Labour has betrayed its roots

Bianca Todd and Len McCluskey discuss the Labour party

Bianca Todd, one of Left Unity’s principal speakers, has written this piece in the Guardian today about the Labour party special conference held this weekend. Please go to the comments section and participate in the discussion.

From an early age, my grandfather instilled in me one key value: never, ever forget your roots. My grandad was Ron Todd, a lifelong trade unionist and, from 1985 to 1992, the general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union – a predecessor of today’s Unite. He lived by that creed.

However high he rose, he stayed living in the same house, in the community where he grew up. He campaigned for peace, and for the release of Nelson Mandela. He was offered a peerage three times – and three times said no. He didn’t have Sky TV, because he refused to give a penny to Rupert Murdoch. His was a socialism of the heart, with a great humanity, solidarity and internationalism.

He was a member of the Labour party – but at the time he didn’t seem out of place there. Trade union values were Labour values.

That’s why Labour’s latest “reforms” to the trade union link mark such a sad and historic break. Ed Miliband has bowed to rightwing pressure to distance himself from the unions – and walked right into the Tories’ trap.

Let’s face it, no one on your street is going to care about the technicalities. But the key point is that the changes turn the decision to affiliate from a collective one by 1.6 million members into an individual choice on a form. Union members will effectively be asked whether they want their political fund contributions to go to a Labour party that is embarrassed by them, or to be spent on local campaigning instead. Not a hard decision.

As a member of Unite, one of the most exciting things I have been involved in is the union’s community membership. It is organising at grassroots level, empowering ordinary people to fight against the horrific impact of the cuts on our everyday lives. Yet so often we find it is Labour councils making these cuts, so we’re funding the very people we’re campaigning against! I’m sad not to be part of the Labour party any more, but for me it’s simple: if your friend keeps punching you in the face, you stop calling them a friend.

The tragedy is that it was the trade union movement that created the Labour party. We didn’t do it because we wanted to, but because we needed to – we needed a political voice to challenge the people in power. Yet Labour politicians now look and talk the same as every other party – the only difference is the colour of the tie.

Today that need for a political voice hasn’t gone away. That’s why I’m part of Left Unity, the newly founded party that’s working to become a real alternative to Labour, based on putting people before profit. Already we have branches in more than 40 towns and cities across Britain. More disenchanted Labour members and trade unionists are signing up every day – and I encourage you to give it a try too.

We can’t wait for Labour to be “reclaimed” while people are dying in the war on the welfare state. If not now, then when? We need the debate about an alternative to Labour to start being had across the trade union movement.

I feel sure that if Ron Todd were alive today, he would be working to help create that alternative. It’s not just me who has joined Left Unity: we took the decision together, as a family. Ed Miliband’s Labour party has forgotten its roots – but we won’t.