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Fire Brigades Union have broken the link with New Labour. This historic
decision was taken at the union's conference held at the start of June.
The motion to disaffiliate was moved by local Socialist Party member,
Tony Maguire, on behalf of the Northern Ireland Region of the union. In
an impassioned speech, which received the only standing ovation of the
conference, Tony clearly spelt out the reasons why the FBU should break
completely with New Labour:
"Our party, the party that we nurtured through the Thatcher years,
and the party trade unions gave millions of pounds to, has stabbed us
not the back but in the heart. Every single FBU branch in Northern Ireland
has told us to put clear blue water between us and the sycophantic, cronyistic
ideologues who call themselves the Labour Party."
"Our choice", Tony went on, "is whether to stay in the
Labour Party, docile and tame, or leave and fight like tigers for what
these class traitors have denied us...the future starts here and the future
starts now.....you have the power, you can do it."
The motion was opposed by the Executive who supported a weaker proposal
that the union should continue with its affiliation at a reduced level,
but that it should also be free to give political donations to other parties
and candidates. The standing ovation given to Tony Maguire left little
doubt about the mood of the majority of delegates and the motion to disaffiliate
outright was carried by a massive 35,105 votes for to 14,611 against.
The FBU had been one of the founders of Labour and had been affiliated
to the party for 86 years. In recent years it has donated around £50,000
to Labour funds. The decision to disaffiliate is recognition that New
Labour is no longer, in any sense, a workers' party. It is now a pro business
party with a right wing political agenda no different from that of the
Tories.
The FBU is the first union to vote for disaffiliation, but other unions
still linked to Blair are under increasing pressure from their membership
to break the link. The rail union, the RMT, is also outside party, expelled
for deciding to give some of its political funding to other parties, including
the Scottish Socialist Party. The day before the FBU decision, the Conference
of the postal worker's union, the CWU decided that it too would break
with Labour if it did not give a commitment in its election manifesto
not to privatise the postal service.
The FBU decision is a huge step forward and should be followed by other
unions. This would open the way for an initiative to build a new party
of the working class to fill the ground vacated by New Labour. In Northern
Ireland there is an urgent need for such an initiative.
As Tony Maguire explained to Socialist Voice after the vote:
"The FBU has not rejected the ideas of political trade unionism but
we do believe that we should be supporting a political party that represents
the interests of unions, communities and young people, not a party that
has clearly been hijacked by big business. I believe that the time has
come for a new working class party to be formed, one that is really based
on solidarity and socialism."
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