Labour, The TUC and the EU – A 100% Change Of Mind

I noticed recently on the local news, a story about Domino’s Pizza in Preston who had put a notice up stating all staff must speak English, threatening them with disciplinary action if they didn’t. Reason given was the ubiquitous ‘Elf and Safety’. A little unusual I thought in this politically correct, diverse country in which we now live, but good on them for standing up for what they believed they needed to do rather than just giving in like most business’ do these days.

What then surprised me more (though it probably shouldn’t have) was the response from Lynn Collins, regional secretary of the North West TUC, who said: "This is an employer who took on these staff, employed them knowing they were multi-lingual, and what a tremendous shame it is that they don't see the advantage to having a multi-lingual workforce in an area as diverse as the Preston community." - quite a pro diversity opinion there.

Lynn’s response got the cogs in my brain ticking, something in there was suggesting this wasn’t always the TUC’s opinion on diversity and the EU in general, low and behold a little more digging and I was right.

If you go back over the last 40 plus years, there were many occasions where the TUC, it’s workers and the Labour Party have supported anti-immigration policies along with opposing Britain’s entry into the European Union or the EEC as it was then.

In 1968, 200 London dockers marched in support of Enoch Powell’s speech (“I see the river Tiber foaming with much blood”) against immigration.

In the 1970’s the TUC General Council had opposed the Conservative government's decision to take Britain into the Common Market, with Jack Jones and Hugh Scanlon being the chief protagonists of their anti-EEC position. Much of the Labour Party was equally opposed to membership of the EEC, it was Tory Prime Minister, Edward Heath who took us in to Europe in 1973.

In 1975, A one-day conference held by the Labour Party to debate Britain's membership of Europe voted by almost 2-1 to leave the EEC. The result underlining the deep splits within the party over the issue, which eventually went to a national referendum. There were just over 3.7m votes for rejecting EEC membership. Most of the votes came from the two biggest unions, the Transport Workers and the Engineering Workers.

Following this conference, the Wilson government called a referendum on the re-negotiated terms of Britain's membership and individual ministers and MPs were allowed to campaign on either side. The TUC General Council decided not to take a position either for or against, though Jack Jones was again one of the chief advocates of a vote against the EEC. The fact that the far right were also against the EEC didn’t stop the TUC and half of the Labour Party campaigning for a no vote in 1975.

In a speech he made on the 22^nd March, 1975 in Birmingham, Tony Benn stated “I am really warning people in the West Midlands that the capacity of British Ministers to help industry to re-equip is going to be gravely affected by membership, and that is one of the reasons why I hope the British people will vote to withdraw.” But of course, they didn’t.

For many years, withdrawal from the EU (or EEC) was the position of the TUC and Labour movement. For the obvious reason of, why would we want to surrender the national sovereignty that has allowed us to have the NHS, nationalised transport and utilities and good wages and Ts & Cs via collective agreements to an organisation of European capitalists seeking to create a common market in their interests?

Lord Lea of Crondall (formerly Assistant General Secretary of the TUC 1978-99) made a speech in 2010 where he stated that  “in 1988, the TUC's approach to the Economic Union was still based on a resolution of its 1981 Congress. This reflected the hostile stance of many of its major affiliated unions (especially, the T&GWU under Jack Jones) and Labour Party under Michael Foot, seeking withdrawal from the European Economic Community”

Even in the late 80’s, senior Labour figures such as Tony Benn, Dennis Skinner and Ken Livingstone remained totally hostile to any EEC/EU involvement - they still wanted a UK withdrawal.  A major shift in the opinion of Labour and the Unions occurred around 1988. Coincidently at the same time there became more and more unrest in the Tory party over EU membership. It does seem though that it was Blair’s New Labour that started the current pro EU shift amongst the left. Blair’s subsequent Government totally bought into the EU, opening up our borders to all and sundry, leaving us in the position we’re now in.

All this begs an even bigger question. Historically, all these Labour and Union figures that opposed Britain’s membership of the EU were from the Far Left of politics, much like the current Labour Leader Ed Milliband claims to be, so why then is RedEd so pro-EU and so unwilling to offer us an in/out referendum if he wins the next election? Maybe he’s not true to his far left ideals, or maybe he is just a legacy of New Labour like his brother after all.