For the last three months I have been touring the country meeting working men and women as I campaign to be re-elected as Unite’s General Secretary. I have been listening to their hopes and fears in the factories, bus garages, building sites and hospitals. They are worried about their jobs above all, about Theresa May’s […]
Keeping Corbyn off the ballot paper risks a lasting division in the party
Jul 9th, 2016 by Len McCluskey.I am dismayed at the statement issued by Tom Watson announcing his withdrawal from talks aimed at resolving the crisis in the Labour Party. Extraordinarily I received no notice of this statement before it was issued. I had made arrangements for a meeting of trade union leaders, Tom Watson and representatives of the PLP and […]
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Labour: stop being scared of your own shadow
Oct 20th, 2014 by Len McCluskey.In Len McCluskey’s clear and robust speech to the TUC march on Saturday, he delivered a warning to Labour: Stop being scared of your own shadow. Don’t shrink what you offer to the British people. The time for timid is past. Be brave. Be inspired by this march today. Believe that people power and working class […]
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Len responds to the media witch-hunt of Unite
Nov 11th, 2013 by Len McCluskey.This is an abridged version of a speech delivered today to Unite’s industrial conference in Brighton at which 1200 trade unionists from across all twenty Unite industrial sectors will gather this week. Today, we meet in the middle of a vast media witch-hunt against our union, reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s. We are facing […]
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Unite is at a turning point in its relationship with the Labour Party
Jul 24th, 2013 by Len McCluskey.This is the abridged text of a speech made today at a meeting of the Unite executive council and regional political committees at the TUC’s conference centre in London It is clear we are at a turning point in the historic relationship Unite and its predecessor unions have had with the Labour party. This will […]
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Yes, Labour’s selection process has been abused, but not by the unions
Jul 9th, 2013 by Len McCluskey.Getting those who pay into unions’ political funds engaged in the life of the Labour party, is worth pursuing. Today Ed Miliband will spell out his proposals to mend, but not end, the historic relationship between trade unions and the Labour party. Clearly, whatever he proposes will need to be considered seriously. Change is needed, and for […]
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Lobbying scandal? Better bring up the stale old anti-union vomit
Jun 5th, 2013 by Len McCluskey.If Britain’s political elite is despised for one thing as much as its corruption, from MPs’ expenses to the revolving door with business to its once more-exposed flogging of parliamentary influence for cash, it is its cynicism. The Cameron-Clegg response to the latest lobbying scandal shows why. Confronted with evidence of MPs and peers influence-peddling at the […]
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Working class politics, the labour movement and protest
Jan 16th, 2013 by Len McCluskey.This is the full text of Len’s Ralph Miliband lecture at the LSE. For me personally, the three strands of this lecture: working class politics; the labour movement; and protest; are subjects that have been clear defining features of my life – from my upbringing in Liverpool and throughout my adult social and working life. Indeed […]
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Which way for Labour?
Jun 26th, 2012 by Len McCluskey.As the Levenson inquiry is the latest to show, and the MPs expenses scandal proved earlier, we have an out-of-touch, self-satisfied, mutual back-scratching elite who look after themselves while ignoring ordinary people as much as possible. Maybe we could put up with that if this elite took the right decisions on behalf of us. But they don’t. Everything from the […]
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The gold I want to go for
Mar 8th, 2012 by Len McCluskey.My call for civil disobedience around the time of the Olympic Games caused a media storm last week. Nick Clegg was “gobsmacked”. David Cameron called me “unpatriotic”. I couldn’t care less about their criticism. Clegg is busy dismantling the legacy of those great Liberals Keynes and Beveridge, the architects of the welfare state and full […]
