Some people are too young to have learned and many never do.

Pity those of us who don’t favour another Tory government for trots and Lefties to kick at for another five, ten, fifteen? Years.

The cost of reducing the depth of the world wide recession here include pay restraint, especially where the market in suitable labour is in decline. Most trades unionists realise that, and should come to see that bankers and bonusses are side issues the Tories – over ten percent of whose candidates in 2010 were or had been bankers – will handle less well than Ed Miliband and Ed Balls.

You can’t always get what you want …

How seriously should we take the GMB on Labour policy issues?

John Edmonds, a previous gen sec of the GMB, was a strong supporter of Britain signing up to join the Euro:

Mr Edmonds is a strong supporter of the UK joining Europe’s single currency, and may want to leave early to devote more time to campaign on this issue.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2369117.stm

Another ewin for Labour and the unions. Either Labour goes bankrupt or kow-tows to union demands, reinforcing the view that Labour are just the political arm of the unions and their demands will get heard above those of other people.

Surely the Labour Party wouldn’t be influenced by the money that the trade unions give it? That would be “cash for questions, policies, honours etc.” We all know that the Conservatives are the evil arm of the bankers, but the Labour Party’s as cleans as they come surely?

Trades Unions are weaker now than they have been since the 1930s & part of the explanation must be the way they are so totally identified with The Labour Party. If you belong to the 70% who voted against Labour in 2010 why would you want to give them money ?
The sooner Labour breaks up, the sooner Unions can begin to recover.

1. Historically the labour party was paid for and run and represented the Unions. If it is fine for the City to subsidize the Tories then it’s fine for the Unions to subsidize Labour.

2. The Unions have a democratic mandate to represent their members interests. Whose interest (as in individual people) does the City represent?

3. Given a mere £700K of donations from one company to the Tory party helped secure £770 million of Govt. contracts I wonder if the Union’s got anything like comparable value for money from the Labour Govt?

4. Workers share of GDP as wages has declined from 58% in the 70s to just under 54% today – the minimum wage is grossly inadequate, tax credits and housing benefit are taxpayer subsidies to employers and landlords and I have the feeling that Unions have not been powerful enough rather than too powerful over the past 30 years.

5. If we are truly worried about the influence of Unions, Corporations and other big donors ultimately we need to be prepared to put our money where our mouths are. Party membership of all major parties have collapsed over the past few decades. Millions of us need to be prepared to stump up a few quid a month to fund politics if we’re to end party allegiance to big donors.

First of all Labour will not go broke if they Union leaves, it may well end up sacking a lot of workers, but hell that happens, it may well have to chase more Bankers it’s use to that. But the GMB has given little to labour for a while now and it is time for labour to go it alone. I’m a member of the GMB and to be honest we hardly ever think of Labour as a party of the workers or the people, but a party in which your get a career, both Miliband are the result of new labour both would get a high if Blair was to appear.

So who cares.

This is quite extraordinary. Not because it’ll necessarily happen – I strongly suspect it won’t, at least not in the near future – but because it’s the GMB.

Unlike Unite and Unison, there’s a low level of far-Left organising within GMB. It’s a union that, as the article says, has never really had this kind of motion before – certainly not in such numbers – whereas Unison in particular has seen many battlegrounds (and its leaders have spent years trying to witchhunt anyone opposed to the Labour link).

I don’t for the life of me see what the unions gain from funding Labour. Labour has wilfully ignored them – made an active point of ignoring them – for 15 years. Labour clearly don’t like being seen as under the control of the unions (HA!) either. Unions should be independent and spending every penny of members’ subscriptions on advancing their interests. It’s well past time they kissed this thing goodbye.

Totally agree with @8, there are no major political parties to represent the working-class. The Labour Party’s roots are trade-unionist and socialist, of which the current LP are neither.

@8 Caminda

Two points: Unison has an Affiliated Political Fund and a General Political Fund. The first goes to the Labour Party and the other goes towards general campaigning. members can choose which one to donate to. That’s why Unison has not had to, as you put it, witchhunt anyone opposed to the Labour link.

If Labour stops receiving money from the unions then they will be forced into trying to appeal to the same group of donors as the other parties or the Tories will always be able to outspend them. There will be no chance of Labour remaining even the shadow of a socialist party that it is now. That would not be progress as far as I’m concerned.

The problem with talking about disaffiliation is that what is actually proposed? Is it actually a radical move to the left?

It would be if the trade unions had put up a sustained fight to change the policies and structure of the party, but the truth is that that hasn’t happened. Disaffiliation in the way it is currently being proposed is a massive cop-out.

The Mambo covered this a month ago:

http://representingthemambo.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/why-disaffiliation-would-be-a-massive-mistake/

The sooner Labour breaks up, the sooner Unions can begin to recover.

This is just wishful thinking.

In the 1970′s the unions were strong, because the members were strong. The members didn’t have massive debts like credit cards and mortgages hanging round their necks and were therefore less inhibited about taking industrial action. All that changed during the Thatcher era, where borrowing and taking out mortgages was encouraged. People became less confident and more insecure about taking action because of the financial implications. Along with the sale of council housing, It was a deliberate social engineering policy, amongst others, adopted by the Tories in order to quell the power of the unions.

Unfortunately, the unions will never regain that power again until the confidence returns to the working classes. The Labour Party needs to ditch its pretense of pandering to big business and being a party of the middle classes and get back to its roots. Start speaking out for the dispossessed, the elderly, the disabled, the unemployed, the poor and the working classes. We desperately need a party that says what we are thinking and represents us. We desperately need a voice!!!

If all of the trade unions disaffiliate and form their own political grouping, it would be the best development for the centre left for a long time. Many principled MPs and members on the left of the party need to reconsider their own positions on this and resign the whip accordingly. The unions would then be able to actually campaign for their members, and be able to back those who match their consciences. We need to accept that the Labour party in its current form, is dead, and its time to disband it… immediately.

The GMB had this the last time they decided not to fund labour but to fund MP.s it was a deal done with members to stop the disaffiliation, this time it will I’m sure go through.

The GMB do not fund the Labour party now….it fund a number of MP’s only