Len McCluskey, flanked by Jeremy Corbyn and other comrades, at the launch of his autobiography Always Red
CORBYNISM has “changed British politics forever” and Unite’s role in the movement is one of his proudest achievements, Len McCluskey told a packed launch for his autobiography Always Red on Wednesday night.
The former Unite general secretary’s book traces his life from growing up in Liverpool and becoming a shop steward when workers’ industrial power in this country was at its height in the 1970s to becoming general secretary and helping shift Labour to the left from 2010, culminating in the “extraordinary journey” of the Jeremy Corbyn movement’s challenge to British capitalism.
Mr McCluskey recalled how disappointment at then Labour leader Ed Miliband’s opportunistic attack on Unite – rooted in baseless allegations of wrongdoing concerning the selection of a Labour candidate for Falkirk in 2013 – turned to realisation that reform of Labour’s relationship with the unions would be an opportunity for change that nobody expected. The one-member one-vote leadership election process then introduced resulted in Mr Corbyn winning the Labour leadership in 2015.
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
