FIRST DAY: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 MORNING SESSION

(The President (Sheila Bearcroft): Congress, the programme of music this week has been put together by Music for Youth, and many thanks to Nathan and Tom, known as NaTo, who have been playing for us this morning. (Applause)

Congress, I have great pleasure I opening this, the TUC's 141st Congress, and I warmly welcome all delegates and visitors here to Liverpool.

Appointment of tellers and scrutineers

The President: Congress, the first and formal item of business is to ask Congress to approve the tellers and scrutineers as set out on page 10 of the General Purposes Committee Report booklet. Is that agreed? (Agreed)

May I remind all delegates to switch off their mobile phones. If there is an emergency, you will receive instructions on what to do either from me or over the tannoy. Details of evacuation procedures are posted outside of the doors to the hall next to the seating plan. There are no fire alarm tests scheduled. If you hear the alarms, it is for real. If any delegates require first aid, requests should be made to any member of the BT Convention Centre staff.

Welcome to Sororal and Fraternal Delegates

The President: Congress, I now come to the introduction of sororal and fraternal delegates and visitors who are seated behind me on my right. As usually, we have a number of international guests, although fewer than usual because of the AFL-CIO Convention which is taking place in Pittsburgh this week.

Our international guests here this morning are Salvador Valdés Mesa, General Secretary of the Cuba Workers' Group of Affiliated Trade Unions, who will address us tomorrow. (Applause) His colleague is Raymundo Navarro Fernandez. They are joined by Eddy Brown. (Applause) From Colombia we have Joaquin Romero. From the JTUC Rengo, Japan, we have Masayuki Shiota. We have with us Kirsty Drew from the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD from Paris. Later in the week we will be joined by Maria Helena Andre from the ETUC, Anna Bondi from the Workers' Bureau at the ILO and Dan Smith from the ILO. Also we will be joined by Peter Bunting from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. We know that colleagues will be coming from the DGB in Germany, from the Iraqi trade union movement, and several others will be here as guests of affiliated unions. This year's sororal delegate from the Trades Union Councils Conference is Geraldine Murray. I would like to give you all a great welcome here to the TUC Congress. (Applause) As I have just said, we are expecting other guests during the week and I will introduce them to you as they arrive.

Obituary

The President: In leading in Chapter 10 of the General Council's Report, Obituary, she said: Congress, I will now take Chapter 10 of the General Council's Report, the Obituary. It is traditional for us at the beginning of our annual Congress to remember all of the colleagues who have died since we last met. In our report we list Michael Barratt, former general secretary of the National League of the Blind and Disabled between 1979 and 1995; Lawrence Daly, national secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1968 to 1984 and General Council member from 1971 to 1981; Ken Gill, former general secretary of TASS and MSF unions, and General Council member from 1974 to 1992; Amanda Haehner, President of the NASUWT in 2008; Eric Hammond, former general secretary of the EETPU and General Council member from 1983 to 1987; Bert Hazell, former President of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers; Jack Jones, former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union and General Council member from 1968 to 1977, who was a veteran of the International Brigade, a champion for pensioners and one of the giants of the trade union movement; John Newman, former general secretary of NUMAST and General Council member from 1990 to 1991; Deidre Smith, chair of the Derbyshire Group Staff Union from 1998; Brian Stanley, former general secretary of the Post Office Engineering Union and General Council member from 1983 to 1986, and Mike Terry, former executive secretary of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and NUT member.

Since the report went to press, the death has occurred of Eric Nevin, former general secretary of NUMAST who served on the General Council from 1985 to 1989.

In asking you to stand in memory of these former colleagues, I ask you also to remember other trade union colleagues who have died in the past year, both here and around the world. Also, as is customary at this time, I ask that we re-commit ourselves to the cause of world peace. Please now stand for a minute's silence. (Congress stood in silent tribute)

Report of the General Purposes Committee

The President: Congress, I now call to upon Annette Mansell-Green of the General Purposes Committee to report to us on the progress of business and other Congress arrangements. Annette.

Annette Mansell-Green (General Purposes Committee):Thank you, President. Good morning, Congress. The General Purposes Committee has approved Composite Motions 1 to 20, which are set out in the GPC Report and Composite Motions booklet that you have all received. Also in the booklet is the General Council's Statement on the economy. The GPC also approved Composite 21 on public services in the economy, to be moved by UNISON and seconded by PCS, a copy of which has been placed on your seats this morning.

On behalf of the GPC, I would like to thank all those unions who have co-operated and worked together to reach agreement on composite motions. I can report that the compositing of Motions 61, 62 and 63 has not been agreed and these will now be taken as three separate stand alone motions.

The GPC has approved Emergency Motion 1 on pleural plaques, to be moved by UCATT and seconded by Unite, which is also contained in your booklet. The GPC also approved two further emergency motions. They are Emergency Motion 2 on cuts to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme to be moved by PCS and seconded by Prospect, and Emergency Motion 3 on the Royal Mail dispute, to be moved by CWU and seconded by Unite. Copies of both of these emergency motions have also been placed on your seats this morning. The President will indicate when it is hoped the emergency motions will be taken.

You will see that the printed GPC Report indicates where the movers of motions have agreed to accept amendments to their motions. I can report that the list of Unite nominations for section A of the General Council has now been confirmed and reported to the General Council. They are Tony Burke, Gail Cartmail, Len McCluskey, Doug Rooney, Derek Simpson, Pat Stuart, Tony Woodhouse and Tony Woodley. Please note that due to exceptional circumstances, the following members of the General Council will not be attending Congress this year. They are Mark Fysh, John Walsh, Alan Ritchie and Brian Orrell.

Please note that there has also been a change to the scrutineers. Paula Brown from PCS has replaced Cheryl Gedling.

May I remind you that it is intended that this morning's session of Congress will conclude at 12 noon so that delegates can take part in the silent vigil against racism and fascism. Subject to Congress approval, the GPC has agreed to suspend rule 26(a) which sets the times of sessions in order to accommodate this.

In order to ensure that we do not fall behind with Congress business, let me remind you to be ready to come to the rostrum quickly if you are scheduled to speak. Reserved seats are at the front of the hall for those wishing to speak. It is very important also that you respect speaking times which, unless reduced, are five minutes for moving a motion and three minutes for seconding a motion and all other speakers. However, delegates, it is not compulsory to use all of your allotted time.

Finally, I remind all delegates and visitors to keep their mobile phones and any other portable ringing devices switched off. Also, you will need your conference credentials and other photo ID with you at all times. I will report further to you on the progress of business and other GPC decisions where necessary throughout Congress.

I want to add that this is a particular poignant Congress for me personally because my father passed away on 1st April of this year. He was a past President of the NUT and delegate to this Congress for at least 20 years. So what I do this week is for my dad. Thank you. (Applause)

The President: Congress, I now invite you to formally receive the GPC's Report. Can we agree? (Agreed)

Before I go on, I want to inform you that where there has been no opposition to any motion or composite, I will not be offering the right of reply as there would be nothing to reply to. Thank you, Congress.

Following on from the GPC Report, in order to conclude this morning's session of Congress at noon, so that we can take part in the silent vigil against racism and fascism, it will be necessary to suspend rule 26(a) which sets the times of Congress sessions. This needs a two-thirds majority. I now move the vote on the suspension of Standing Orders. (Standing Orders were suspended)

The GPC also reported the approval of Emergency Motion E1, Pleural plaques. If there is time, I will try to take this emergency motion after scheduled business this afternoon. Emergency Motion 2, which concerns cuts in the Civil Service Compensation Schemes, and Emergency Motion 3, Royal Mail dispute, will be taken later in the week and I will give you notice.

Also as reported, Motions 61, 62 and 63 will now be taken as stand alone motions in the education debate on Tuesday morning. Composite Motion 21, Public services and the economy, will be taken this afternoon as published in the Guide.

Colleagues, we begin the business of Congress with an opening address by the General Secretary, but before Brendan speaks we have a short video to remind ourselves of Liverpool's union links. (Presentation of a video on Liverpool's union links)

Congress, I am sure that you will join me in thanking Liverpool for that very warm welcome. Thank you, Liverpool. I now invite the General Secretary to give his address to Congress.

General Secretary's Address

Brendan Barber (General Secretary): Sheila and Congress, as you said, Sheila, welcome to Liverpool, a great industrial city, a maritime city, a city that is rightly celebrating the release just a few days ago of the wrongly imprisoned Michael Shields, and wasn't that terrific news! (Applause) But, above all, as has been said, this is a union city. I don't know whether this is trade unionism coming home but, as you can see from the film, it is certainly quite a lot of the General Council coming home.

In recent years we've met in Brighton, but it is right to have moved this year because this Congress needs to be different. For the past few years we have taken quite a few things for granted; high employment, strong growth, increased public spending, a Labour government that we sometimes applauded and that sometimes drove us to frustration, progress on key union campaigns, disappointment on others. Even my speech to Congress had many common themes, reminding us not to forget our successes as we set out our new goals; building our membership, the only real basis for our influence with government and employers, and saluting the real strength of our movement - our activists and reps. Let's make sure that the disgusting anti-democratic practice of blacklisting is outlawed once and for all, and let's offer our solidarity to those construction workers who have suffered because of the shameful activities of Ian Kerr and those companies who disgracefully used his services.

Congress, all those themes are still just as important. But what we must do this year is come to terms with big changes, because we are suffering the effects of biggest financial crisis since the 1920s. The resulting recession has been as deep as any we can remember. When the crash first hit, there was much talk of a classless recession. But each month since makes it clearer that while the causes are different, it's the same people again paying the highest price. Manufacturing workers have been hit hard and vulnerable workers hit the hardest. The same regions and cities that suffered last time have been hit yet again. Ordinary bank workers have been affected badly, while those at the top, those who caused this crisis, are now back at the bonus trough. And it's our young people, the future of our country, who are least to blame and yet are suffering the most. We are all familiar with the statistics: almost one in five of our young people is without work. 140,000 under-25s are long-term unemployed. But behind the facts and figures lies a human tragedy of talents wasted, horizons diminished and aspirations stubbed out.

Congress, whether young or old, joblessness is a devastating experience. Days become weeks, weeks become months, sometimes months become years - and all the while confidence is being sapped, self-esteem eroded and hope replaced by despair. Our country cannot afford to write off another generation to mass unemployment. That is why I am horrified when I hear the Conservatives talk of public expenditure cuts which would turn any progress towards economic recovery into a nosedive back into recession. On this - the biggest issue of economic policy today, which will determine our fortunes for years to come - they are profoundly on the wrong side of history and totally out of step with thinking in every other major economy.

Here in this city, which was so scared by the riots of the 1980s, let us remember the crippling economic and social costs of the Tory recessions, and let us resolve: never, ever, again. That's why we welcome the Government's active policies to stimulate the economy and support the hundreds of thousands of jobs that would otherwise have been lost. That's why we welcome the Future Jobs Fund and the jobs guarantee for young people. Indeed, we want these measures to go further. My hope for the Prime Minister's speech tomorrow is that we will hear even more about help for those who need it most.

There is beginning to be talk of recovery, but we need to be careful. Too many people want to avoid facing up to the lessons of the crash. This was no ordinary slow-down but a financial meltdown. It was made in bank boardrooms. It happened because politicians bought the line that finance should be king and deregulation the answer to every problem. Activities now so well described by Adair Turner as 'socially useless' were seen as economically essential. Set finance free we were told. Have a bonfire of regulations. Let the super-rich get even richer as it will somehow trickle down to the rest of us - and don't annoy them by asking them to pay too much tax. Manufacturing is old fashioned. Let the City rule. Greed is good. Those were the watchwords. And those who still preach that creed want us to forget the crash and tell us that the economy is now in recovery so they can re-engage the free-market autopilot.

But the economy has fallen off a cliff! Green shoots mean little when thousands of people a day are joining the dole queue. Rising share prices count for little when a million and more young people can't find work. And bumper bonuses are an obscene joke when it was our money that rescued the banks and it is our public services that are now being told they will have to face the consequences.

Congress, it's only when unemployment starts coming down, only when we create decent jobs that pay decent wages, and only when vital public services are safe from cuts that we will be able to talk about a real recovery.

Whatever the statistics say, the bad economic news is not over. Banks are still not lending as much as they should but are rebuilding their balance sheets. Businesses are not investing. Consumers are slow to spend. That is why public spending and state intervention has to fill the gap. This Government did well to stop the threat of financial catastrophe. If the banks had collapsed we would not have had recession, but an economic nuclear winter. Ministers were right to step up public spending. The Bank of England has been right to pump liquidity into the system through quantitative easing. Make no mistake - things may be bad but without that action they would be very much worse. Those who now talk of recovery are not saying how well all this intervention has worked. Quite the opposite. They want to pretend the financial crisis was no more than a little local difficulty and now it can be back to business as usual and bonuses as usual.

Instead, they are arguing that the public sector deficit is now the big problem. We have to take that argument head on, because a public sector deficit is inevitable in a recession. It's a symptom - not a cause - a symptom not just of a reduce tax take, not just of an increased benefits spend, but also of the £1.3 trillion of taxpayer money now propping up the banks, the biggest case of market failure in our history. But try and cut a deficit during a recession and you just make the situation worse. But we can't accuse others of not realizing the world has changed, if we don't. Yes, trying to close the deficit now will make it worse. But in the medium and long term, it must start to come down and that is going to mean some hard choices. This is not a debate that unions can ignore. It's going to be the big national debate of the next election and the next Parliament.

There is a simple issue at stake: it's fairness. Just as young people should not pay the price for the recession, nor should those who depend on vital public services foot the bill for reducing the deficit. All that extra investment of the last 12 years in our schools and hospitals must not now be allowed to go to waste, and nor should our vital public services face the disastrous prospect of yet more privatisation and fragmentation. So we will need to be very clear about how we are going to cut our national debt. Tax increases are inevitable. The question is who will pay them: poor and average earners or the best-off? Fairness, surely, demands the latter.

The TUC has led the debate in exposing how the super-rich and big companies dodge their taxes. Closing those loop-holes must be the start. While we welcome the higher taxes on those earning more than £150,000 in the Budget, there's much more to do to make the tax system fair. Of course, spending will also come under scrutiny. If times are tough, why are we spending massively more each year on pensions tax relief for higher rate taxpayers than we are on public sector pensions? If times are tough, then why are we splashing out on ID cards that people don't want and experts say won't work? And if times are tough, and our defence needs are now profoundly different in a new terrorism-threatened, post cold war world then why are we planning a new generation of nuclear weapons? (Applause) I think that spending countless billions on new nukes when we are failing to meet our targets on child poverty is wrong, wrong, wrong. (Applause)

Congress, there has never been a time when the energy and the determination of our movement has been more needed. Campaigning, like we did in the unprecedented Put People First coalition that we brought together in the run up to the London G20 Summit making the case for Jobs, Justice and Climate; fighting to defend decent pensions, including for six million public service workers who reached an honourable deal only four years ago that both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats now want to rip up, and delivering that fairer deal for agency workers promised by the European Directive. Come on, Gordon, let's see that legislation introduced now. (Applause) And delivering solidarity to brothers and sisters around the world fighting their own battles to deliver basic decency for justice for working people.

Since our last Congress we've received the grim news of even more brutal attacks on good trade union colleagues in Colombia - even assassinations. They still need our help.

Our President, Sheila, and I talked at first hand only a couple of weeks ago in Harare with our Zimbabwean colleagues who, with a rare steadfast courage, are striving to build a new Zimbabwe out of the utter devastation of the Mugabe years. They still need our help. And I talked in Cuba with the wives and families of the Miami 5 of their continuing struggle for basic justice. They still need our help, too. (Applause)

In Havana I had the special pleasure of attending the May Day celebrations this year marking the 50th Anniversary of the revolution and the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the CTC. It is a real pleasure to have Salvador and Raymundo with us this week. Let me tell you, in Havana on May Day they really know how to throw a party. (Laughter)

Solidarity is what this movement is about all around the world. We are going to need to maintain solidarity and trade union cohesion here at home over this next period too, whatever happens in the next general election.

Congress, we lost someone who had solidarity coursing through his veins. He was born 96 years ago just down the river from here. He spilled blood fighting fascism in Spain. He was an outstanding champion of workers and of pensions. As an activist in Liverpool during the Great Depression, he knew what hard times meant for working people. Jack Jones was an inspiration to us all, a true colossus of the labour movement and we will never forget him. At this time of great uncertainty, in the midst still of this economic crisis, let us resolve to fight for those causes that Jack did so much to advance, speaking up for decent jobs, workers' rights and public services; speaking out against greed, exploitation and discrimination, and ensuring that when this storm subsides, Britain emerges a better, fairer, more equal place.

Thanks for listening. Let's have a great Congress. (Applause)

The President: Thank you, Brendan, for that inspiring speech reminding us of the values at the heart of trade unionism and the importance of trade union unity in the months and the years ahead.

Defending the NHS

The President: Delegates, we turn now to Composite Motion 16, Defending the NHS. The General Council support the composite motion.

Lilian Macer (UNISON) moved Composite Motion 16.

She said: Congress, during the summer we have seen an unprecedented outburst of emotion in defence of our NHS. This was prompted by a campaign of lies and misrepresentation by right-wingers from both sides of the Atlantic lining up to abuse the NHS as a way of protecting the interests of American health insurance companies. The reality is that our NHS continues to provide excellent care regardless of income or employment and at a fraction of the cost of the American system, a system that is bogged down in market bureaucracy and leaves millions without health insurance.

As part of our Million Voices campaign UNISON made the point of highlighting these issues and rebutting the myths in a fact file that we sent to our sister unions in the States. We are not the only ones. The response from the British public was spontaneous and for those working in the service extremely heartening but, most importantly, the whole debate helped us focus our minds on exactly what fate may await patients if we let our NHS go the way of the American healthcare system. We cannot allow this to happen and yet if we are not careful that is exactly where we will end up.

The composite highlights and lists a long line of initiatives designed to impose a market system on the NHS in England. Firstly, the Transforming Community Services Programme intensifies the purchase providers' footing and sets competing healthcare providers against one another, and is creating a larger role for private companies and social enterprises. For patients this means having to work their way through an intensively fragmented complex system where providers have no incentive to work together to produce a seamless smooth pathway of care. For staff it means jobs, pensions, and other terms and conditions coming under threat. The safeguards set up to facilitate an easier passage for staff moving into social enterprises are not sufficient.

Secondly, in case local health commissioners are not sufficiently zealous in their drive to hive off services there is a new body to keep an eye on them. The title, 'Cooperation and Competition Panel', is a complete misnomer. There is nothing cooperative about it. Make no mistake, the panel is there to enforce the opportunity for private companies to make further inroads into healthcare provision. If taken at face value, the interim guidance would block virtually all public sector mergers within the NHS.

Thirdly, we have the ludicrous title, 'Necessity not Nicety'. When the NHS Together coalition originally came together one of its major achievements was to force government back round the table. The revamped NHS Social Partnership Forum gives unions the opportunity to be involved at the earliest stage of decisions that affect our members and at the very least be informed of latest developments, and yet in May this year the Department of Health chose to circumvent the SPF when it parachuted in its latest piece of market madness at a time of the most serious recession since the 1930s. Necessity not Nicety proposes spending an extra £20m setting up a series of commercial support units to support the NHS to develop local markets. To quote directly from this esteemed publication, it states quite openly its desire to maximise the contribution from the third and private sector organisations. Shortly after this came out the unions did secure a partial retraction from Health Minister, Ann Keen, when she stated that in spite of recent publications the NHS remains the Government's preferred provider of care. It was also around that time that the Department's Director General for Commissioning, Mark Bucknell, decided to leave the department. Where did he go? Yes, to KPMG!

It is not surprising that the Government continue to favour the market solution when the revolving door between consultancy and government keeps on spinning. At the start of this month an accounting report from the Department of Health was leaked. It recommended massive job cuts. What a surprise! After all, they could not recommend cutting the waste in the market system because then the opportunity for firms such as McKinsey, who would be involved in providing commissioning advice, might disappear. I have an alternative. How about cutting the number of market consultants within the NHS? (Applause) Recent reports have shown that hundreds of millions of pounds have been wasted by the Department and apparently with no way of checking whether these consultants are providing value for money, and when we talk of alternatives we have to remember there is another way. In Scotland and Wales markets have been abolished in favour of greater integration and, guess what, the world has not ended. In fact, the devolved countries have shown a perfectly plausible way of delivering improvements without resorting to the short-sighted policies used in England.

It is good that we are having this debate here today and it is excellent that it is based on a composite. It demonstrates the unity and strength of purpose across the TUC. NHS Together has continued to lobby hard for change and we remain confident that we can make the Government see the error of their ways before it is too late. But to conclude, Congress, the Government need to know this: union members from UNISON and across the TUC will not stand idly by and watch our NHS being dismantled piece by piece. Congress, please support.

Lesley Mercer (Chartered Society of Physiotherapy) seconded Composite Motion 16.

She said: Speaking of myth-busting who should we trust on the NHS these days? Is it the kind of Euro MP that recently said he would not wish the NHS on anyone? Is it the media with their relentless pursuit of bad news stories about the NHS? Is it any of the political parties who say that they care about the NHS but are not coming clean on their plans for it? Are these the kind of people that we should be trusting or should we be trusting the hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers who show every day in their working lives how much they care? Should we be trusting our Government who have invested for ten years consistently and have brought down waiting times dramatically, have improved the chances of everyone in this room of surviving the two big killers of cancer and heart disease, and are the first government ever to start taking health promotion seriously? Congress, these are really concrete achievements borne out by just about every patient survey carried out in recent years. We should be celebrating it. We should not be listening to the self-serving propaganda that runs down our NHS. But the future is not totally safe. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the impact of the recession is starting to be felt in the NHS. The pressure, I fear, is building for short-term cuts at the expense of long-term improvements and health maintenance. We have, I think as the previous speaker said, built up really good partnership arrangements in the health service and we are really going to need them. I personally feel, and I have always felt, that it is only by government, employers, workers and unions working together can we actually maintain progress and go further.

There is one thing that health unions will never, though, help or support and that is in the area of competition. It is fragmenting our services. It is sapping staff morale. It is wasting huge amounts of money and it is destroying the cooperation that is so vital to the NHS by pitting trust against trust. It all goes by the name of 'World Class Commissioning', so look out for that name. I dare anybody to go to the CSP members working at the Royal Free Trust in London who have just seen their world-class physiotherapy service sold off to the private sector. Congress, we need to stop this mad experiment through NHS Together and through the whole of the trade union movement. Please support this motion.

Tracey Taylor (Society of Radiographers) supported Composite Motion 16.

She said: Chair, delegates, if it is not nerve-racking enough standing for the first time addressing Congress, my delegation thought it would be a good idea for me to have a prop - the egg. The egg has been security-checked and cleared for attendance. Congress acknowledges the vast improvement to the NHS as a result of the increased investment in both staff and services. However, some of the drivers used by government are in danger of damaging the relationship between the NHS professional, UK public, and patients. The focus of increased quality and increased productivity at a reduced cost cannot be ignored. We are all investors in and potential customers of the NHS. We all want value for money. The downfall of applying business-driven principles to the NHS is that our units do not come on a production line down a conveyor belt. The wonderful human being comes in all shapes and sizes. We love the variety. We are people people.

Evidence gathered by the Society of Radiographers shows that in an efficiency drive to reduce the cost of the successful breast screening programme some commissioners want service providers to halve the time of an appointment from six to three minutes. Ladies attending breast screening are anxious. This is a procedure that involves intimate handling in the positioning of the breast, two images of each breast, and each image must be of the highest quality to enable the finest microscopic detail to be visible of the whole breast tissue, to enable the diagnosis of potential life-threatening disease. There is no room for error. Radiographic practitioners are highly competent in what they do but irresponsible throughput increases the risk of repetitive stress injury. Evidence shows that where appointment times have been reduced staff absence rates through sickness increase. Any potential saving is negated and the screening programme fails. No one wins.

Congress, in the three minutes I have been allocated to this speech I have not had time to boil the egg, never mind having to greet, put at ease, handle your wife's, mother's, sister's or daughter's breasts, but this is not the service our parents and grandparents laid the foundations for. Congress, please support this motion and ensure the mantra for economic savings does not damage our NHS for future generations.

The President: Thank you very much, colleague. For a first-time delegate at the rostrum that was an excellent part of the debate.

Gail Cartmail (Unite) supported Composite Motion 16.

She said: I want to start, if I may, by quoting one of our members, Nicky, who told us why she joined 3,000 other of our members in signing a letter to Andy Burnham. She said: 'I work in a pathology department that has currently been approached by a private firm. Their terms and conditions and methods of working go against all the principles of providing a quality service that puts patients' care first.'

The motion points out that the UK Government's current agenda is opening the way for future governments to dismantle the NHS. Previous speakers have very eloquently itemised the complex structures of marketisation of the NHS. The estimated cost to oil the wheels of these financial transactions is a staggering yearly £20bn, a step toward the USA-style transaction costs. In the USA, where private healthcare is most developed, they spend over 16 per cent of their gross domestic produce on health yet more than 45 million Americans lack health insurance. Britain spends half of that, yet the NHS covers everybody. In his speech to the joint sessions of Congress on healthcare reform earlier this month President Obama said: 'We spend one-and-a-half times more per person on healthcare than any other country but we aren't any the healthier for it. This is one of the reasons that insurance premiums have gone up three times faster than wages.' President Obama is valiantly fighting for social healthcare in America.

In Britain there are an estimated 149 PFI hospitals valued at £12.27bn but the NHS spends £70.5bn for them. It is cheaper and would save government money to buy out these contracts. We can pull away from the brink of privatisation. I would just like to wind up, chair, if I may, by quoting Robin: 'Health is not a business and to treat it as such dehumanises the patient, reducing her to nothing more than a unit, to be treated or sacrificed depending on her cost to the company coffers,' and her colleague Sarah says: 'Because health is a basic human right and not a business opportunity I will fight to defend the NHS.' Thank you.

Sharon Holder (GMB) supported Composite Motion 16.

She said: The NHS has made huge progress during the past few years delivering a quality and innovative service through a well-trained and committed workforce. The Darzi Review showed a welcome focus on the importance of staff, patients, and community engagement and there has been real improvement in staff consultation and trade union involvement, but the GMB is extremely concerned about the increasing focus on outsourcing of NHS services. The Government state their preference for direct delivery of NHS services yet the real agenda is demonstrated by the initiatives rolled out by the Department of Health. The Transforming of Community Services Programme, the Necessity not Nicety, and the Cooperation and Competition Panels initiatives are all proof of the drive towards privatisation. For 'transformation' read 'privatisation'.

We often hear statements about joined-up services but this policy will only lead to chaos and fragmentation of services. While billions of pounds are wasted on driving the privatisation agenda, there is no evidence that competition actually delivers better public services. In fact, we believe it makes things worse, both for the quality of services to patients and the livelihoods of the workforce. There is plenty of evidence that outsourcing leads to the attacks on terms and conditions and pensions of staff. TUPE and the Code of Practice on Workforce Matters may provide a degree of protection to staff but there is constant downward pressure on terms and conditions to save costs while employers get away with providing lesser terms and conditions, and pensions, to new staff creating a two-tier workforce. The delivery of high-quality services arises with the training, development and motivation of the workforce. Independent sector providers have little incentive to provide training and development. After all, their main aim is about profit.

The GMB is proud of the commitment and loyalty of our members working in the NHS but attacks on terms and conditions and the lack of opportunity to develop skills are bound to affect their motivation and morale. In turn, the quality of care is bound to suffer if the workforce is underdeveloped and de-motivated. Yet through Agenda for Change and working with the NHS unions the NHS has progressed in recent years and can continue to do so, given the chance. We believe that through service review and a level playing field in-house NHS services can provide the high-quality care that patients need. The GMB calls on the Government to reverse the privatisation agenda before it is too late, before it gives future governments the excuse and the chance to completely destroy the NHS. We call on the Government to save our NHS.

* Composite Motion 16 was CARRIED

NHS waiting time targets

The President: I now call Motion 55, NHS waiting time targets. The General Council's stand is to support the motion.

Sue Johnson (Society of Radiographers) moved Motion 55. She said: I, too, am a first-time delegate so please ignore the sound of knocking knees. (Applause) Thank you. As already mentioned, those of you who have been patients using the NHS in recent years have experienced many changes. You will have seen vast improvements in your healthcare. Despite the horror stories often promoted by the media there are a great deal of good news stories within the NHS. Patients are benefiting greatly from major investment in both staff and facilities. There has also been huge expenditure on technology. In many cases the tests asked for will be scans or X-rays carried out in a diagnostic imaging department, or X-ray department as many of us know them. Radiographers and assistants, our members, work alongside doctors, nurses, and clerical support staff in these departments. Radiographers are at the forefront of delivering both diagnostic and therapy services. We have a high level of skill and take great pride in the quality of the service that we provide.

You will have seen a big improvement in the time it takes from referral by your general practitioner for tests to actually having the test that you need. For example, MRI scans did take over a year before you were sent your appointment but now the maximum time is six weeks. At the same time, you now have better and easier ways to get a diagnosis and there are lots of new equipment and techniques at our disposal. Our members have made great efforts to make sure we work efficiently and effectively. The task of bringing waiting times down is a challenge but one that we willingly take if it improves the outcome for patients.

Recently, the Government have introduced a new indirect target. The primary care trust which pays for the tests that we as patients have tell us that if the NHS cannot provide the tests within two weeks from the date of referral they may send patients to the private sector. This means the funding would go there as well. We have been achieving a target of six weeks from the date of referral to the date of the test for some while now. To bring this down to two weeks in some areas will have a significant impact on the ability of our members to deliver the service in a safe way. This is a real slap in the face for all NHS workers who have worked so hard to achieve the targets.

There is no more money, we know, for additional resources in either equipment or staff. This means that the only way to increase capacity is to decrease the time each scan or X-ray takes and use the equipment for 24 hours a day. Under these conditions the idea of providing personalised individual care is seriously threatened. A high-quality X-ray examination or scan requires the appointment to have been booked correctly to ensure you that you have all the right information and that you are the right patient attending at the right time for the right test. As a patient you would also expect that our members would have the time to talk to you, explain what is going to happen, and answer any queries before they then concentrate on performing the test accurately and with a high level of skill. However, with pressure to decrease examination times something has to give and our members are finding that having the time to provide a caring high-quality examination is being squeezed. One consequence of this is that more errors are likely to be made. The sausage factory booking system means there is no leeway for delay. If you are an anxious patient who needs a bit more time or a less mobile patient who requires a bit more support and assistance while having a test, this no longer exists. The pressure to push patients through takes away our time to care, and focuses purely on workload. Professional radiography managers are pushing their staff to hit targets while they themselves may face serious consequences. This Government want quality, not quantity, but this is what is happening on the ground. This Government are being two-faced about health policy. Patients cannot always be prioritised based on clinical need. Now we focus on the requirement for them not to breach the waiting time target. Our primary aim seems to have become achieving the target, not providing the best care for the patient. To increase our ability to hit the targets we need to work longer hours and staff are becoming exhausted as overtime becomes the norm rather than the exception. Anecdotally, staff are also feeling the stress of high workloads and time pressures. I have already mentioned the stress placed on managers to hit the target. Please support this motion that puts pressure on government to revise its focus on targets. Lord Darzi has already found we need to focus on provision of a quality service and all we ask is the ability to use our professional skills and knowledge to ensure that you as patients receive the diagnostic imaging test that you need. Thank you.

Clare Williams (UNISON) seconded Motion 55.

She said: I am very pleased to be seconding this motion on such an important debate and topic. Other speakers have already said in the previous discussion that there have been record levels of investment in the NHS and I think we have to acknowledge that actually the NHS of today is very different to the NHS of 1997. The NHS of 1997 was actually one of the worst in Europe and at the bottom of the league tables. Actually, our NHS now is cited as being one of the best in the world. There have been large record amounts of investment and we have higher numbers of frontline staff than we have ever had before. I think we have to acknowledge that targets have played a part in improving standards. Of course, everybody accepts that you do not want people waiting years for operations or years to access services. However, the other side of that coin is that actually many targets are having unexpected and quite negative consequences.

For example, UNISON, and I am sure many others, is well aware of the four-hour wait in accident and emergency departments. That resulted in not a better access for people who needed it but actually people having to lie in the back of ambulances so that trusts did not fail in meeting their four-hour targets. I have said that I am sure targets are intended to push up standards but I think we do need to look at the evidence that is increasingly telling us that many of these targets are backfiring. Many targets are now actually creating stress in services that are actually impacting on the quality of care that can be delivered, that are putting immense pressure on healthcare workers who work often in very challenging situations and increasingly in an environment of increased efficiencies and increased expectations of productivity.

So, we want to call on the Government to be open and honest about these targets and actually to listen to us and our members who deliver healthcare. We know that the private sector does not deliver the best healthcare and we think its introduction to meet targets is counterproductive and unnecessary. We do not need artificially created measures to say, 'Let's get the private sector to do it better.' We have already given them £5bn on independent treatment centres not to deliver operations. That is not quality, and that is not efficiency. We need the Government to take a sober look at the direction of the NHS. I think we need a new vision and we need a new direction. That needs to be one where we do not have central targets, where we do not have markets in healthcare and where we do not have privatisation. Of course, we all want quality healthcare, of course we all agree we should not have long waiting times, but let's not create artificial arguments, let's not use that to introduce privatisation. Let's build on the best of the healthcare, which is working with healthcare workers for quality healthcare in the public sector. Thank you very much.

* Motion 55 was CARRIED

Opposing the far right

The President: I call Composite Motion 6, Opposing the far right. The General Council support the composite motion.

Rena Wood (UNISON) moved Composite 6. She said: Delegates, I am very conscious whenever I speak on any platform on this issue that people think I am preaching to the converted, or 'I have heard it all before'. Well, clearly, we have not been listening very hard. The fact is that we have needed it up in this region with Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP, having a seat in the European Parliament. The irony is the BNP was elected on fewer votes than were cast in 2004. We know why that is. People are disaffected, they are disengaged from the political process, and we have a job of work to do to re-engage those people. What kind of world are we living in when Question Time is going to offer a seat to Nick Griffin to speak? Question Time on the BBC - our public sector broadcaster! What is going on? We should be protesting about that. There is legislation that applies to the public sector about equality duties and race relations. Does that not apply to the BBC? Everybody in here should be making phone calls, sending emails, and protesting, and particularly the trade unions who work in the media.

I have to say that we have worked with Searchlight. If you or your branch of an affiliated union sat in this hall, are not affiliated to Searchlight, you need to do that because the work that Searchlight has done, the information it has given us, and the support, is just so invaluable. I hope everybody sat in here, if you were able to, supported Searchlight's trade union Friday events. The work we did around that was fantastic and my own union produced UNISON Specific, with ten reasons why you should join the union, why our values are different to the BNP, and we even had Eddie Izzard who spoke at a Hope not Hate function. That created a lot of interest. We were giving out the paper but a lot of people were saying that they did not want to take the paper. 'Don't you like Eddie Izzard? Read what he has to say.' They were so disgusted with politics they would never vote for the BNP but they were not going to cast their vote. That is the issue. There are a lot of disaffected people out there who traditionally support Labour, who could cast their votes but fail to vote. We have to do something about that.

I am very pleased in terms of the work that the PFA have done. For us as a trade union young people are the key. They are the key to our own activism, our own succession, but also in the work that our members do as youth workers. Young people are so disaffected that their voices are not heard loud enough and we have to do something to bring them on board, to engage with them. There is no difference actually between a young white male who supported the BNP because he does not see the mainstream politics representing his views and somebody who comes from a Muslim background and wants to join a jihad. The issue is that we have collectively failed our disaffected youth, and we have to do something about that. They are alienated. They are disengaged. Clearly, there is an abject failure in terms of social and economic policy but what is interesting about the vote for the BNP is the fact that some of the electorate are hardcore racists. There is no escaping that. Some people are disillusioned. They are not necessarily racists but they believe what the BNP say. We cannot escape from the fact some members of our own trade unions are hardcore racists. We know that in UNISON we have BNP members. It is unfortunate in our own conference we were not able to have a real chance to expel them but as a trade union movement we need to start doing things like that. We need to kick these people out because their values are absolutely nothing to do with our values. We have to get that message out there.

The other thing is Show Racism the Red Card. If your branches are not affiliated to that then shame on you, you really ought to be. The message is about getting it out to the wider community. It is not just about us defending our jobs and defending our values, but it is about talking to people who are unemployed, and that unemployment will grow in times of recession so those people do not have the opportunity to get that political education that we have access to. We work as a collective. That is what trade unionism is about. I am really pleased that we are here in Liverpool and with the film that we saw earlier. Liverpool has that proud history of trade unionism but, more importantly, the people of Liverpool did not buy The Sun for more than a decade. (Applause) So, what it shows us is that working class people can unite, can work as a collective; they can do it. It is up to us to tell them. This struggle is everybody's struggle. It is in our interests to defend our needs to fight for social justice and equality. We can do it and, as they say in Liverpool, you will never walk alone. Please support this composite.

Janice Godrich (Public and Commercial Services Union) seconded Composite Motion 6.

She said: Congress, we all agree that the BNP and the far right have no part to play in a civilised society. Their policies are anathema and run in direct opposition to the principles that underpin our movement, namely, unity and solidarity. It is important that we discuss today how to develop the best policies to eradicate the BNP and then, vitally, put those policies in place as a matter of urgency in the run-up to next year's general election. In doing so PCS believes we need to look at what underpins the support for the BNP, what unions can do in the workplace, and what campaign activities should the trade union movement as a whole be undertaking.

It is clear that the recent electoral success of the BNP was due to a collapse in votes for the Labour Party in traditional so-called stronghold areas. Mainstream parties urgently need to address the serious gaps in their policies that allow the BNP and the far right to exploit division and lack of investment to suit their own ends. Rising unemployment, poor access to decent public services, privatisation and bad housing all contribute to alienate people and allow the germs of the BNP to spread. But as importantly it is about building in the communities where the BNP exist, taking them on, on their own ground, and by taking them on defeating them.

Since the BNP was formed in 1982 trade unionists have opposed it. PCS believes that united action, in many cases led by trade unions, uniting communities and workers is a key to defeating the far right and vitally show those workers who are attacked by the BNP that we are firmly on their side: for example, opposing and defeating racist measures of ethnic monitoring, proposed by the Tories under Thatcher when they wanted to twist statistics to claim that black people were out of work because they were not looking for work; by organising a one-day strike of civil servants in London in 1988 when it came to light that Malcolm Skeggs, a leading member of the BNP, was employed in a DHSS office in Hither Green, which was a campaign that resulted in him being removed.

In PCS our most recent activity was focused around the Make Your Vote Count campaign in the European elections where we did numerous campaigning activities in conjunction with trade unions and community action groups in order to expose the true racist policies of the BNP, including organising a major protest at Home Office offices in Croydon where, disgracefully, the BNP were given permission to hold a demonstration. We must campaign to prevent fascists and racists working in the Civil Service as public servants. We do not think it is acceptable that you can be a fascist at weekends and then stroll into work on Monday morning and have access to sensitive information about citizens from across our communities.

Congress, inclusive and collective organisation in the workplaces and communities is a key to defeating the far right. We want a society that aspires to represent everyone who feels disenfranchised, alienated and excluded. Colleagues, we fight the BNP not just because their views are repugnant and based on ignorance, but because they seek to divide us, to separate worker from worker, when we know that unity is our strength and we need that strength to defend our jobs, our conditions and our communities. Please support.

Tim Wilson (Napo) supported Composite 6.

He said: Conference, I want you to picture a little girl running down the bank to the River Tyne in Gateshead in the early part of the 20th century. She was Jewish. She was running because she was terrified. She was being pursued by anti-Semitic thugs with taunts, threats and sticks. Fifty years later, she told her grandchild (a work colleague of mine today), 'Don't tell anyone you are Jewish. It might seem okay now, but you can't be sure. Things might get worse again.'

Well, Congress, things are getting worse with the election of two BNP Euro MPs and BNP local councillors. They are getting worse for Jewish, black and Asian people, eastern European, Roma, lesbian and gay people. Accompanying all this is a risk that we become desensitised through the mixed messages: 'Should the BNP be allowed on Question Time?' type of blandishments. These are the messages of mischief which strengthen the BNP's confidence and ultimately lead to full-blown corrosive incitement, dehumanising threats and hate crime attacks, the process of murmur to murder identified by the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. We should not indulge this weak-hearted agonising. Ours must be a solid shout - no platform for the BNP; no acceptance of their inhuman doctrines. (Applause)

Congress, our Napo probation staff work with the offenders who perpetuate crimes and hate against minorities in this country. Napo members challenge their distorted beliefs and victimising behaviour and yet it is still possible for a probation employee to be a BNP member. Why can this be? The police do not allow it for their staff. The prison service does not either. Such inconsistency gives a message of equivocation and serves only to appease the BNP and normalise them in the eyes of those who might vote for them.

As trade unionists, we should all be demanding that our employers ban BNP members from the workforce where they can spread their pernicious message. 'Not in my name' means us standing firm and not allowing a platform for the bigotry, hatred and violence of the far right. 'Not in anyone's name' requires us to unite all our anti-Nazi efforts to form an implacable wall against the BNP and its brown-shirt outriders, the English Defence League, the National Front and so on. We must unite and not repeat the mistakes of the anti-Nazi factions of early 1930s Germany.

Napo is working with, amongst others, 'Hope not Hate', 'Unite against Fascism' and 'Love Music, Hate Racism', which are supporting our AGM in a couple of weeks. We are joining in supporting rallies, protests, marches and other events. We hope to see all trade union comrades face down the BNP and stop the rot. Please support Composite 6.

Nick Cusack (Professional Footballers' Association) supported Composite 6. He said: The emergence of the BNP in the last couple of years reminds us that the fight against racism and intolerance in our society is far from over. Our movement has played a leading role in shaping our country and ensuring that the freedoms and liberties that we hold dear are every citizen's right. The fascists of the BNP want to dismantle these inalienable rights for all and establish a new order that is built on the discredited and wholly unjust ways of long-gone days when people from ethnic minorities faced terrible discrimination and virulent hostility.

Inequality still permeates our society, but we have made great strides in combating this and trade unions have been at the forefront in this crusade. We cannot allow the extremists of the right to seize the initiative and take our country back to the dark days of the past where racial hatred and division was endemic. Recent election success has provided the BNP with much publicity and a platform to promote their objectionable views and policies. The new way they present themselves and the playing down of their extreme credentials may fool some, but behind the veneer of respectability that they are trying to portray lies a party and ideology that brings hate and foments conflict and disharmony in cities and towns the length and breadth of the country.

Trade unions have always challenged the far right and fought hard to stop them gaining support and momentum amongst working people. This fight and struggle has taken place in football with the PFA showing true leadership and courage in rooting out the fascists and racists at every turn. In the days when black players were subjected to appalling racist abuse and ethnic minority supporters dare not attend a match for fear of violence and intimidation, the PFA stood up and demanded action. The campaigning work of the PFA in conjunction with our partners 'Kick It Out' and 'Show Racism the Red Card' has transformed the football landscape with players of all backgrounds, nationality and ethnicity now able to excite and thrill legions of multi-ethnic supporters free from abuse and prejudice.

This transformation has come about through player solidarity and the determination of the union to fight for all our members' rights irrespective of the mood, the times and the disinterest of the authorities. This pioneering work and the resolute way the PFA has pursued the cause of equality and the right to decent treatment on and off the field in football illustrates powerfully the influence of workers and their union in bringing about fundamental changes in an industry that then has a profound impact on society as a whole.

The PFA is a union full of individuals who have never been afraid to stand up for what is right and fight with all their might to oppose evil and poisonous elements in our midst. The role that our members have played thus far in the war on racism, and will continue to wage against the pernicious and divisive policies of the BNP, serves as a rallying call to all trade unionists to show similar strength of purpose and resolve in this fight.

I know that there are times when different elements within the labour movement cannot easily reconcile their opposing positions, but I am absolutely certain that in this fight we are all in it together. The PFA is determined to do all it can to defeat the BNP and their racist agenda and calls on all our colleagues within the trade union fraternity to join with us and not rest until the war on racism is won. I support the motion. (Cries of 'Hear, hear' and applause)

Julian Chapman (NASUWT) supported Composite 6.

He said: Congress, amongst those BNP candidates regrettably elected to public office are persons who have been convicted for denying the Holocaust and for inciting racial hatred. Adherents of the BNP have also been involved in violent attacks and in terrorism. The policies of the BNP run completely counter to the values and ethos of public service. Those values which we hold dear are about tolerance, inclusion, social justice and community cohesion. It is for these reasons that the NASUWT continues to prosecute the union's long-running campaign to amend the teachers' contracts to prevent members of the BNP from being employed in education and indeed in all public services.

This week, NASUWT launched an additional dimension to our campaign to prevent the BNP serving as members of governing bodies. We are also, on the basis of legal advice, preparing to mount a judicial review in circumstances where BNP councillors hold office on governing bodies. The role we must play is to expose the BNP's cynical use of the democratic process, whether in local, national or European elections, or when seeking election to school governing bodies. They seek to cloak themselves in respectability while at the same time promoting the politics of thuggery.

The trade union movement has a proud history. Congress has led the way during the past 70 years in the fight against fascism and the march of Hitler and the Nazis. The debate on this motion today highlights the critical role the trade union movement must continue to play to create a society free from fear, intolerance and hatred.

Congress, in the interests of community cohesion, justice and fairness, please support Composite 6.

Colin Moses (POA) supported Composite 6.

He said: Congress, you may read on a daily basis about the industrial strife inside the Prison Service between the POA and its employer, but one thing we stand shoulder to shoulder with them on is to ban extremists from employment in the Prison Service. The reason I have come to the rostrum to speak today is to say that every union at this Congress should have its employer do the same. Why should we give sustenance to people to be employed, especially in public sector areas, who hold extreme views?

The workplace is shared by the employer and the unions. If the Prison Service can ban them, you can ban them and they should be banned. In regard to debates about whether the BNP should be allowed on Question Time, the answer is 'No'. That is what this Congress should be saying: 'No, no, no.' (Applause)

I am actually disappointed that there are not any government ministers to hear this debate today because we could send them a clear message as well. On a daily basis, as I meet employers - and more worrying for me as I meet elements of my membership - they tell me that the BNP is a recognised political party, but recognised by whom? Is it the extremist, the thug or those who wish to take their violence onto the streets? They are not the people that we want to stand alongside in employment. Their employer should be able to say to them, 'No' and we should also be able to say to them 'No' as a political party.

As regards the BBC, recently over your breakfasts on a Sunday morning, you had to watch Marr interviewing the head of the BNP and legitimising him. That was wrong. What we should be saying quite clearly is that the time has come, after much talk at this Congress, to stand up and say, 'No' to them solidly, to say that there is no place for them in our society, that there is no place for them in our employment and that it will end racism. We can end it if we stand shoulder to shoulder. Thank you, Congress.

Tim Lezard (National Union of Journalists) supported Composite 6. He said: The NUJ's policy against the BNP is to challenge them. Let me be the second person this morning to refer to an egg in my speech. If there is any doubt of the need for journalists to challenge what the BNP say, remember that demonstration outside Parliament when somebody chucked an egg at Nick Griffin and it hit him right on the shoulder. The yolk was dribbling down his jacket. Even as he stood there and someone said, 'You have been hit by an egg', he said, 'No, I have not. It missed.' If they can be as brazen about that, what can they be about other things?

The trouble is that not all questions are as simple as that. Although savage cuts are being made in newsrooms throughout the country, these cuts do not need to be made. These cuts are made purely to satisfy the greed of shareholders. Journalists are finding it harder and harder to get out of their newsrooms to carry out investigations. Those who are free to do so face their own problems. They are intimidated and threatened by BNP members. This happened to me. I have written stories for the New Statesman about the BNP and I have been rewarded with phone calls from BNP members. One person called me on my mobile and was chatting. He said, 'You are Tim Lezard and you have written all this stuff.' He went on threatening me and he finished by saying, 'We have got your number. We will use that.' I said, 'I have got yours too, mate, because you have left it on the phone.' That shows how stupid they are. After one call to the police later, he has not bothered me since.

Journalists are in danger for reporting on the BNP. That is why the NUJ is stepping up to the plate. We are setting up, together with BECTU, the 'Reporting the BNP' website, which will be launched later in the autumn. This website is going to be a resource for all journalists whose job it is to write about the BNP. It will scrutinise the party's every move in Brussels when Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons bother to attend Parliamentary sessions. If they do, we will scrutinise who they talk to, what they say and how they vote. It will also carry background facts about the BNP, exposing the party's racist policies and its members' violent and criminal pasts. We are doing this because we believe that it is our responsibility that readers, viewers and listeners should know the truth about the BNP. The truth is that the BNP is a fascist party and we shall not tolerate them.

Colin mentioned Question Time and the BBC says that they have to invite the BNP to appear on it. No, they do not. Please support the motion. Thank you. (Applause)

Mohammed Malik (Unite) spoke in support of Composite 6. He said: I am not going to be as eloquent as others. All I say is this. The BNP breeds on fear. If you let them breed fear, we will lose. We cannot afford that because, at the end of the day, look around you. We are from so many different backgrounds and with so many different things to offer each other. For that reason, I want you to support Composite 6. I am not going to say much more than that. Thank you.

Dennis Tufour (Connect) spoke in support of Composite 6. He said: I am a first-time speaker and a first-time delegate to Congress. (Applause) As a delegate at a TUC Young Members' Conference this year, I spoke on this issue. The important issue this year is the terrifying level of support that the BNP has gained in the recent European local elections.

The young professional network of Connect wholeheartedly endorses the TUC's continued support of anti-BNP campaigning and will look to be involved in this campaign whenever possible. Countering the divisive and disgusting propaganda of the BNP is vital in ensuring that the fascists cannot gain significant support. With a general election coming next year, this should be a key area of work for all trade unionists.

The TUC Young Members' Conference unanimously supported the trade union movement's involvement as a key player in anti-BNP work. An interesting discussion took place in relation to the European elections. Many felt that the BNP benefited from a lack of knowledge about the European Union. It works because of the low turn out. This is particularly the case for young voters. Therefore, young Connect delegates supported the position that the TUC and the affiliated unions should adopt the position that education of young workers on the importance of voting, the electoral system and the reality of BNP policies is crucial in ensuring the limitation of BNP success.

Connect and the young professional network asks that Congress supports this position and continues to campaign against the far right of the BNP using the union's website and all workers on the issues when possible. Above all, let us use our people to defeat the BNP not only in the general election but every day. We call on all branches, with support from union head offices, to be active in their local areas and in their workplaces in the run-up to the general election. Please support. (Applause)

* Composite Motion 6 was CARRIED

Against racism, against homophobia

The President: I call Motion 12, Against racism, against homophobia. The General Council supports the motion.

Nick Day (GMB) moved Motion 12. He said: Congress, it is well-known that the BNP is a fascist and racist party, but its views on women and the LGBT community are equally vile. Nick Erikson, the second highest candidate on the party's London list at the recent European elections, wrote in 2005 that women enjoy sex and to suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that force-feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence.

The BNP leader, Nick Griffin, described homosexuality as a form of behavioural deviancy and that we should be pushed humanely but firmly back into the closet. He also warned of an almighty backlash which will result in the imprisonment of the LGBT community in Britain. The BNP Director of Publicity, Mark Collett, called gays and lesbians 'Aids monkeys' and said that Aids is a friendly disease because blacks, drug-users and gays have it.

We need to widen the attack on the BNP's racism and fascism to ensure that women and the LGBT community are aware of the vile views that the fascists hold on them. Congress, affiliate your branches to organisations such as Searchlight. Have regular anti-fascist updates in your branch newsletters. Work with organisations such as Schools Out to combat homophobic bullying in the classroom. The harder we work with schools in this area, the earlier we can tackle the prejudices that still blight our education system.

Up the pressure on the Tory Mayor of London, who has shown no respect for anti-racist initiatives. He cancelled the Rise Festival, which was founded by the TUC in response to the callous murder of Stephen Lawrence and promotes the coming together of different races in the forms of music and culture. Boris Johnson is no friend of the anti-racist movement. Shame on you! (Applause)

We must be vigilant against the BNP in our workplaces. Their own supposed union is called Solidarity, which is linked directly to the BNP website. It claims to be about uniting all workers from all backgrounds, but they do not believe in recruiting migrant workers. In reality, it is a so-called union for British workers only.

Congress, let us send a message to the BNP. The union movement was built upon the belief that we represent all our members so let us fight for a better deal for those who are least able to do so themselves. We do not blame minorities for the problems caused by those in power. Please support this motion but, more importantly, go back to your unions and communities and continue to fight against the BNP. This Congress will send a unified message to fascism at noon today. 'Not in my name' say us all.

Maria Exall (Communication Workers' Union) She said: We must act to stop the BNP. History shows us that in periods of economic hardship fascist support grows. Instead of working together to change our society, fascists like the BNP preach their gospel of division and hatred. It is much easier, isn't it, to blame others who seem weaker than you than to challenge those in power. It is the most negative form of politics there is - stoking up fear and prejudice rather than promoting hope and progress.

Congress, if you are in a group which is a scapegoat of the BNP, you cannot help but understand their ways. They are experts in division and provocation. It has been so in the past and it is true in the present. John Denham, the Community Secretary, was right to speak out against the English Defence League marching through areas containing Muslim communities. It is as provocative now as it was in 1936 when Mosley's fascists were prevented from marching down Cable Street.

The BNP do not only use racism; they also use sexism and homophobia. As this motion says, we need a broad coalition to defeat the fascists, but this coalition has to be based on positive social and economic policies for working people. It is not enough just to say, 'Vote for anyone but the BNP.' Those of us who live in London know the results of such policies. We have to put up with the reactionary Tory Mayor, who is slowly but surely dismantling anti-racist initiatives and cutting financing for LGBT organisations and projects. We see Tory MPs in Parliament consistently voting against legislation on incitement to homophobic hatred. We are in danger of sliding towards a political consensus where free speech is an excuse for the respectability of fascism. Free speech does not feel like a liberal principle when you are on the receiving end of the senseless bigotry and violence of the BNP.

Let us be clear. Which Nick Griffin was on the BBC and spreading his poison, it had nothing to do with freedom and it is nothing to do with the watchword 'liberty'. Congress, we cannot be complacent. We do have to act. We need unity in that action to defeat the fascists with black and white, women and men, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people as well as straight people working together. We need working class unity and we all need to build it. Support Motion 12. (Applause)

Zita Holbourne (Public and Commercial Services Union) supported Motion 12. She said: The PCS welcomes this motion. It is important to recognise that the BNP is homophobic and sexist as well as racist and fascist. As an individual, the BNP does not like me for a number of reasons. They do not like me because I am black, because I am a working woman, because I am a single parent and because I am a trade union activist who stands up against racism and fascism. (Applause)

The PCS 'Make Your Vote Count' campaign challenges political candidates to respond to our members' issues such as pay and job attacks, but it also aims to combat the far right in elections. Members across all areas participated, including our LGBT, black, women, disabled and young members', at national and regional levels. As the motion calls for material regarding the BNP's racist, homophobic and sexist views, material was produced in different languages and we took the campaign to Prides and other community events, but not, of course, to the Rise Against Racism festival in London because the Mayor did not think that racism was an important enough issue to have a festival against.

We encourage people to register to vote, to use their vote and, acknowledging how let down by mainstream parties they might feel, to understand the importance of using their vote to keep the BNP out. We know the BNP masks their true politics when electioneering and exploits in times of economic and political upheaval. We know their most high-profile targets are on race grounds but, like the German Nazis before them, their hatred goes beyond race. In addition to Jewish people, Communists, trade unionists, disabled, Romany, black, gay and lesbian people were put into concentration camps. The BNP continues this Nazi tradition so it is important, when campaigning against them, to include their views on different groups of people. Once we start to look at all the people they hate, including black, Muslim, Jewish, LGBT, women, disabled, single parents and trade union activists, there are few people left who they like.

If people are in any doubt of their true politics, share with them these examples of their disgusting, evil views. At the recent BNP Red, White and Blue festival, they burned a golliwog they named Winston. They said he was charged and guilty of mugging, rape, drug-dealing and being black. Then they said, 'Let us go and get a real one.'

A BNP organiser said that for a woman to consider a job or career more important than having children is unnatural and that rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal. It is like force-feeding a woman chocolate cake. A party spokesman said that lesbians who opposed him are in fear of their own repressed sexual feelings. A list of politicians on their website describes gay MPs as buggers and criminals and groups them with paedophiles. A BNP councillor said, 'Being gay is not a crime legally but it is morally.'

At the golliwog burning, they got a child to set light to it. She did it because she was raised on hatred. We cannot afford a new generation of the BNP. That is why we need to get into schools with our message.

I am glad to say that the PCS rule book stops members of fascist organisations joining PCS. We work hard to achieve fascist-free zones in our workplaces, but we need a fascist and discrimination-free zone across the UK. There is no place for the BNP in work or in schools, on our streets or in our communities. We need to come together across our movement and, as a member of the TUC Race Committee, I would welcome working with the other equality committees of the TUC. We need to engage all people in this fight against evil because it is urgent and we must win the fight. Please support this motion. (Applause)

Maggie Ryan (Unite) spoke in support of Motion 12.

She said: I live and work in the West Midlands and recently Birmingham has made the headlines in the press and on the TV for all the wrong reasons. The BNP, under another banner of the English Defence League, staged demonstrations in our city against Islam. Their intention was to cause widespread social unrest in our city which has not come to pass because it does not have the support of the vast majority of people who live there.

In fact, we are very proud of our city with its ethnic and multicultural diversity. We will not allow the ourcity to be taken over by fascists many of whom are not even from Birmingham or even the wider west Midlands.

I also work for one of the largest employers in our region and recently it became known that the councillor for one of the wards in Redditch was actually a BNP councillor. Back in 2008 he was in court for grievous bodily harm after attacking his wife and his mother-in-law. That just shows you the calibre of this so-called person who represents the people of that ward in Redditch!

On the day that our new owners, an Indian company, took over our company, David Enderby, this councillor, resigned his position after 16 years. That was no coincidence. It was a political statement that he was making. We are very happy to be rid of him. Our workforce is made up of many people from various different backgrounds and faiths so if that had spread to the shop floor, I think our Indian owners might well have changed their minds and wondered whether it was such a good idea to buy our company. In the west Midlands, alongside our own union, Unite, we do really good anti-fascist work. With Birmingham Trades Council, Unite against Fascism and the Midlands TUC, we will continue the fight to combat the Far Right. We had a really good turn-out for the Stoke Love Music, Hate Racism festival and our Birmingham Pride event is one of the biggest in the country. It is well-attended by many people. We will continue to do that kind of work. I urge all of you to come out and support your Gay Pride events, whatever city you are from. Please support this motion.

Jane Rogers (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) supported Motion 12. She said: Delegates, please come and protest against the BNP this year when they hold their conference in Blackpool. So far we have not had a great deal of support from other unions. The difficulty is that we do not actually have much notice of when they hold the conference, as you may well know. Searchlight and Unite Against Fascism between them let us know. It might only be two or three weeks prior.

The TUC are going to advertise the conference on their website so I would ask delegates or workmates or anybody to come and march with us and protest not only against the BNP but against them having a conference in Blackpool. We do not want them in Blackpool. We do not want them to have a conference anywhere. Please come. Please give your voice because it has a visual effect not only on the town, but on other people in the fight against the BNP. Thank you. (Applause)

* Motion 12 was CARRIED

The President: That completes our business for this morning. Before we move into the 'Not in my name' speeches and the silent vigil against racism and fascism, may I remind delegates that there are various meetings taking place this lunchtime. Details of these meetings are displayed on the screens and can also be found on pages 11-14 of the Congress Guide or in the leaflet included in your Congress wallet. Please note that the Campaign for Fair Tax fringe meeting has been cancelled.

Delegates, as agreed earlier, I am now suspending standing orders so that we can listen to our speakers before we proceed to the silent vigil against racism and fascism outside the Convention Centre. First, I invite Gloria Mills, Chair of the TUC Race Committee, to speak.

'Not in my name'

Gloria Mills (General Council): Thank you, President. Conference, I would like to thank Congress for an excellent debate in the last session and also to thank you for the fact that trade union members have a long and proud record of addressing the major social issues of our time. Right now, there are many social issues and challenges facing this movement. Brendan Barber, our General Secretary, set them out earlier this morning in his address to Congress.

At the forefront of those many challenges is the need for the trade union movement to mount a robust campaign against the growth of the far right, particularly the mushrooming of far right organisations recently. This will be needed now more than ever in the run-up to the next general election because the next election will be polarised. The BNP and the Far Right will be playing on people's fears of unemployment and job losses. The far right and the BNP will continue to peddle their politics of hate, poisoning and polluting public opinion on race, immigration, migrant workers and asylum seekers, to name but a few. Their politics are about creating fear in communities, sewing distrust and division and undermining community cohesion.

We will continue to challenge and expose them for what they are about, using racism and fascism to gain political advantage and for electoral gain. We need to challenge the notion that the BNP is the solution to the crisis of representation of the working-class people in this country. The mainstream political parties have been found wanting in offering credible solutions to the BNP's narrative of scapegoating minority communities. Trade unions are developing a robust economic and social programme to promote democratic engagement of disaffected and marginalised communities. We are standing up squarely against racism and fascism and all other forms of intolerance, discrimination and bigotry, mounting effective campaigns against the growth of the far right.

Our movement will rise to the challenge of the far right. Our values of equality, solidarity and social justice will continue. We must be robust in supporting communities to rise from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope. That is why, in the movement, we have signed up to Hope Not Hate. Trade unions are doing a lot in terms of trying to deal with some of the big challenges where there is a political vacuum that the BNP feels it can fill. Community groups will be putting forward progressive agendas of equality and fairness to ensure that we have no hate and no division in our communities.

I would like to thank delegates and particularly the PFA for all the work that you have done. I would also like to thank the TUC for launching anti-racism campaigns in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and to Kick Racism Out of Football and to Show Racism the Red Card. In the 1970s and the 1980s, many black people - I am an Arsenal supporter - could not go to a football match. You just could not go to a football match. We have come a long way because now I am able to go to any football match at any ground that Arsenal plays at without the fear of being attacked because of my skin colour.

We must recognise that we have come a long way, but we must not allow racism to raise its ugly head again. If you would like further information on Show Racism the Red Card, I know that Norma Stephenson is here and she will be able to give you further details.

I also want to say that the BNP does not reflect the views of the British people. They do not speak for the British people, not now, not ever and not in our name. Together, we can stop the far right and the BNP by having a credible and progressive agenda that is actually based on equality, solidarity and support for communities and which does not scapegoat communities. Thank you very much, Congress. (Applause)

The President: Thank you, Gloria, for those stirring words. As we would say back home, 'Said with hail and enthusiasm.'

Congress, I now invite Gee Walker, mother of Anthony Walker, to speak to us about the campaign. Gee, you are more than welcome here today. (Applause)

Address by Gee Walker of the Anthony Walker Campaign

Gee Walker: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I just wish I was here talking about something other than my beloved son. No one can tell me that racism does not exist because I am living proof that it does. What happened to Anthony has unveiled the division and the challenges we face every day.

My son and what happened to him is the result of extreme racism. I know that if he was white he would still be alive today. When hate destroyed my son's dream, our community in Liverpool, in the UK and indeed the world was outraged and shocked. We were left devastated and we still are. The positives are that, at that time, we all embraced cohesion and diversity in all its forms. It was a time when race, religion and class and even our own football teams, Everton and Liverpool, sat side by side comforting each other at Anthony's funeral. Unfortunately, that was short-lived and already many people seem to have forgotten my Anthony and they have resorted back to their own comfort zones.

I appeal to the hearts of everyone here today and as educators, as unions, as politicians, as parents and carers and those in their various professions to think about the positives. Instill positive policies and not just lip service. Help the workers in the workplace, as many are getting abused. I appeal to your hearts and to the powers that be to make sure that these positive and effective policies are put in place and are followed through. These policies should reflect our multicultural society, not exclusive but inclusive. It should be relevant and universal. It should be sound and meaningful.

I appeal to the Government that they should reflect justice and equality for all. I believe that true equality should be instituted and maintained as a whole. Our generation is amongst the first to be faced with a decision to determine whether or not our children inherit a habitable and peaceful planet. If the powers that be can control the events in our community, you should listen to what the people are saying.

We should support families because I believe in the family and what constitutes it. Yes, we sit and debate but family should be the community's cornerstone. They should be the bedrock and unity in which our children should be raised. The family is there as it is necessary for children to become better people. It is a place where law rules, discipline and boundaries are born and taught and maintained. Somehow, 'family' has lost its meaning and tradition. Its values are threatened and it is diminishing very fast. It is overshadowed by vast changes, breakdown and major uncertainties surround it.

I believe that change can happen, but I am saddened because, at this rate, our society cannot survive the culture which is eroded by hate, division, violence and crime. I believe that decent people are sick and tired of this contemporary bad news on a daily basis. I am not sounding naïve or simplistic, but I cannot speak without mentioning forgiveness. I believe that forgiveness is a powerful tool. It is a weapon that I use to overcome this hate-filled world and what has happened to my Anthony and so many others.

My Anthony was raised on both God's and man's laws. I raised him in a simple way. He could easily have been a killer, but he was raised in love. His upbringing was based on Godly principles. It saddens me because can you imagine that if we were to observe at least one of these laws (say Exodus 20, 'Thou shalt not kill'), so many of our young people would be alive today.

We have no difficulty accepting that if we break the law, there are consequences. However, on a daily basis, we break God's law without thought or regret or a 'take it or leave it' attitude. I believe change can happen. I cannot but mention the great man, Obama, and great men and women like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and recently the Rev. Jesse Jackson. If it was not for Jesse Jackson, who opened the door and ran for Presidency, President Obama might not have been where he is today. Somebody has to make a start somewhere.

I will conclude as I know I only have five minutes. Many things have been said here today. Let us address the issues that I have mentioned because they are not unobtainable. I believe that families make a community and communities make a nation. If we do not reciprocate but show tolerance and respect, coupled with creation and diversity, together these policies - and I cannot but say that love has to be a part of it - can become a reality.

If we unite, I believe unity is power and I believe it is down to every one of us here today to allow these changes to happen. God bless you and thank you. (Applause and standing ovation)

The President: Thank you, Congress, for that and thank you, Gee. As you see, we do stand with you and we do admire your courage in coming here to speak to us today. It was a hard task but a task that every one of us knows that you were doing in a wonderful, wonderful way. Thank you, Gee. (Applause)

Congress, we will now hear from the General Secretary. After his address, Brendan will also explain the arrangements for leaving the Conference Hall to take part in the 'Not in my name' silent vigil.

Brendan Barber (General Secretary): It is my job to tell you of the arrangements for the anti-racist, anti-fascist vigil which we are asking all delegates and visitors to join after this session.

But first let me spell out exactly what our message is today. This is a silent vigil because we want first to reflect on the victims of racism and fascism. Gee has just given a very moving testimony of the suffering that she has had to endure. We know that a lot of racist abuse and racist attacks go unreported and disregarded, but still have desperately traumatic effects on the victims. Thousands suffer every day.

We know that when the BNP vote goes up, it gives hate crime a boost - not just racism but homophobia too. Today, we are remembering all the victims of racism and fascism, not just those suffering in Britain today but throughout the world and indeed throughout history. Here, in the middle of what was once one of the biggest slave ports in the world, is the right place to do that.

At the start of the 19th century, more than 120 slave ships a year left this city. That was three-quarters of all the European slave traders. Historians tell us that Liverpool ships transported half of all the three million Africans carried across the Atlantic by British slavers. That deserves a moment of quiet reflection while we are here.

As well as an opportunity for solidarity and remembrance, our vigil sends another message. We will be joined by community leaders from Liverpool in the vigil. We are at the heart of one of the two constituencies which elected a BNP representative to the European Parliament. Our message today is that they were not elected in our name or in the name of the vast majority of the British people who utterly reject the politics of hate. Not in our name - solidarity, remembrance and that clear message. Never again should a mother have to suffer as Gee has suffered.

I ask you to join the vigil. It is taking place immediately outside the Convent ion Centre. You leave by the normal exits. Stewards will be available to guide you and there will be placards with that strong and simple message available to hold. At the front of the vigil, the General Council will be joined by community leaders to get that message across. We ask you to face the dock from which, no doubt, slavers left so that the cameras that are here will get everyone in their pictures. A whistle will be blown to indicate when the five-minute silence is to begin and when it is to end. So, let us all go out together to send that united message to the people of this country.

(Congress adjourned until 2.15 p.m.)



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