THE TUC, through its 47 member unions, directly represents over five million trade unionists and fights to improve our pay and conditions.

But it also signifies much more: it is the democratic voice of British workers. Whereas the capitalist class has the Confederation of British Industry, the British Chamber of Commerce, the Conservative Party, the City, the squadrons of lobbyists walking the corridors of power, and a Labour Party seemingly walking in lockstep with it, we, the workers, have the TUC to fight for us.

Therefore, it is vital that the TUC always represents our interests and the interests of our class. Which is why the University and College Union (UCU) believes the TUC’s decision, in 2022, to campaign for increased defence spending, even as the country endured Tory austerity, now needs correction.

Today, at the TUC 157th annual congress, workers will make a momentous decision, to vote for wages or for weapons. UCU is calling on every delegate to back our motion: wages not weapons.

We are calling on delegates to do so because after 14 long years of austerity, the workers’ movement helped thrust Labour into office so it would sweep away Tory decay and stand up for us.

But now, when we demand fair wages, decent housing and an end to the two-child benefit cap, or more investment in our education system, postal service and the NHS, the government tells us there’s no cash left.

Even though, on Donald Trump’s say so, Labour can find the money to funnel into the war industry. A £75 billion increase over the next six years.

It would cost £3.5bn to abolish the two-child benefit cap in its entirety; just £2.3bn per year is allocated to the government’s affordable housing programme; and lest we forget, Starmer attempted to slash £5bn from disability benefits.

Why so little for our security at home: for workers, for our families and our communities? Why so much for death and destruction abroad? Leaving Britain in a state of decay while pouring tens more billions of pounds into the global war machine only deepens the insecurity of working people.

Yet there will be some within our movement who issue the clarion call: “More money for arms is good for jobs.” They will say our motion is an attack on arms industry workers and instead urge delegates to back ballooning defence budgets.

That is the argument of militarism: it begins with a call to arms; it ends in wholesale slaughter. Whether that’s the young men of the British empire marching to their death across the battlefields of the Somme, Verdun and Gallipoli, or the women and children of Gaza looking up to see bombs rain down on them from fighter jets with fuselages birthed in Lancashire.

Pound for pound, spending the additional £75bn that’s currently allocated for arms, instead, on a green new deal, health, education, housing or local government would create more jobs, provide a greater boost to the economy, and do much more to help our communities.

Yes, we need a just transition for the workers employed through the defence budget. But no doubt, on the eve of its abolition, the union for hangmen also decried the end of capital punishment.

It’s time for the working class to stop Starmer using our taxes to fund foreign wars; it’s time to stand up for our communities. Today, the UCU and the nine other unions that have joined our campaign are urging the labour movement to put the country first — and back wages, not weapons.