Regular readers of Progress will know I have had a few run-ins with them about their approach to trades unions. In particular I do despair of their tendency to conflate leftwing politics with working-class values and use this as a broadbush to caricature trades union leaders. Well, sadly sometimes we get a trade union leader who fully lives up to the caricature (Len McCluskey says resist the cuts and stop worrying about your careers, Camden New Journal 17 January 2013) on calling all Labour councillors to set illegal budgets.
Now, this is no anti-trades unions rant. When I was in paid employment I was always a member of a trade union and it negotiated well on my behalf including a particularly unpleasant period of victimisation. As it happens I was also the Labour organiser in Camden in the 1980s at the height of the rate-capping fiasco and the last period of infantile leftism in local government, infantile in that such tactics never had popular support. I am sure that Len has met a bloke in a pub that wants to spit at Labour councillors but we all need to be careful about translating such views into a representative opinion.
No one disputes the scale of the problems facing all Labour councillors. In my experience (and I have met a lot over the last 10 years) all of them have a deep appreciation of their local communities and the value of public services. The problem is that we lost the last general election and we need to rebuild a popular coalition to win back national power in 2015. As someone who has been a Labour party member for 40 years, believe me, there are no shortcuts to such national victory. As for the slightly cheap remark about the impact of allowances on the behaviour of councillors having just witnessed Arthur Scargill, the icon of the left, suing ordinary miners for £34,000 a year rent on a London flat I think Len should be slightly more circumspect.
What is relevant and where there is a clear connection between trades unionists and councillors is what a future Labour government can offer to its natural supporters. One of the tragedies of New Labour is that it became a job creation scheme for the professional classes. For many working-class towns and communities the 13 years of Labour government left no sustainable economic legacy. One of the most positive outcomes of the period of Labour opposition is the growth of the Cooperative Councils Network based on two clear principles – everyone does their bit so we all benefit and helping people to help themselves. Unless I have misread my Labour history these are also classic trades-union values.
The real opportunity is for Labour councillors and trades unionists to work together to counter the centralising influence within the party. Both have been excluded from decision making by an army of lobbyists and advocates (even well-intentioned ones) who prefer all decisions to be made within the Westminster Village. Well, frankly, that does no favours to the hopes and ambitions of Labour supporters throughout the country. To take one example, outside London we have the highest fares and the worst bus services in Europe because those who make decisions and influence policy never use them. Rather than indulging in pub politics trades union leaders like Len McCluskey should be working out how they build a coalition in Labour heartlands to build trade union membership in the public and private sector and restore working-class values to the Labour party mainstream. Trust me, if they did they would win the wholehearted support of Labour councillors!
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Paul Wheeler is a Progress member and special adviser at the LGA. He writes here in a personal capacity.
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