It is nauseating to watch people who have been in the Labour party for a matter of months, and who probably didn’t vote Labour last year, denouncing the GMB, Britain’s third biggest trade union, for backing Owen Smith. The manner of their denunciation follows the well-trodden Momentum-inspired path: there was a conspiracy to stop members voting; it was a plot by ‘rightwing political officers close to Tom Watson’; the GMB is in hock to the industrial-military complex. And even a repeat of the Tory charge that if there’s a low turnout, the result doesn’t count. This logic reared its ugly head in the rightly hated Trade Union Act.
The reality is that on an individual ballot of the membership (outside of Scotland) Owen Smith won a significant majority. While some within the Church of Corbyn are aghast at the apostasy, most of us are not in the least bit surprised. You see, trade unions exist to further their members’ interests. One of the forerunners to the GMB, the gasworkers’ union, was formed in 1889, the year of the great dock strike in the Port of London. Their principal demand was an eight-hour day, at a time when most gasworkers did a 12-hour day. Ever since, unions have prospered when they have represented their members’ interests: fighting for more pay, healthy workplaces, freedom from persecution or blacklisting, and decent working conditions.
In 1900, the unions decided to form a political party to represent their interests in parliament, taking great pains to reject any notion of insurrection, revolution or being a noisy placard-waving pressure group outside Westminster. That alliance, between organised labour and a parliamentary Labour party, has remained in place ever since. So when GMB members were asked to choose a Labour leader most likely to further their interests, they chose the candidate with the most chance of winning an election.
A majority of GMB members know full well that Jeremy Corbyn will lead Labour to a terrible defeat. Polls this month suggest a Tory majority of 80 or more. At present, Labour needs to win 100 seats to form a majority government. After the next election, that figure could be even higher, which makes it more or less impossible. So Labour might not even be in contention until 2030. This is Corbyn’s legacy: year after year of Tory rule.
No true trade unionist wants that. The men and women of the GMB who represent workers in schools, in the security industry, in supermarkets, who work as cleaners, in pubs, as nursery nurses, in local councils, in the defence industry, or at Amazon are not fools. They are not starry-eyed idealists. Politics for them is no game. Unlike for many in today’s Labour party, the party in power makes a material difference to their income and opportunities. Their support for Labour, and their desire to see it win an election, is a practical response to the situation they’re in.
A moderate Labour government would support our defence industry, and renew Trident to maintain the independent nuclear deterrent that Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevin established. A moderate Labour government would back a third runway at Heathrow, and create and distribute jobs and opportunities across the United Kingdom. It would tackle rogue employers such as Sports Direct, and guarantee more rights for workers. It would create a framework for collective bargaining and modern, responsive trade unionism. It would invest in public services such as the NHS and schools. These are the things that would materially benefit GMB members.
The GMB general secretary Tim Roache has faced vile and cowardly online criticism for the choice made by his members. But he deserves praise for trusting those members and asking for their view. Their decision shows that there are still a few folk around who believe in Labour winning elections, and know that packing out theatres is not the same as piling up Labour votes in marginal seats.
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Paul Richards is author of Labour’s Revival: The Modernisers’ Manifesto. He tweets @LabourPaul