Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress”


by Sunny Hundal    
8:40 am - June 22nd 2012

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“I disagree with Progress,” says Unite’s Len McCluskey in an interview with the Times’s Soraya Kishtwari today, adding that they are “still locked into the Third Way [of Blairism]“.

As this blog revealed a few days ago, the general secretary was not planning to go as far as Union and GMB in calling for Progress to be outlawed.

But he tells The Times today (£):

They believe that New Labour was fantastic and all they need to do was figure out the new areas where they made mistakes and commit themselves to the same kind of ideology.

He also says Progress is still too attached to neo-liberalism:

I would liken neo-liberalism to this huge ship that’s been travelling around the globe, spreading its ideology and it’s suddenly come crashing onto the rocks and lies in tatters. Now there are some people, including Progress, who are trying to pick the pieces up and put it back together.

There are others who are just clinging onto the wreckage as it bobs around in the sea afraid to let go for fear they drown. We have to be the ones that emerge and say let go, you won’t drown, there is an alternative way of dealing with the current crisis.

He says they are “well funded”, and “have got more money than the Liberal Democrat Party”, and are “the wrong way to go”.

“And in a sense they are the anaesthetists antithesis of what Ed Miliband is attempting to do.”

(hat-tip @SorayaKishtwari)

Yesterday, ASLEF union’s Simon Weller said of Progress:

It’s time that this organisation is subject to the same levels of scrutiny, accountability and openness as other member organisations, such as the Socialist societies and Trade Unions, and it’s brought into the sunlight and examined for what it is.

The union declined to call for Progress to be outlawed, but nevertheless joined others in calling for more scrutiny of its operations.

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. cim

“And in a sense they are the anaesthetists of what Ed Miliband is attempting to do.”

This is a transcription typo, and they actually said “antithesis”, right?

Though I guess they could have been going for a strange metaphor in which Miliband is a surgeon, and Progress are needed to knock out the patient before surgery can begin. (But who’s the patient in this metaphor? The Unions, the Tories, or the country?)

2. Shatterface

Best heading. Ever.

3. Shatterface

Incidentally, is that really the logo of Progress?

Looks like they want to head off in two different directions.

4. James B

@3 Shatterface

It looks to me like they’re leaving the Labour Party

5. Shatterface

It looks to me like they’re leaving the Labour Party

To the left and the right.

6. john riches

Not really linked, but McCluskey infuriated me on QT last night with his rhetorical flourishes (which were warmly applauded, which wound me up even more):

When discussing the tax avoidance scams – individual and corporate – Len gave a stirring speech about how the money should be going to the ‘hard-working nurses, teachers, services etc’ (maybe paraphrasing slightly, but you get the picture). All well and good.

When discussing the Doctors strike – which he supported; fair enough – suddenly, their money, along with other worker’s pensions, was being ‘taken by the Government’, stealing it etc etc.

Now – and it’s a separate debate as to how the money collected via either route is subsequently spent – where does Len think the pensions money, if ‘stolen’, will go? Ultimately, into the Exchequer – to pay for the ‘hard-working etc etc’.

If bringing more money into Government by stopping tax avoidance is a good thing – which it is – then so is bringing more money into Government by cutting pension entitlement (whether one agrees with the latter or not).

7. Shatterface

If bringing more money into Government by stopping tax avoidance is a good thing – which it is – then so is bringing more money into Government by cutting pension entitlement (whether one agrees with the latter or not).

Er, no. Taxing people who should, by rights, be paying more tax is different from confiscating someone’s pension.

It matters how the government raises money, and from whom, otherwise they might just as well take it from those who can least resist.

8. john riches

I thought I’d made the distinction, sorry…

Of course they are different; my point is that on the one hand the rhetoric is ‘tax avoiders are stealing from us’ – money for public services – but on the other ‘the Government is stealing from pensions’ when the money will end up in the same pot. It’s the rhetoric I’m interested in here – who it is collected from, and what it is spent on, is another debate.
(I’ve always thought that pensions were a ponzi scheme that relied on infinitely successful capitalism to succeed – which is not a prospect I relish – so have never believed in them…).


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Len McCluskey: "I disagree with Progress" http://t.co/xL1Iavo7

  2. sunny hundal

    Len McCluskey's intvw out today: "I disagree with Progress" but no mention of a ban http://t.co/BCS3kEjA (ht @sorayakishtwari)

  3. sunny hundal

    No ban on Progress but Len McCluskey says they've got more money than Libdems and are "the wrong way to go" http://t.co/BCS3kEjA

  4. DPWF

    No ban on Progress but Len McCluskey says they've got more money than Libdems and are "the wrong way to go" http://t.co/BCS3kEjA

  5. Kate Osamor

    No ban on Progress but Len McCluskey says they've got more money than Libdems and are "the wrong way to go" http://t.co/BCS3kEjA

  6. Teddy Mcnabb

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” http://t.co/G14okjPI so stop funding labour who in 13 yrs battered the vulnerable

  7. Tim

    Len McCluskey: "I disagree with Progress" http://t.co/xL1Iavo7

  8. Martin Grouch

    No ban on Progress but Len McCluskey says they've got more money than Libdems and are "the wrong way to go" http://t.co/BCS3kEjA

  9. Jason Brickley

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” http://t.co/3eCpEFcK

  10. lesley delves

    No ban on Progress but Len McCluskey says they've got more money than Libdems and are "the wrong way to go" http://t.co/BCS3kEjA

  11. Michael H.

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/6AwLNQCR via @libcon

  12. BevR

    No ban on Progress but Len McCluskey says they've got more money than Libdems and are "the wrong way to go" http://t.co/BCS3kEjA

  13. BevR

    Len McCluskey's intvw out today: "I disagree with Progress" but no mention of a ban http://t.co/BCS3kEjA (ht @sorayakishtwari)

  14. Jonathan Taylor

    Len has got it about right on Progress RT @libcon: Len McCluskey: "I disagree with Progress" http://t.co/Bdth3CTs

  15. Harriet Elena Clarke

    No ban on Progress but Len McCluskey says they've got more money than Libdems and are "the wrong way to go" http://t.co/BCS3kEjA

  16. Kamaljeet Jandu

    Len McCluskey's intvw out today: "I disagree with Progress" but no mention of a ban http://t.co/BCS3kEjA (ht @sorayakishtwari)

  17. leftlinks

    Liberal Conspiracy – Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” http://t.co/lclAPfQj

  18. Soraya Kishtwari

    Len McCluskey's intvw out today: "I disagree with Progress" but no mention of a ban http://t.co/BCS3kEjA (ht @sorayakishtwari)

  19. Sadie Smith

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/KQ71CNQA via @libcon <- he certainly does. He certainly does.

  20. John H

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/KQ71CNQA via @libcon <- he certainly does. He certainly does.

  21. Peter Jeffree

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/KQ71CNQA via @libcon <- he certainly does. He certainly does.

  22. John Rentoul

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/KQ71CNQA via @libcon <- he certainly does. He certainly does.

  23. TeamFollowBackMVP

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/KQ71CNQA via @libcon <- he certainly does. He certainly does.

  24. GMB members

    Len has got it about right on Progress RT @libcon: Len McCluskey: "I disagree with Progress" http://t.co/Bdth3CTs

  25. Jack Organ

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/KQ71CNQA via @libcon <- he certainly does. He certainly does.

  26. BevR

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/356boqO7 via @libcon

  27. Jonathan Taylor

    Len has got it about right on Progress RT @libcon: Len McCluskey: "I disagree with Progress" http://t.co/oUJC759f

  28. Alex Braithwaite

    Len McCluskey: “I disagree with Progress” | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/GVAV95S2 via @libcon





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