Now -read the book!

Here is a link to my memoirs which, if you are a glutton for punishment, you can purchase online at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. (William Morris - A Dream of John Ball)

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

What are we going to do now?

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-eced-WHERE-DO-WE-GO-NOW#.VVJgj2pMVxs

I ended the last post on this blog with an implicit echo of Spike Milligan's question - at the end of each episode of the various "Q" series - "what are we going to do now?"

I think that leading Labour movement academic, Keith Ewing, puts the question rather better in the link above.

‎Ewing, quite rightly, poses questions rather than offering solutions - but implicit in the dialogue which he asks us to have is the observation that we need to change.

Our trade unions face an almost existential challenge, from a moderated version of the Combination Acts.

Our present leadership - across the movement as a whole - has overseen the decline of our membership, our density and our collective bargaining coverage. 

No wonder our significance in the political superstructure of the Labour Party has withered as our presence in the real economy has diminished.

We need to respond to the General Election result with a vigorous and emphatic assertion of our role, in the workplace and wider society.

UNISON NEC members attending Committee meetings tomorrow morning can choose to provide leadership.
Or not.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the EE network.





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