3:00pm Wednesday 10th March 2010
I was pleased to see the level of coverage given to the Trades Council “March For Jobs” (The Argus, March 8).
As an organiser of the march, it was a great day and hopefully will be a step in building our local unions into a real labour movement the likes of which we haven’t seen for many years.
The union still has a way to go before it again reaches the influence it once held but this does not mean, as was perhaps suggested in the Comment article, that it is backwards-looking and outdated.
“Jobs and services, not bailouts for the rich” was the slogan of the demo. If this demand is old-fashioned at a time when inequality is higher than at any point since World War Two, I shudder to think what will have to happen to make it relevant.
The union and socialist movement stands for a society based on solidarity, with work for all and dignity when at work, but it is through our collective action, strikes if necessary, that we can work towards that.
Also, attempts to bring back political representation for the workers’ movement – which is the aim of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition standing in Kemptown – will need to be part of that process.
If working people really care about our future then we need to see the union motto “An injury to one is an injury to all” as increasingly relevant.
Phil Clarke
Brighton Trades Council, St Martins Place, Brighton
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