TRADE unions must become the most effective opposition if Labour keeps attacking the poorest, National Education Union leader Daniel Kebede said on Tuesday night.
Addressing a standing-room-only Socialist Campaign Group-Labour Assembly Against Austerity fringe meeting, Mr Kebede said Labour needed to reverse its decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance and roll out free school meals for all.
Lifting the two-child benefit cap was a “no-brainer” that would lift 300,000 children out of poverty at a stroke, he said. “What sort of government continues that [cap]? It’s absolutely abhorrent.”
The NEU general secretary said unions needed to challenge the government since “we are seeing what happens to dissent in the Labour Party, and it’s absolutely disgraceful,” referring to the suspension of the whip from rebels who voted to reduce child poverty.
And he called for the labour movement to mobilise on the streets against the far-right threat, in particular to counter Tommy Robinson’s planned racist demonstration on October 26.
Suspended Labour MP John McDonnell defended his decision to defy the whip on child benefits: “I wasn’t elected as a Labour MP to impoverish my constituents.
“You can’t say you’re ending austerity when you’re depriving pensioners of the way to keep warm in winter.”
Mr McDonnell also demanded an end to arms sales to Israel amid its horrific war in Gaza and mass bombing of Lebanon, now also killing hundreds of civilians.
Public & Commercial Services union general secretary Fran Heathcote said Labour claimed to aim for “the highest sustained growth in the G7.
“That will not be achieved unless you boost the income of workers. A strong economy requires consumers with disposable income.
“Above-inflation public-sector pay offers this year are welcome but don’t go far enough,” she stressed, calling for pay restoration after years of real-terms decline.
Richard Burgon, another MP suspended from the whip for standing up for children, said the party leadership needed to respect ordinary Labour members, who time and again had been right when leaders had been wrong.
Quoting Tony Benn, he urged the government to recognise that “the crisis we inherit when we come to power will be the occasion for fundamental change, and not the excuse for postponing it.”
