IN one of his columns, Andrew Murray said we should ask elected representatives what they are doing to prevent WW3. Clydebank TUC took him up on that challenge, and the local paper, the Clydebank Post, published the following in our monthly column:

“In our last column in the Post, we shared our open letter from Clydebank TUC to local MP Labour’s Douglas McAllister. This was sent to him on January 24, and he replied three days later saying he would provide us with a further response in due course. Given the time that has elapsed, I think we can deduce we ain’t going to get a further response from Douglas! Maybe he genuinely was intending to get back to us but was told by his masters not to bother. Who knows.

“However, it is of concern that the party that was created by the trade unions to be the political arm of the trade union movement treats its members with such contempt. We are aware, of course, that these days the Labour Party is chasing funding from rich individuals and the big corporations rather than the smaller contributions from affiliated unions. A throwback to the days of Tony Blair.

“It’s also bad for democracy when political representatives ignore the concerns of their constituents. The worries and fears of a coming war were expressed in our correspondence. These fears have multiplied as the drums of war increase in volume by the day and the British government grandstands, detached from reality, as if it were still a world power, with its thirst for war.

“West Dunbartonshire Council and councils across Scotland have just passed budgets which are destroying local government and the services they provide. Yet our blowhard Prime Minister wants 2.6 per cent, for starters, of GDP spent on ‘defence’ as he bids to recruit a European army to put boots on the ground in Ukraine, resulting in a real risk of starting World War III. Keir Starmer’s fantasy is to be paid for by massive cuts to public services, with disability benefits the latest to be targeted. Douglas McAllister MP appears to be fully on board with this madness.

“Poor turnouts at elections caused by an alienated electorate have resulted in a democratic deficit. People don’t vote as they see the establishment parties as all being the same, failing to fight for their interests.

“The focus therefore needs to turn to extra-parliamentary struggle, the building of a campaigning mass movement but one that is closely linked to trade unions at the local level, such as trade union councils along with community groups. We need to rebuild working-class political and industrial power that will sweep away the warmongers and timeservers that presently claim to represent us and replace them with real tribunes of the people.”

We reproduce below the original correspondence sent to the MP:

Dear Mr McAllister MP,

Clydebank TUC at its recent meeting agreed to write to you as below and will urge others to do likewise to their MP, giving notice that they will make the reply public.

What we are experiencing on all fronts shows we are in the midst of a global economic, social, political, military and climate crisis that is on a scale unprecedented in its severity and depth in many of our lifetimes.

“Genocide Joe” is gone across the pond and been replaced by an even more extreme megalomaniac in Donald Trump.

With the war psychosis stoked in the mass media, arguments are being made for 5 per cent of GDP to be spent on armaments, which would decimate our public services. Politicians on all sides have been supportive of Israeli aggression and fail to recognise that Nato’s maximum war aims in Ukraine are unattainable.

We ask the following question:

“What do you intend to do, as a political representative, to stop world war three breaking out in the coming period which many fear is a distinct possibility?”

Tom Morrison is secretary of Clydebank TUC.