PUTTING trade unions back at the heart of communities is key to tackling far-right misinformation, an STUC fringe heard today.

Trade councils have in recent years played a key in repelling far-right activity at hotels used to house people seeking asylum.

But after a similar stand-off in Falkirk, activists in the Forth Valley have built on the example of Edinburgh’s Trade Unions into Communities hub, opening their own.

Gary Clark outlined how Forth Valley Trades Unions into Communities was formed in the wake of an upswing in far-right activity in an area blighted by poverty and job losses at Grangemouth and nearby bus building plant Alexander Dennis.

He said: “People felt disenfranchised that no-one was there to represent them and we knew that this cannot continue.

“Forth Valley Trade Unions into Communities is a political organisation — not party political — because, let’s be clear, life is political.

“We want to build trade unions up. We want it to be automatic that any issue which workers face inside or outside work, they say ‘lets go to our union and let’s fight this’.”