IN a lecture to the London School of Economics (LSE) on Tuesday TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady made a ‘national government’ call to the completely discredited Tory Prime Minister May.
She did not call for May to resign. Neither did she call for a Labour government. Instead, she proposed a pact with May to sabotage the 2016 referendum result that saw over 17m workers, many of them in trade unions, vote to leave the EU.
She appealed to May to break with the minority of Tory MPs that support Brexit and to form a common anti-Brexit front to remain in the EU. O’Grady said: ‘Whichever way they voted in the referendum, the public is losing confidence in the government to get a good deal. Workers want to know that their jobs, rights and livelihoods are safe.’
In fact, the working class is getting angrier and angrier that May and Davis are prepared to discuss paying tens of billions to the EU as part of a divorce settlement, instead of carrying out the Leave referendum result. O’Grady continued: ‘But a group of Conservative MPs is now trying to drive us into a “no-deal” Brexit. It would be a horror show – a nightmare on Brexit Street, with the bad guys waiting in the shadows to slash jobs and workers’ rights.’
It’s as if May and the Tories are opposed to the slashing of jobs and are champions of workers’ rights. In fact, the Tories have just strengthened the anti-union laws, and are bringing in a ‘Deliveroo’ economy. That apparently makes May a worthy ally of the TUC.
The TUC leader revealed her plan for smashing the 2016 referendum result, that was opposed by all of the major political parties and most of the major trade unions, including their organiser, the General Council of the TUC. She said: ‘We have reached the point when the Conservatives alone have proved inadequate for the task ahead. They are unable to put the national interest before their own bitter factional interests. Not just the Prime Minister, but 60 million people are being held to ransom by 30 or so hard Brexit diehards. The Prime Minister needs to break free.’
O’Grady presents a picture of 30 rabid Tory MPs somehow forcing the Tory party to take the Brexit road against the interests of 60 million people who are being held to ransom by the evil 30. This is obvious nonsense, and reactionary nonsense at that.
What O’Grady wants of May is that, ‘She should bring together a negotiating team that genuinely represents the whole country. Let’s call it “Team UK”. It would be cross party, with representation from business and unions, and from every UK nation. It would force us to focus on the realities of the negotiation – the priority of protecting jobs and investment, the compromises to achieve it, and the price Britain will pay if we fail.’
Such a formation would mean a new general election, not to replace the Tories with a Corbyn-led Labour government, but with a government of national unity that would be ‘cross party, with representation from business and unions, and from every UK nation’.
She continued: ‘We need a transition deal to give more time to talk and prepare. During the transition the UK would continue to play by the single market’s rules. It’s common sense – there simply isn’t time to negotiate a whole new temporary arrangement. That time should be used to focus on the big one – a new trade deal between the EU and UK for the long-term.’
She adds: ‘The test for a final deal is that it protects jobs, investment and workers’ rights. People want to hear a sensible, smart, realistic plan to deliver that. So we must keep all options on the table. We should not be boxing Britain in by ruling out ongoing membership of the single market and customs union. Staying in the single market and customs union would be the best way to secure our long-term economic interests, jobs and rights.’
O’Grady is supporting a right-wing government of national unity to betray the 2016 referendum decision and keep the UK in the EU. The General Council of the TUC must convene at once to sack O’Grady and to veto any common front with May.
Instead, it must call a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers’ government that will carry out the 2016 referendum result at once and nationalise the banks and the major industries to go forward to socialism.