{"id":9233,"date":"2016-07-12T09:03:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T08:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9233"},"modified":"2016-07-12T17:26:33","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T16:26:33","slug":"shoulder-to-shoulder-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9233","title":{"rendered":"Shoulder-to-shoulder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a powerful speech Unite general secretary Len McCluskey told Unite Policy Conference delegates yesterday (July 11) that the Labour Party must step away from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098squalid coup\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that has engulfed the party in recent weeks and pull together for the sake of working\u00c2\u00a0 people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In his keynote address to the conference, McCluskey believed that with a general election looming, a divided Tory party in government and Brexit talks which will see workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 living standards and rights up for negotiation, the Labour Party should be seizing the opportunity to present a government-in-waiting \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not \u00e2\u20ac\u0098turning inwards in its own leadership row\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098cowardly attack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on the leader.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is time for everyone to commit to a democratic and dignified procedure as the only way to avert a disaster for working people,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere could yet be an early election.\u00c2\u00a0Whenever it comes it is an opportunity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not a threat as some see it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an opportunity to get rid of a hopeless, hapless, divided Tory Party which has led the country to disaster and then walked away.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur country is riven after the EU referendum. Our movement is divided \u00e2\u20ac\u201c bitterly and unnecessarily. Jobs are in jeopardy, and long-established rights could be under threat.\u00c2\u00a0Millions of working people are looking for urgent answers to the crisis engulfing us. Our members and many besides are looking for a way forward,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McCluskey also warned that efforts to keep Jeremy Corbyn off the ballot paper in the upcoming leadership challenge will only serve to deepen the divisions within the party.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Work with the unions <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Placing the blame for the instability presently embroiling the Labour Party firmly at the feet of those within it who have never accepted Jeremy Corbyn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s victory last summer, McCluskey urged the party to work with the unions to find a negotiated settlement to deliver a strong Labour party determined to hold the Tories to account.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also turned his fire onto the Conservative party, angrily denouncing a rudderless government that has thrown the country into a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pit of uncertainty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 over Europe, and the Leave campaign for creating a climate of uncertainty and division for people and their communities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Addressing Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s policy conference in Brighton, Len McCluskey said:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bJust a year after being elected, a government rudderless and to blame for dispatching the country, via an unprepared referendum, into a pit of uncertainty.\u00c2\u00a0How ironic that a manoeuvre designed to overcome Tory divisions has ended up creating the mother of all splits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat a chance for Labour to step forward and speak for the country.\u00c2\u00a0To offer itself as the strong opposition and government-in-waiting that millions are looking for in this situation.\u00c2\u00a0 It was time for unity and a calm voice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead we have seen a cowardly attack launched against the party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elected leader which has deprived the country of all parliamentary opposition and let the Conservatives off scot-free in their moment of turmoil.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is the responsibility of people who had never accepted Jeremy Corbyn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s victory last year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they never accepted his overwhelming democratic mandate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut whatever doubts there may have been, surely the whole movement could agree that here was an opportunity after the referendum. To speak for Britain.\u00c2\u00a0To provide real opposition to a broken government.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead, some powerful interests saw it as a different opportunity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one to overturn a vote of just ten months ago by launching a squalid Westminster bubble coup.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis was an attempted political lynching, designed to bully and bludgeon Jeremy Corbyn, this deeply decent and kind man, out of the job he was elected to do.\u00c2\u00a0 It has snowballed into a wrecking operation against the Labour Party itself, destroying it at least temporarily as a parliamentary force.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turning to the conduct of the shadow cabinet, Len McCluskey said:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI know some of those who quit did so with a heavy heart, and some with a measure of dignity.\u00c2\u00a0But the instigators of this will be branded forever with the mark of infamy for betraying their party and their country, for putting their selfish personal interests first when the times called for solidarity and statesmanship.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet me ask Angela Eagle, who I regard as an old friend, but who resigned as Business Secretary a question\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c did you give thirty seconds thought as to how this would help the workers at Tata, fighting for a future made still more uncertain by Brexit?\u00c2\u00a0Or the oil and gas industry facing obliteration?\u00c2\u00a0Or have they been abandoned in their moment of need?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOn the other hand, I have nothing but praise for those people who stayed in the Shadow Cabinet and those comrades who stepped forward \u00e2\u20ac\u201c often unprepared \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to fill the gaps in order to make sure that there was something like a functioning Labour front bench able to hold the Tories to account.\u00c2\u00a0They are heroes of the movement and they too will not be forgotten.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bJeremy Corbyn has always \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0always – stood by us, stood on the picket lines, joined our campaigns, argued our case in parliament, advocated for workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe stood by us.\u00c2\u00a0What sort of people would we be, had we joined in the witch-hunt?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNever mind that I could not have come to this conference, I could not have looked myself in the mirror, had this union done anything other than stand by Jeremy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pressing once more for a negotiated way out of the present turmoil within the party Len McCluskey urged the Labour party to find a way back to working together:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere needs to be reconciliation with the Parliamentary Labour Party.\u00c2\u00a0We must re-establish mutual respect and unity and address real concerns over campaigning, policy, image and the rest. That is what I was working for over the last week \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to try and hold our Party together, as the trade unions have done so many times in the past when politicians have let us down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is regrettable that these efforts have been sabotaged.\u00c2\u00a0I will however continue to work with trade union colleagues and others to chart a way forward, including meeting the legitimate concerns of Labour MPs.\u00c2\u00a0Since there is now to be a leadership election, I must warn that any attempts to keep Jeremy Corbyn off the ballot paper risks a lasting division in the Party.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd for that Labour must unite, and speak both for those in its heartlands who, in despair, voted for Brexit as well as those millions deeply angry and fearful at the way the Tories have taken us out of the EU.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis union is up for the struggle, both to reunite Labour and take the fight to the Tories.\u00c2\u00a0 In doing so we will be expressing the profoundest interests of all working people in our country.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also turned his fire on the Leave campaign for the upsurge in racial attacks since the EU referendum, taking the opportunity to send a message to migrant workers in the UK that they are welcome in Unite:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe must condemn with all the force we can muster the disgusting upsurge of racist attacks on migrants and black Britons alike undertaken by racists emboldened by the referendum result.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe moral responsibility for these outrages rests squarely with those elements of the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLeave\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 campaign who chose to conduct their campaign from the sewer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut let me say on behalf of this union \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Unite stands shoulder-to-shoulder in unconditional solidarity with all workers, wherever they come from, now facing abuse and violence in our country.\u00c2\u00a0Together with our whole movement and all decent men and women we say \u00e2\u20ac\u201c no to the racists: yes to workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 solidarity.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a powerful speech Unite general secretary Len McCluskey told Unite Policy Conference delegates yesterday (July 11) that the Labour Party must step away from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098squalid coup\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that has engulfed the party in recent weeks and pull together for the sake of working\u00c2\u00a0 people.   In his keynote address to the conference, McCluskey believed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[210,545],"wps_subtitle":"Labour Party: don't turn from working people ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9233"}],"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=9233"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9237,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9233\/revisions\/9237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}