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GCHQ

The President speaking to paragraph 1.4 of the General Council's Report said: Colleagues, we held our celebrations for the restoration of trade union rights at GCHQ in Cheltenham last Sunday, which was our fifteenth visit to Cheltenham to demonstrate trade union support for the victimised trade union members at GCHQ. It was good to see Lionel Murray and Norman Willis in Cheltenham last Sunday. Both gave unstinting support to the GCHQ campaign during their periods as TUC General Secretaries. Len could not be with us today but I am delighted to say that Norman Willis is on the platform for this special tribute to the GCHQ workers. (Applause) Norman, your efforts ensured that the GCHQ issue did not fade away. We thank you for your part in the victory.

Keeping the issue of trade union rights on the political agenda for more than 13 years was a magnificent achievement. The determination of the campaigners to fight for justice was an example to us all. I want to ask Congress to welcome the GCHQ trade unionists who are with us here in the hall today.

(A standing ovation was accorded to the workers of GCHQ)

There is a slight TUC understatement because on my note it says, "Possible Applause".

Congress, the campaign was supported by trade unionists throughout the world. There was outrage at Mrs Thatcher's assertion that trade union members could not be committed to their work and loyal to the country. When the ban on Union membership was announced in January 1984, there was a determination to fight to win back basic rights for GCHQ workers. No one could have known just how long it would take. In recognition of the significance of the GCHQ campaign, the TUC has commissioned a video of the story from the ban in 1984 to the victory in 1997. It is a moving account which I am sure will bring back powerful memories for many of you here.

(GCHQ Video shown)

Gold Badge

The President: Congress, the dedication of the sacked GCHQ Union members is being recognised today with the award of the Gold Badge of Congress, which is the Movement's highest honour. I should now like to invite each of them on to the stage to collect their Gold Badges.

(Presentation of Gold Badges of Congress, made amidst applause, to: Bill Bickham; Allan Chambers; John Cook; Mike Grindley; Brian Johnson; Clive Lloyd; Gareth L Morris; Gerry O'Hagan; Alan Rowland; Robin Smith and Harry Underwood)

Mr Mike Grindley (GCHQ): Conference, Brothers and Sisters, Comrades and Friends, which I think encompasses everybody, on behalf of the sacked GCHQ trade unionists, I thank Congress most sincerely for our Gold Badges. We are honoured to accept them in the spirit of thirteen-and-a-quarter years non-stop struggle against the infamous Union ban introduced by Mrs Thatcher. Between the sudden imposition of the ban in January 1984 and its lifting this May, we could not have survived without your wholehearted support and, of course, that of our spouses and families to whom our love and gratitude goes. It has been their fight, too. We thank the entire trade union Movement, and especially the rank and file trade unionists, as we are ourselves, and all those expecting full rights back and who fought for them, and all those who marched in the rain and snow in the massive January rallies to say nothing of the cloudburst rally last week. What typical August weather that was. We were told that apart from the Burston school strike, whose commemoration takes place this week, the next longest British trade union struggle and dispute is the GCHQ one, but after 4,860 days of long struggle the ban has been overturned and it was the support and solidarity of yourselves and the entire Movement that kept the campaign to the fore and was the vital lever.

Without free and truly independent trade unions, we are nowhere. On behalf of the sacked workers, thank you very much.

(Applause)

The President : Thank you, Mike. You have been a wonderful ambassador for the trade union Movement.

Mr Mike Grindley (GCHQ): I would like to present through Tony Dubbins to the TUC this commemoration plate, which is No. 1 of our final anniversary. We give it with all our best and thanks to the TUC. (Applause)

The President : Thank you, Mike. As I said, you have been a wonderful ambassador for the trade union Movement. Thanks to all of you for the wonderful solidarity that you have shown through 14 very difficult years. As John said, this battle we finally won.

Three of the dismissed trade unionists, unfortunately, cannot be with us today, but they will also be receiving the Gold Badge of Congress. They are Dee Goddard, Graham Hughes and Roy Taylor.

Fraternal delegate from the Cooperative Union

The President : Colleagues, we will now move on. I would like to introduce the Fraternal delegate from the Cooperative Union who this year is Pauline Green MEP, who I am sure many of you know. Pauline was first elected to the European Parliament in 1989 and increased her majority almost tenfold in 1994. Pauline is the Leader of the Socialist Group, which is the largest group in the European Parliament, and specialises in consumer affairs. She has been involved in the Cooperative Movement for most of her working life. Pauline, I invite you to address Congress.

Ms Pauline Green (MEP): Thank you very much, President. Congress, it is my privilege to bring you fraternal greetings from the Cooperative Movement. In January of this year, I was elected as President for 1997 of the Cooperative Congress, the highest honour that the Cooperative Movement can bestow on one of its members, and it is in that capacity that I bring you the solidarity and warm wishes of the Cooperative family for your Congress this year.

Congress, it is also my very great pleasure and pride to bring you the greetings of the 215 Socialist Social Democrat and Labour Party Members of the European Parliament whom it is my privilege to lead.

The Cooperative Movement, the trade unions and the Labour Party are by tradition the three wings of the Labour Movement in Britain. They have worked together in partnership to a greater or lesser degree over the last century. The Cooperative Movement believes that this partnership must prevail over the next century.

We, like you, recognise that relationships are dynamic. To fail to recognise the need for change would be a mistake and the trade union Movement has exhibited its understanding of the evolving nature of that relationship over recent years. The Cooperative Movement recognises your crucial role in promoting change. We are clear, however, that the nature of the triangular partnership - Cooperative, trade union and Labour Party - is fundamental to the success of Labour as a political force in this country. For me, coming as I do from a Cooperative background, engaged in the life of my trade union USDAW, and as a Labour Member of the European Parliament, all three elements are part of my political profile.

Congress, in recent months the Cooperative Movement has been in the news. The attempts of a young entrepreneur to acquire big chunks of the CWS like the Cooperative Bank, the Cooperative Insurance Society and its agricultural business were fuelled by the press and an impressive bank of publlic relations consultants who saw this as the next big bonanza, the natural successor in the longline of privatisations and demutualisations of the 1980s and 1990s. The Coop and the CWS in particular were portrayed as sleepy at best and incompetent at worst. If anyone thinks the Coop lacks the ability to face up to hard decisions and win, they need only remember the way in which the lay leadership and the chief executive of the CWS sorted out the stripling predator, to see the sleeping giant in action!

Who today can doubt the success of Cooperative trading? In the UK alone Cooperative retail societies and the CWS have a combined turnover of nearly , 8 billion employing more than 110,000 people. Our Insurance Society covers 3.5 million families and the Cooperative Bank, besides assets of , 3.9 billion has created waves throughout the country with its highly successful ethical trading stand reinforced recently by their public campaign in support of a ban on the production and sales of landmines in which so many political and trade union activists have been engaged for so long.

I want at this point to make mention of the work of ICOM, the home for worker Cooperatives in the UK. I am particularly proud to be President of ICOM whose magnificent work supports 1500 worker Cooperatives. Worker Cooperatives are an important part of the small business sector in the UK. Today we rely on small businesses to create the employment of the future. Cooperatives are often amongst the most innovative and imaginative of the small business sector.

Congress, creating jobs is the challenge of the moment. There is now growing recognition that no one country on its own is any longer able to guarantee its people a long term secure future. Such is the speed and nature of high tecnology change in the world today that couple with the benefits of the global market, British Airways can close down its ticketing administration in Britain and move it to India; and if you ring that same airline for any information from anywhere in Britain it will transfer you to New York, at no extra charge, of course, for an answer, yet the information revolution is in its infancy. At this moment, it is anarchic, unfocussed and undirected. Give it another five, ten or fifteen years and the effect will be beyond belief. It will, without question, affect every aspect of our life - educational, cultural, social, working and leisure.

That is why I support closer integration between the Member States of the European Union, not because I am a Euro-fanatic, which I am certainly not and not because I am less proud of being British than Bill Cash, Teddy Taylor or John Redwood. Rather the opposite. I am a Euro-pragmatist. I can see that the world is moving in a certain direction, and I want us to take control of it rather than it taking control of us. It is because I want to preserve the important parts of our lifestyle rather than let them slowly die in front of our eyes or, more perhaps, before the eyes of our children, that I think the European Union presents us with a challenge which we must not fail.

It is why as well that I support moves towards economic and monetary union and a single currency. Competition, the virility symbol of the end of this century, will increase in intensity and ruthlessness in the early decades of the next century. Why do I say that? Just look at the economic developments in China and India; consider the impact of a united Germany in ten or so years; look at the potential of the ten central and eastern European countries waiting to joint the European Union - at present their combined economic activity is only equivalent to that of the Netherlands, one of the smaller countries of the European Union. Put all of that in the context of the global market enhanced by the information society and its potential. It is crucial that every possible opportunity is grasped to extend and develop our competitiveness. If a single currency can enhance Europe's strategic competitive advantage then I for one would not dismiss it simply for some sentimental notion of economic sovereignty which has not in any case been 'real' for the past 30 or 40 years.

In the coming days you will hear from the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, and from European Commissioner, Padraig Flynn. They will, I have no doubt, give you chapter and verse of plans to implement the Social Chapter in Britain and to develop the employment aspects of the Amsterdam Treaty. The Treaty of European Union agreed in Amsterdam was shaped by the change of influence in the European Council. Just weeks before the Treaty changes were finished, Labour had won its astounding victory in Britain, and just days before the French Socialist Party was unexpectedly returned to power. Prior to the 1st May, the Party of European Socialists had seven of the fifteen Prime Ministers of the European Union. By mid-June it had nine of the fifteen. The change of influence and direction in the European Treaty which resulted has never been fully explained in Britain.

The popular media concerned with the emotive aspects of defending British borders has hardly talked of the extension of democracy in Europe; greater openness in the decision-making; or the quite massive enhancement of the role of the European Parliament. We have heard very little about the extension of the people's agenda in Europe - the whole new chapter on job creation; the inclusion of the Social Chapter in Britain are only two, albeit two important areas of this. There is also the enhancement of Europe's role on the environment; the strengthening of rights of consumer protection and public health; increasing the ability for Europe to fight fraud; extending customs cooperation, and the much coveted right to fight discrimination on grounds of gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.

Congress, this last right is particularly significant given that 1997 is European Year Against Racism and Anti-Semitism. The Cooperative Movement is an internationalist Movement. It is the largest non-governmental organisation in the world. It is based on peace, tolerance, democracy and justice. In these principles lie the foundations of trade unions as well.

In closing can I make a personal appeal to all trade unionists to remember that 1997 is European Year Against Racism and Anti-Semitism. It is incumbent on all of us to use this year as a focus to demonstrate our commitment to a tolerant Britain by fighting racism wherever we find it.

The Cooperative Movement wishes you a successful Congress. Thank you.

The President : Thank you, Pauline. I would like to present you with the Gold Badge of Congress in recognition of your work for the Cooperative Union and also your attendance here at Congress.

(Presentation made amidst applause)

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