DOZENS of trade unionists have packed an event in Glasgow marking the launch of a “critical” new book on the trade union movement.

History Professor Elaine McFarland chaired Tuesday night’s meeting at the Unite buiding in Glasgow.

Describing State of Struggle by John McInally — the latest in the Class Work Unions series from Manifesto Press — she said: “This book is about the rise of PCS as a left-led union.

“It’s also about a critical period in British history, because there is a myth that working-class resistance ended after the miners’ strike, but this book tells a very different story about how that resistance continued and was led by unions like PCS. 

“It’s also a book with contemporary relevance.”

The author, a working-class activist of over 40 years standing, pointed out that relevance in a time he described as “the most dangerous I can remember.”

Mr McInally said: “The theme of the book is about trade unions, the labour movement in general and those two big competing forces — militant trade unionism that fights for the workers with proper demands and those who collaborate with the ruling class.

“It’s not just a trip down memory lane. Yes, it’s an analysis and it’s a history, but it’s also a guide to action and it’s a defence of socialist ideas and of socialist methods.

“It’s not abstract. It explains how a group of workers came from what at one point were some of the most conservative workplaces in the country for a long period of time, becoming the most militant.

“There is a crisis in the trade union movement, but also on the left.

“We’re not ultraleftists, we don’t say that the unions are useless. Unions are not revolutionary organisations, but properly led with the right policies, they can conduct struggle even of a revolutionary character in defence of the working class. 

“We have to get serious and that means we need to be serious about our demands. 

“That means listening to workers. A good ear, then a good voice.”

Taking part in the meeting online, former PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “If you’re radical and don’t take your members with you, you produce nothing. If members want to fight and you’re not radical enough, that fight is squandered.

“This book sets out that that balance of being bold leaders but rooted and taking members with you is the key to winning change.”