The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Mark Serwotka: Why Ed Miliband is right to speak at Durham today

We need a united opposition to coalition policies that are wrecking Britain.

By Mark Serwotka Published 14 July 2012 11:51

Trade union demonstrators outside parliament on 26 March 2011. Photograph: Getty

Today I will be speaking at the 128th Durham Miners' Gala, a profound and moving event that continues to attract crowds in the tens of thousands and keeps the spirit of working class solidarity and unity alive.

I will be saying that it has never been more important for the labour movement to be united than in these extraordinary times in which we are living.

Youth unemployment is the highest on record, tens of billions of pounds of public spending is being cut – including massive job cuts, a public sector pay freeze and attacks on pensions – and unemployed and disabled people are receiving unparalleled abuse.

We have to be united to oppose this most vicious attack on everything our movement stands for: protecting the most vulnerable; providing decent jobs for all who can work, and a decent standard of living for those that cannot; providing decent public services that serve the public good, not private profit; and defending working class communities through strong trade unions and community organisations.

That unity is built around opposing this Tory-led government’s attacks on the people we represent.

So when they force people into strike action, we back those brave men and women out on strike – whether over public sector pensions, whether it’s cleaners, Remploy workers or the heroic Spanish miners.

In the 1980s, miners in the north east and elsewhere struggled heroically for jobs and justice. Their opponents were a Tory government and the Murdoch press.

Thanks to the campaigning MP Tom Watson – with whom I will be sharing a platform at Durham – and others, we've taken a chunk out of the Murdoch empire.

Now we need to do the same to this Tory government – a government that last year gave us lower growth and a sharper increase in unemployment than in the Eurozone.

This is no time for prevarication. When they're dismantling the welfare state, we oppose them. When they're forcing families out of their homes through housing benefit cuts, we oppose them. When they freeze pay and try to introduce poverty pay in the regions, we oppose them.

Bob Diamond walked away last week with a £2m pay off – more than 30,000 times what the 2.6m people on the dole will get this week.

The financial crisis which began in the boardrooms and in the stock exchanges is being paid for by those in the care homes and on the dole queues.

Cuts, austerity, call it what you like. It is the wrong solution. Wrong because it isn't working, it is damaging our economy, and wrong because of the misery it is causing in our communities.

The gala shows the labour movement at our best, and I welcome Ed Miliband's decision to speak this year. We have to take the spirit of Durham across the country.

We must be united: in our trade unions, in our communities, in our town halls and in parliament. We must be united and we must fight these cuts every inch of the way.

Mark Serwotka is general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union

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18 comments

Wed, 2012-07-18 13:42 — Goji (not verified)

Nice article..... interesting.
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Tue, 2012-07-17 08:26 — Colin Sloss (not verified)

Indu is talking about competing with the Chinese by having lower wages. This will not work because we have a higher standard of living and are used to a higher standard than the Chinese. Obviously this is not going to be easy, maybe we should look at the high goods end. It is interesting that the Chinese are facing competition from the lower paid Indians. It is true as Indu says wages are too high in Britain. It is rather depressing.

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Mon, 2012-07-16 16:17 — RedditchLabourMan (not verified)

'I will be saying that it has never been more important for the labour movement to be united than in these extraordinary times in which we are living.'

Kinda begs the question as to why Mark and the PCS are supporting candidates standing against Labour....

Mon, 2012-07-16 17:14 — Davidaslindsay (not verified)

Mark Serwotka was a speaker despite his union's recently having voted to fund its own parliamentary candidates, while Bob Crow was also on the platform that featured Ed Miliband, with Tom Watson repeatedly calling for both the RMT and the FBU to reaffiliate to Labour. There was no heckling or anything like that when he made this call; he was really announcing an impending fact rather than making a suggestion.

Whereas Serwotka's PCS is not and has never been affiliated, and his presence as a speaker alongside Miliband and Watson strongly suggested that such candidates are only going to be put up against sitting Blairite MPs or anyone of such mind who might somehow manage to be selected as a PPS, an extremely unlikely event in view of the composition of the veto-wielding National Executive Committee these days.

In other words, the PCS candidates will be the official Labour candidates in all but name, loyal to the Leader of the Labour Party while their nominally Labour opponents are not.

Mon, 2012-07-16 13:53 — Davidaslindsay (not verified)

A firsthand account of one of the most remarkable days in recent British political history - http://davidaslindsay.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/big-meeting-and-big-tent.html

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Sun, 2012-07-15 17:23 — Eddy S (not verified)

The simple fact is this during the decade of plenty gordon brown did not spend for the long term. he spent for the short term. rather than spend on NEW SUPER AIRPORTS, HIGH SPEED RAIL, BROADBAND ETC. he spent on state services and benefits.

WE COULD HAVE BUILT FOR THE LONG TERM FOR TOMORROW AS THE SAYING GOES WE DO NOT INHERIT FROM OUR ANCESTORS WE BORROW FROM OUR CHILDREN.

plus who is ed kidding? his wife is a top barrister, he lives the millionaire lifestyle. be real my friend.

Sun, 2012-07-15 14:40 — Fraziel1

Interesting that my post from yesterday has disappeared. I am a member of PCS and much as I like mark Serwotka personally and he is a great speaker he is also on the extreme far left. PCS are now more interested in far left ideology and far left politics than they are about their members who have been getting shafted by the government for yrs. PCS have made some mistakes due to their extremist ideology that have resulted in worse terms for their members too ( the new redundancy terms springs to mind and taking the labout government to court) . The unions national executive is dominated by ex members of the SWP and the communist party despite a tiny fraction of the public holding those political views. I like you Mark but you have taken your union to the lunatic fringe. Time to resign.

Sun, 2012-07-15 00:19 — Mary Jackson (not verified)

So much for free speach

Sun, 2012-07-15 00:16 — Mary Jackson (not verified)

where were the unions when Labour brought in ATOS,? and why is it only now that you are speaking up Mark,? also with people like Liam Byrn in labour the Labour party that I used to vote for dosen't exist, it is all very well giving speeches but actions speak louder then words, as yet I have heard nothing from Ed that says he will do anything about ATOS,

Sat, 2012-07-14 22:28 — Michael Dixon (not verified)

Labour did nothing in 13 years to make the bankers accountable, indeed they quite openly encourged them and knighted them, so no amount of grandstanding by Miliband or others can deny that. The people are not daft they know it. Why were the Trades Unions not on Brown's case as he sat back while the bankers cheated and stole.

This is bluster that is too little too late. For thirteen years Labour ruled as it did, Blair making millions, Lords Mandelson of Foy and his rich pals, Labour MP's sent to jail for expenses fiddling. The Unions themselves sat back and were silent, but are now woken from their slumber.

And the left are on a loser about welfare benefits overhaul, Why? Because Labour voters support them.

Sat, 2012-07-14 22:28 — Michael Dxion (not verified)

And the left are on a loser about welfare benefits overhaul, Why? Because Labour voters support them.

Sat, 2012-07-14 21:43 — Indu Pendent

But fundamentally UK labor costs are too high making the workforce too expensive to employ. The jobs go overseas. No amount of government simplistic fiscal expansion (borrow and spend stimulus) will fix the underlying problem.

What is needed are cuts in wages relative to other prices so that people become employable. This is progressive because it will create jobs for those who do not have them. The alternative is fewer and fewer people with jobs as the economy steady prices itself out of the world economy.

But Labour is blind to China. The party thinks that borrowing huge sums to fuel importation of chinese goods is going to create British jobs.

Dont call me a Tory troll -- I didnt not create the Chinese and other developing countries that have overtaken us technologically and productively.

Sat, 2012-07-14 20:19 — Michael Connole (not verified)

In the 1980's the miners took on not only the Tiries and Murdoch, but also the Labour party, the TUC and the entire establishment. We were not bothered about fighting our enemies but what still sticks in the craw is having to fight our so called "friends" who probably are still secretly shamed by their lack of support. Again and again so called Kabout supporters attack the leadership of the 80's NUM in a rewriting of events. The strike and fight was against the kind of attacks that are happening today and have been going on since 1985, the move towards finance coincidentally started same time and the left have been abandoned and treated with disdain since, no Labour leader dare say he is left thinking ( though I doubt we have had one in 50yrs) and so until the labour party and it's friendly press stop ostracising the " real left" not alot of headway will be made into changing the imbalance in our society.

Sat, 2012-07-14 20:18 — Michael Connole (not verified)

Sat, 2012-07-14 18:37 — Derek Stephen (not verified)

I hope Mark took the opportunity to remind Ed Miliband of his lack of support for Public Sector Workers. Labour continues to be too middle to right. Here's hoping that getting out of the Westminster Village and being exposed to true grassroots socialists may Mae Miliband think about who Labour should focus on.