Dave Prentis issued his "call to arms" today to a Conference which had been waiting to hear this.
His well received, and militant, speech dealt not only with the issue of the moment - the increasing inevitability of sustained and coordinated joint union action to defend our pensions.
As well as attacking the Coalition Government, our General Secretary was sharply critical of the Labour leadership, rejecting Ed Ball's unsolicted advice to refrain from strike action. Dave said that, in future, we will only support Labour politicians who support us.
A couple of remarks were particularly noteworthy to insiders. Dave singled out a few key activists for praise by name, the first two of whom, Mike Tucker (Southampton) and John Burgess (Barnet) are leftwing Branch Secretaries often associated with the United Left. (Mike missed this as he is not at Conference for the first time in many years as he is organising co-ordinated and sustained joint union strike action!)
Dave also said there were "no enemies inside this hall" a remark which optimists in Manchester are reading alongside a statement published today by the (not uninfluential) Communist Party of Britain calling for an end to the use of administrative (and disproportionate) means to resolve political differences.
If this presages an end to avoidable internal strife that will be most welcome.
We need to focus our fire on the Government. Not each other.
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
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