The Fire Brigades Union will join the UK labour movement at the 147th Trades Union Congress taking place in Brighton from 13-16 September to debate, discuss and decide how to best organise over the next 12 months to defend Britain’s workers.
Motions and composites
The FBU will be calling for Congress to organise co-ordinated action against the Tory austerity agenda by involving more groups outside of the core trade union movement. Tory attacks on the millions of non-unionised workers, youths, students and pensioners throughout the UK mean these people desperately need a voice. Trade unions need to be that voice.
In addition, the FBU are also calling for the large scale spying, and use of long term undercover police officers, on union activists and campaign groups be fully addressed in the government’s announced Pitchford inquiry, with the TUC and Blacklist Support Group given ‘core participant’ status. The police, through its now disbanded Special Demonstration Squad, spied, infiltrated, and even began romantic relationships – in some cases fathering children – with members of activist organisations and environmental and anti-racist campaigns.
Fringe events
The FBU will also be hosting a fringe event, ‘Spycops’, about police spying and the blacklisting of workers. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, will speak alongside campaigner and author Dave Smith, who was blacklisted from working in the construction industry and Helen Steel, one of the activists deceived by undercover police officers. They will also be joined by solicitor Shamik Dutta who has led the legal fight back against state spying and Labour MP John McDonnell, who was himself spied on.
FBU officials will also be at other fringe events during Congress. Matt Wrack will speak at 'The Fight of our Lives', where the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group will discuss how the coalition of forces behind Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership bid can be organised into a movement to defend jobs, services and workers rights. Dave Green, FBU national officer, will also be speaking at the Labour Research Committee’s 'Resist Austerity – Defend Trade Union Rights' event discussing the Tory assault on the trade union movement.
