Report from the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom AGM

By Sacha Ismail and Matthew Hull, Free Our Unions

Attending the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom‘s AGM, on 21 September, underscored that the CTUF contains many people who are extremely knowledgeable on the anti-union laws, workers’ rights more generally and trade unionism, and well connected in the broad labour movement.

It also underscored the weaknesses of the CTUF, despite its wide paper institutional trade union support. There were only 19 people present – including several people involved in Free Our Unions. The meeting lasted only fifty minutes; there was a bit of a feel of going through the motions.

Coming a week after TUC Congress agreed extensive policy on fighting the new Minimum Service Levels law and the other anti-union laws – policy which, however, it is very far from a given the TUC and union leaders will seriously carry out – there was surely a need for more serious discussion.

It was a friendly meeting, perhaps with less of a vibe of sectarianism towards other campaigns than at previous CTUF / Institute of Employment Rights events. BFAWU General Secretary Sarah Woolley chaired it in a professional and welcoming manner.

John Hendy KC spoke eloquently and informatively about the implementation of the Minimum Service Levels law and how unions can resist it. He also spoke about the need to demand Labour repeals all the anti-union laws, specifying the first one passed under Thatcher in 1980.

This is absolutely right, but:

• Hendy said the 2019 New Deal for Working People from which the Labour leadership is now retreating contains this demand. It doesn’t.

• In 2016-19 the CTUF and Hendy themselves largely dropped the demand in order to avoid embarrassing the Labour Party leadership.

• Crucially: the bulk of unions, including left-wing ones, and many with conference policy for repealing the pre-2016 anti-union laws, do not argue let alone campaign for it. As if to illustrate this situation, the meeting re-elected former Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey (not present) as a CTUF Vice President; but Unite under McCluskey did virtually nothing to fight for repeal of the pre-2016 anti-union laws, and in some instances was hostile to raising the demand, despite its conference policies.

The intention here is not to go on the attack, but to indicate the scale of the challenge in getting our movement to genuinely assert this demand. (On the other hand there are many footholds to climb on, many of them carved out by Free Our Unions and its allies since 2018. The policy passed at this year’s TUC Congress is reflective of that.)

At the meeting there was also some discussion, in response to comments from an FOU supporter, about a national demonstration. There was some defensiveness about the fact unions with policy to organise one have done nothing beyond calling for the TUC to do so – especially from RMT President Alex Gordon. There was, however, also acknowledgement that there is a sluggishness that needs breaking through.

On a political campaign to repeal all anti-union laws; getting a national demo; and the third central point in the policy passed at TUC Congress, a strategy of non-compliance with the Minimum Service Levels law – the CTUF should discuss with Free Our Unions and others about how to step up agitation throughout the labour movement.