Outrage
June 29th, 2007 admin Posted in euro socialist |
For anyone with any remaining illusions in Gordon Brown, today's news that Sir Digby Jones - the former Chairman of the Confederation of British Industry - will be entering the Government should serve as an alarming wake-up call.We all know that New Labour has attempted to transform a party founded and funded by the unions to the tune of £100m since 1997. Only the continued existence of the union link has prevented Blair replacing the Labour party with a pro-business party along the lines of the US Democratic Party. No wonder senior New Labour figures such as Stephen Byers have repeatedly floated the idea of severing the party-union link. That a Labour Government is now appointing the arch-enemy of the trade union movement to the Cabinet is an act of unprecedented betrayal.
Digby Jones has nothing but hatred for the unions and the interests of working people. In 2004, he described unions as "outdated" and "increasingly irrelevant" and suggested they were attempting to inhibit personal choice, destroy flexibility in the workplace and discourage overseas investment.
He has repeatedly argued in favour of freezing the minimum wage, opposed increased maternity pay, and repeatedly called for decreased taxation on businesses among other regressive pro-business measures.
We now face the prospect of the PLP's leader giving a slice of power to Thatcherite business leaders such as Digby Jones while sidelining unions who represent millions of workers and on which the Labour party depends for its very existence.
I hope that those trade union leaders who failed to back a candidate who actually supported their policies are today asking themselves some very searching questions.
I'd be interested to know if there are any diehard Brownites out there who are actually prepared to defend this act of total betrayal of everything we are supposed to stand for...?
