If Len McCluskey were an investment banker, he surely would
have been fired a long time ago. Instead, his position as general secretary of
the Unite union is secure even though the return on capital invested in Labour
leader Ed Miliband is beyond measurement because it’s so low.
Tomorrow, McCluskey and fellow union bureaucrats from
affiliated unions will, not unlike turkeys at Christmas, vote for their own
slaughter at the hands of Miliband and his party leadership.
Miliband will formally complete a process of “reform” – was
ever a word so misused – in party structures that began in the early 1990s, and
carried on by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown when they got the unions to vote to
abandon the socialist Clause 4 of the constitution.
This time Miliband has gone when even Blair feared to tread.
Out goes the historic links by which members of affiliated unions had a portion
of their subs handed over to Labour. Out goes the way Labour leaders are
elected, with the unions having a substantial say through a ballot of members.
Out goes the collective and in comes individualism. Margaret
Thatcher would be the first to applaud, especially as Miliband gave her a
glowing reference recently.
Labour’s national executive confirmed the plans earlier this
month with only two votes against. Tomorrow, a special half-day conference will
rubber stamp the proposals. After the Nec, one shadow cabinet member is reported
as saying:
"At the start, the unions were shocked, but in the end
the unions had no option. Ed Miliband was their choice for leader and he wanted
these reforms and, 18 months out from an election, they could not defeat him. Unite
may be in a different place, but Falkirk [the constituency troubled by a
selection row] meant it was impossible for them to lead a rebellion. They feel
they have done nothing and are badly bruised.”
McCluskey, in particular, has egg all over his face.
Miliband was his choice as leader and in return he has been humiliated. In a
belated attempt to recover some poise, McCluskey is now threatening
to cut his union’s affiliation fees by £1.5 million because a poll shows that
only 40% of Unite’s members vote Labour.
He said: "I know there are some people internally in
the Labour party that are beginning to panic because of what we are
considering. I am not sure why because it was self-evident from last summer
when Ed Miliband made his proposals that there would be consequences. I said
that having been challenged by Ed to consider the status quo, I suddenly felt
it was untenable. We have one million members paying into the political fund
and affiliate the full one million members to the party…. Looking at it, I
thought it was difficult to justify even from a moral standpoint".
Last October, the company that owns the Grangemouth
petrochemical plant threatened to pull out unless the union agreed to new harsh
terms and conditions. McCluskey’s bluff was called and he rushed up to Scotland
to overrule local officials and impose
a shocking deal on his members.
So perhaps Miliband knows that the Unite union leader is
mostly bluster and that when push comes to shove, McCluskey will not rock the
boat with just over a year to the general election. In any case, McCluskey has
said: “Even if we reduce our affiliations we can still give direct donations to
the national Labour Party".
The truth is that investment in Miliband has produced
precious little for Unite and its members. One Nation Labour as it prefers to
be called as it careers further and further into naked populism, is pledged to
uphold austerity and ConDem spending cuts, a public sector wage freeze and to
retain markets in the NHS and other services.
Vote for that? You have to be joking!
Paul Feldman
Communications editor
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