THIS is my favourite period in the labour movement calendar, albeit it kicks off with a sombre event, International Workers’ Memorial Day, when we remember those killed for corporate profit while trying to make a living, and rededicate ourselves to improve health and safety at work.

Meeting up with comrades at the STUC followed, for discussion and developing policy, with a bit of socialising thrown in. Then it was May Day.

A theme heard throughout the Congress from delegates, from the rostrum and in the fringe, was the need for the movement to be embedded with workers on the shop floor and the community.

Hence the importance of the rank and file, branch committees and shop stewards engaging with their members, and the trade union councils linking between the trade union movement and working-class communities.

Many people are struggling out there in what we are told is the fifth richest country in the world, the working poor, the disabled, pensioners, etc. For many life is … well shit. Low wages and widespread precarious work, inadequate housing, the NHS failing staff and patients, with public services failing. All this while wealth inequality is obscene.

The parties of the establishment have failed them by implementing the policies of neoliberalism and not fighting for an alternative political economic strategy. None of these parties are willing to join with trade unions and community groups and say we are not going to implement so-called “savings.”

Then comes along Reform PLC, led by the super-rich masquerading as tribunes for the people.

The comprehensive STUC reports in this paper last week detailed the motions passed or remitted, and the hypocrisy of visiting politicians (Grangemouth anyone?) so I won’t repeat the important decisions made, for instance, on the rise of the far right.

Locally, there is a Reform candidate standing in a Clydebank by-election. His glossy four-page brochure, getting peddled in what was the heart of Red Clydeside, has a headline — Make A Stand Against The Cuts (ironic given their comments since the local elections). Something the local trade unions have been urging the politicians to do for years to no avail.

It is a clever leaflet which goes through the horrendous record of cuts made by SNP and Labour politicians over the years. They claim Reform will never charge you to use the NHS — no mention of the voucher scheme.

The candidate even sounds sympathetic to the trade unions (despite Reform’s voting record in Parliament) and uses the term “Enough is Enough,” which would surely have Mick Lynch choking on his roll and chips.

He rightly states that Labour and SNP have taken Clydebank for granted. This will chime with many working-class voters and it’s ineffective, indeed counterproductive, to be shouting racist scum off our streets. Some say, well, if that makes me racist, then I’m a racist.

Reform are picking up on issues that are important to the people as they move the political agenda to the far right. We have got to address these in the interest of our class and win people for our position.

That means going out to talk to people on the streets and on the shop floor, developing a class consciousness that is sadly missing. Social media has a role to play, but it’s through face-to-face discussion that people can be won for the left alternative. It is only through political agitation and education that we can hope to build that alternative.

Finally, May Day. The Glasgow march concluded at Glasgow University Union, once the bastion of all-male “future leaders,” as it operated a no-women entry rule.

How times have changed as women played a major role in organising the rally and speaking at it.

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer gave a blistering speech castigating the right wing and racists. But before that, Professor John Foster, leading British Marxist, gave an outstanding contribution as reported by Matt Kerr in the paper.

Foster was given a presentation by the STUC for his outstanding contribution to the movement over more than five decades.

Afterwards, Foster came over to get his jacket and was beside himself with embarrassment with “all the fuss,” especially so when I told him his speech was fully caught on video.

He epitomises all that is good in the movement, communist humility and a lovely human being.