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TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady warned today (Friday) that both unions and the Labour Party will need to change to deliver a radical new economic settlement that will lift the UK out of a lost decade of stagnation.

date: 26 April 2013

embargo: 17.00hrs Friday 26 April

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady warned today (Friday) that both unions and the Labour Party will need to change to deliver a radical new economic settlement that will lift the UK out of a lost decade of stagnation.

In her Atlee memorial lecture at University College Oxford this afternoon - 'From Attlee to Miliband: can Labour and unions face the future?' - Frances warned that the Labour Party must make a break from New Labour managerialism and the idea that deregulated markets can be given a human face. She also warned that unions cannot retreat into a comfort zone of narrow sectionalism or oppositionism.

Frances O'Grady said:

'Both Labour and unions must learn from the lessons of the past, in order to forge a new ideological settlement for post-crash Britain.

'If we are to build a future that works for all, then both sides of the labour movement need to change.

'For the Party, there must be a decisive break with New Labour managerialism, the notion that deregulated markets can somehow be given a human face.

'And for us in the trade unions, there can be no retreat into a comfort zone of narrow sectionalism or oppositionism. Our long-term viability ultimately rests on our capacity to shape a new economy, not from the sidelines but from within.'

Looking ahead to the challenge facing unions, Frances warned that unions need to smart and realistic about what to seek from a new economic settlement, particularly if there is less to spend.

Frances said:

'Unions need to be smart and realistic about what we seek from a new settlement. Much as we would like the next Labour government to be like a videotape run backwards undoing all the coalition policies we dislike, we have to recognise that there will be a difficult and different starting point.

'Of course we need to undo the damage done by this government and the crash, but there will need to be new thinking and a recognition that not everything will be achieved at once.

'That does not mean that we in the trade union movement be timid in what we seek. We know that even with an end to forced austerity, there will no longer be the illusory resources generated by the finance bubble. But if there is less to spend, then we need to look for precisely the big structural changes in the economy that the last Labour government shied away from.

'We will have to properly deal with problems such as low pay, not spray money at them by subsidising poor employers.

'And in seeking radical economic change, unions need to avoid the strategic error we made after the war. We should embrace industrial democracy and take up every chance to redefine economic relationships. Trade unions cannot afford to stand aside as we did after 1945. This time, history would simply pass us by.

'In the future, unions and working people need to be at the heart of the economy, having an effective voice, winning fairness, building the businesses that will deliver our prosperity in the decades to come. That poses a challenge to government, to business and to managers.

'But most of all, industrial democracy poses a challenge to us in the trade union movement. It implies a role that is not just more ambitious, but more demanding, than the one we usually have now. It means accepting responsibility, moving out of a comfort zone of short-termism, to taking the long view and championing the greater good.'

Frances also warned that the Labour Party needs to start laying down the groundwork for a new economic vision.

Frances said:

'The Labour Party also needs to recognise that limited resources means we need more, not less, structural change. And it needs to recognise that some of the electoral tactics and approaches that worked 10 and 15 years ago are now as much old Labour as what worked in 1945 or 1966.

'Labour instead needs to start where the people are - and the problems of stagnation, declining living standards and poor prospects now afflict a huge majority of the electorate, whether they tick the traditional supporter box or not.

'So rather than a rainbow coalition of different promises and messages for different groups, Labour needs a compelling vision and lived values that demonstrate the benefits of a new approach.

'And while ministers would of course need to be clear what they will do when the red boxes arrive, the wider challenge is not to build a Labour policy encyclopaedia but to rediscover the inspirational discourse of progressive change.

'Attlee's political genius was to give people a sense of hope, a clear route map out of depression, war and austerity towards the social and economic justice they craved.

'Of course this is a different era, and we may be fighting an economic war rather than recovering from a military one, but for Labour that sense of conviction is as necessary today as it was seven decades ago.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- A full copy of the lecture is available from the TUC press office.

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Alex Rossiter T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07887 572130 E: arossiter@tuc.org.uk

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