or private sector services deserve the same basic standards at work, and above all respect. Every part of our union must be working together to make sure they secure it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be vital in 2016. We can already see the signs of a new economic crisis.\u00c2\u00a0 Falling oil prices are hitting jobs in Aberdeen and the North Sea. Manufacturing output is plummeting.\u00c2\u00a0 And there is still only the barest signs of recovery in real wages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo Work Voice Pay needs to be more than just a slogan. It needs to be a daily guide to action for every officer and every lay activist in our union.\u00c2\u00a0 Fighting for a better deal at work is the best possible way to tell the Tories that they will never eliminate trade unionism from our society.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Political challenge <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe face political challenges too, and nowhere more so than here in Scotland. You have an SNP government in Holyrood, and almost every constituency is represented by an SNP MP in Westminster.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThousands of Unite members have voted for them. I may not agree with that choice, but I can understand it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn some cases, it is a vote that comes from a settled belief that Scotland should be an independent nation-state. And in others it is a cry of frustration at the failures of Labour in Scotland over a generation, and a recognition that the SNP has stolen some of Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social-democratic clothes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor Unite, we are happy to work with an SNP government that appears to value trade unions, to pay more than lip service to social justice and community cohesion, and to share many of our values on other issues as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNicola Sturgeon and her team have reached out to trade unions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including on vital issues like blacklisting \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and we would be letting our members down if we responded anything other than enthusiastically.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPreferring a Labour administration cannot mean being blind to reality, or ignoring the opportunities that we have to advance Unite members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 interests.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut being a friend does not mean being an uncritical friend. We can and should demand more from the SNP.\u00c2\u00a0 Nicola\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s government should not be hiding behind procedural niceties in relation to the trade union Bill.\u00c2\u00a0 Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just oppose this wretched bill, but block it in Scotland.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re at it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c end the council tax freeze and really go the extra mile to lift the cloud of austerity from the lives of the people of Scotland.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhatever the SNP does or doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do in Edinburgh or Westminster, Unite remains a Labour union, here in Scotland as across all of Britain.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSometimes that is not an easy place to be. I understand that many Scottish working people, particularly perhaps the young, feel betrayed and let down by the New Labour years, by\u00c2\u00a0 a party which had grown bureaucratic and remote from people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s needs and, still more importantly, their hopes and visions for the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNew Labour let us all down \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the illegal wars, the creeping privatisation, the widening inequality, the failure to support manufacturing jobs, the indifference to anti-union legislation. All this is the opposite of everything we believe in and looked to Labour to represent, in England and Wales as much as here in Scotland.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s acknowledge something else \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future looks a lot brighter than its past and, to be honest, far more exciting than any of us would have believed possible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turning a corner<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnder Jeremy Corbyn Labour is turning a corner. It is rediscovering its radicalism.\u00c2\u00a0 Reaching out to those it has abandoned, or who drifted away in disappointment years ago.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn no small part this is thanks to the support our union has given to him, and to the political strategy we have followed inside Labour for the last five years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOf course it is also due to the desire for change amongst hundreds of thousands of Labour members and supporters, and many young people, who have seen the chance to make our Party something different, more progressive and more open and democratic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere can be no doubt that this has got the establishment rattled. The attacks on Corbyn from the media and the Labour right are proof of that.\u00c2\u00a0 They attack Corbyn not because they think he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t win, but because they fear he might.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNow is not the moment for Unite to be losing focus, let alone losing heart. We need to persuade Scottish workers too that they are getting their party back, that it can reconnect to working people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be down to Jeremy alone. Kezia Dugdale and her team have to play their part too, and head in to the elections in May on a radical policy agenda designed to regain the trust of our people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd we in Unite must do our bit. Making the case that the changes we really need in society require Labour in power in Scotland as well as London.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut however our members vote, we as a union need to maintain our unity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and also to build on the tremendous levels of political engagement shown in that referendum campaign.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet me end by pledging the full support and commitment of the whole of Unite to all of your work and all of your struggles here in Scotland.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhatever the future brings, we are one union, united in solidarity across these islands.<\/p>\n

We stand on the principles of class and socialism, principles bred into our movement here in Scotland for a century or more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne hundred years ago here on the Clyde, brave men and women took industrial action and organised rent strikes, fighting for justice and peace, amid the horrors of the First World War.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey raised the red flag in conditions far more difficult than we face today.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet that glorious past, which is our heritage, inform our own struggle for a better future for the working people of Scotland, throughout Britain and indeed across the world. And together let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s make a future to hand on to our children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs Rabbie Burns said,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLay the proud usurpers low<\/em><\/p>\n

Tyrants fall in every foe<\/em><\/p>\n

Liberty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in every blow<\/em><\/p>\n

Let us do \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or die!\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pic by Craig Macl<\/em>ean<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unity was at the heart of Unite general secretary Len McCluskey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech to Unite Scottish delegates at the first ever Scottish policy conference held in Glasgow on January 16 and 17.   Len said it was \u00e2\u20ac\u015ban honour to address Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first Scottish conference\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.   He called it \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba landmark in the life of our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[160,90],"wps_subtitle":"Unite GS inspires Scottish delegates","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7362,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361\/revisions\/7362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}