DURHAM Miners’ Gala is our opportunity as a labour and trade union movement to assess where we are as an organised working class and to remember those who built the foundations that we stand on today.
 
For the first time in nearly 15 years, we hold the gala under a Labour government.
 
I spoke on the media during the election night broadcasts where I said I was looking forward to seeing the Conservatives crushed at the ballot box.
 
And indeed, they were. To see the back of a corrupt, incompetent and vicious Tory government is good news for working-class people and they will now expect the incoming Labour government to make real quantifiable changes to them and their family's lives.
 
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is inheriting a difficult set of economic circumstances at home and a more unstable and volatile world.
 
As a result, some have tried to argue, that this is a time for caution and to be “steady,” whatever that means.
 
When living standards are falling for ordinary people and the world continues to inch along ever closer to global conflict, it is even more vital that you are bold in taking the steps required to uplift the lives of working people and to promote peace in the world.
 
In 1945 when Labour was elected, the country was destroyed. The aftermath of WWII and the Allies heroic defeat of Nazism had left Britain economically devastated.
 
The national debt was at 250 per cent of GDP compared with 100 per cent today and the Attlee Labour government made profound interventions into the economy, including a mass council house building programme, constructed the NHS and worked towards full employment.
 
Britain is the sixth-largest economy in the world and Labour has an opportunity to have at least 10 years in government to make profound changes for working people.
 
RMT is not affiliated to Labour, and we took a view at the General Election to get the Tories out.
 
It is now incumbent on the movement to make the demands of the Labour government, which for us as a transport and maritime union, include implementing public ownership of the railways, securing a deal in our national rail dispute, pushing for the new deal for workers, insourcing of jobs from ruthless private contractors and finding a resolution on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary pay dispute.
 
All these things are achievable, and Labour has a mandate to make it happen within its first term in office.
 
But there are rightly concerns expressed within the wider labour movement about new Chancellor Rachel Reeves sticking to Tory spending limits and her recent announcement that no new council houses will be built.
 
If Labour wants to secure a second term and stave off the rise of the right-wing Reform party, it will have to be bold and make interventions in the economy that they are claiming are not possible due to the dire state the previous Tory government left the country in.
 
Clement Attlee and the great reformers within the Labour governments of old looked at what was needed to be done in terms of policy and then made the necessary changes to the economy to make their objectives a reality.
 
That is how the welfare state was created and that is how you build a strong economy with workers at the centre of decision-making, where we look after those in need and create the foundations of a society that is more equal and plays a role on the international stage that promotes peace and co-operation between nations.
 
Under this Labour government, we must build a strong independent trade union movement capable of uniting workers from all backgrounds, and one which is strong enough to guide and if necessary, push, our new Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the right direction.