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Paul Kenny: no lectures from wealthy outsiders and CLP cuckoos

paul kennyThis is the full text of GMB general secretary Paul Kenny’s speech to Labour party conference this morning.

It is a pleasure of speaking today as Chair of TULO, representing the fourteen affiliated trade unions with a collective voice of millions of working people and their families.

The trade union affiliates will only put in one speaker to this discussion.  The reason being we think the real debate this week is about jobs, homes, living standards, employment rights NOT irrelevant navel gazing about internal party structures which frankly the British public do not give a fig about.

TULO views this Report as a document which starts a process but does not end one and Policy making is vital to our discussions. The document contains assumptions and some factual inaccuracies concerning affiliates rights and roles, none the less the premise on which is made is the one TULO will address in the weeks ahead.

The desire to expand Party membership is a shared one but, let nobody be under any illusion that as collective organisations the removal or sale of our collective voice is not on the agenda.

We are proud of who we are and what we have achieved by way of social justice.

We are certainly not going to accept any advice on democracy and transparency from the people who brought us the cash for honours scandals or whose activities are funded by cash from wealthy outsiders who refuse to give to the Party but prefer to lay cuckoos in CLP nests.

And a word, we can expand ad infinitum, the number of people we bring into the tent. But, if what they say is ignored as has been the case in the past, in favour of dinner party babble, then why bother.

  • Privatisation of Health – Unison
  • PFI
  • Manufacturing – Policy / Unite
  • Apprenticeships
  • School meals  – Liberals
  • Tax avoidance – GMB
  • Rail franchises – ASLEF TESSA
  • Bogus self employment – UCATT
  • Royal Mail – CWU
  • Housing – All of us

 

Abuse of working people; collective voices ignored in favour of free market dogma.

So be assured the collective voices of millions of working people and their families, and a hundred years of shared history, will not be washed away or sold for an electoral gimmick. There are many more questions than answers in this Report as you would expect.

The next few weeks will determine whether we make or break the collective link. Now let us get on with the real business of winning back millions of voters to ensure we bring the hope and social justice the British people deserve.

10 Comments

  1. Will says:

    Are there not 15 affiliated unions, not 14?

  2. John p Reid says:

    Seeing as Cash for hours they were cleared,but the Falkirk episode resulted in the Unite candidate retracting her application, this is all abot rich.

    and as for parachuting in people by,buying CLPs ,wht do you think unions do,

  3. Rob the cripple says:

    John that the best yet I cannot stop laughing the tears are rolling down my face Hilarious.

    Have you thought of doing a stand up you would kill them.

  4. John p Reid says:

    Yes I know this joke it was called Tony Benn saying that labour lost in 79 as it wasn’t left wing enough, and when labour lost 4 million votes at the 83 election, he said that,that wasn’t left wing enough either,

  5. Rob the cripple says:

    Well if you say so, of course Benn is history and so is your mate Blair. so we better look ahead and not back.

  6. Rod says:

    Well said, Paul.

    The Sainsbury funded undemocratic entryists have more influence than is healthy and, given the chance, will lead the LP into backward-looking oblivion.

    It’s time to kick them into touch and return the Party to ordinary people.

  7. Peter Hack says:

    There is an urgent need for a proper debate with regard to a fair rent act as a menas to contain poverty, incentivise work and contain property bubbles driven by private landlords who are the principal beneficiaries of the grotesque quantities of public money devoted to propping up the banks via the “property market” NB Northern Rock, the Halifax and QE. Does the labour economic leadership led by Ed Balls even have a central theme to correct the propaganda that it was public spending that created the bust ? Does Balls understand this high rent dynamic across London and Southern England ? What are his risk assessments here ?

  8. Peter Hack says:

    There is an urgent need for a proper debate with regard to a fair rent act as a means to contain poverty, incentivise work and contain property bubbles driven by private landlords who are the principal beneficiaries of the grotesque quantities of public money devoted to propping up the banks via the “property market” NB Northern Rock, the Halifax and QE. Does the labour economic leadership led by Ed Balls even have a central theme to correct the propaganda that it was public spending that created the bust ? Does Balls understand this high rent dynamic across London and Southern England ? What are his risk assessments here ?

  9. Rob the cripple says:

    I was listening to Byrne last night tell us that Labour would end people sitting on benefits because the Dole, well it’s now called JSA would only be for two years asked would people have no benefits he said they’d have a job Labour would tax the rich to ensure everyone had a job.

    I take Labour would again flood the NHS and the Councils with people like myself, but what happens when you have a down turn like we just had, what happens with recession.

    he stated Labour would ensure nobody else spent a life time on benefits , very good but he also stated 2.5 million jobs would be found, we do not have 2.5 million on the dole, we have 11 million people out of work, what about those are you going to get jobs for them the people who sign on but cannot claim benefits.

    Then asked about welfare he proudly stated Labour would ensure a cap on benefits much more severe then the Tories, we will cap rises.

    New Labour Tory Rite god one minute I thought we gone down a new route and what do we get Miliband off again, sorry I cannot vote for this party, and then we started to tell us about what he felt Beveridge means for welfare it was not what labour speaks about.

  10. David Pavett says:

    I am sympathetic to the case made by Paul Kenny but wouldn’t it be great if people participating in this debate could avoid debate blockers of the type “Why are we talking about this? It does not concern the wider public”? This is a piece of rhetorical nonsense used in this and other debates. Paul Kenny says

    “… we think the real debate this week is about jobs, homes, living standards, employment rights NOT irrelevant navel gazing about internal party structures which frankly the British public do not give a fig about.”

    The fact that people not directly involved in party politics are not interested in party organisation issues is not a reason why they should not be discussed. I don’t believe that Paul Kenny, or indeed anyone else, actually believes that. It is an argument used by people who would prefer that the issues in question were not being discussed. It would be good for the general level of discussion if people stopped using it.

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