THE trade union movement’s role is to “always find hope in darkness,” delegates at the TUC black workers conference heard today.

Addressing union representatives, TUC assistant general secretary Kate Bell highlighted the current issues facing the world, from the war in the Middle East to the cost-of-living crisis “that never ceases to end and a far right seeking to exploit it.”

“Our movement’s job is always to find hope in that darkness,” she said. “But it’s not just to rely on hope, to build our power to actually deliver change.

“Everywhere we look, it can seem like division and disunity are winning out. Let’s be honest, our movement isn’t always immune from division either.”

Ms Bell said that decades of inequality, years of austerity and the “downgrading of our pay conditions and public services” have left too many people with the idea that Britain is broken.

“But we also know that we can explain the fact that the far right don’t hold the answers,” she said.

“In fact, they want to double down on the situation that got us here. More cuts to public services, more tax breaks for billionaires, more attacks on our rights.

“So we have to stand up loudly and clearly and say that this movement will never believe the false promises of the far right to stand up for the working class.”

Ms Bell said that hope “also starts from having the confidence to stand up for what’s right internationally,” from the illegal wars to humanitarian disasters and genocides.

She added: “We have to stand up for our values and show that the answer to the rise of the far right isn’t fatalism, but a redoubling of our efforts to stay united, to fight for a different future and to win.”