UNISON LEADER WAKES UP AND SMELLS THE COFFEE

From today's Morning Star: Good stuff from Prentis.Let's hope we get more at the Labour Conference in September. Yes, he should have acted otherwise last year. But we are where we are and if the trade union leaders start taking on New Labour properly maybe there's a chance of crawling out of the abyss.

In his address to the UNISON annual conference, Mr Prentis offered the government a blunt warning, admitting that the outlook does not look good for Labour.
He cited "the optimism of last year, when we applauded the retirement of Tony Blair, shattered as the Labour vote goes into free fall. And, when we finally make progress in securing minimum protections for hundreds of thousands of agency workers, we are told by John Hutton that there's to be a moratorium on employment rights.
"The same old Tory drivel resurrected by a Labour minister - it's a moratorium we don't accept, the same old lie that has been used against every single measure this movement has won for working people since the 19th century."
Mr Prentis pointed out that, if there is to be a moratorium, it should be on Mr Hutton's ministerial career, as the government churns out the "same broken record," inviting the private sector into the heart of the NHS.
"Siphoning off taxpayers' money is something even Margaret Thatcher wouldn't dare to back, so is it any wonder that our members are asking whose side this government is really on?" he asked.
"Simply driving on with a political agenda opposed by Labour supporters, trade unionists and public-service workers will not keep the Tories out.
"What is so wrong with the government moving away from the rip-off of the private finance initiative, giving British workers the same rights as the rest of Europe or Labour making itself out again as the party of social justice?"
And a clearly angry Mr Prentis told Mr Brown: "It's time to listen, time to act. Raise our people up or our people will bring you down.
"2010 is just round the corner. We want a government which stands up for us, Labour candidates who stand up for working people and our union, people accountable to our agenda."

POWER OF THE BLOGOSPHERE

Regrettably missed out on an opportunity to hold forth about the Peter Hain fiasco on World At One as e-mail from producer only got to me at 1.26pm.However, it shows my profile is growing.......Leftie bloggers of the world unite!

THE WEAKEST LINK

I'm furious. Absolutely. Bloody.Furious. UNISON Labour Link has just announced it will be backing the Dear Leader and Alan Johnson for the Deputy Leadership.
Cast an eye at the photo on the left. You will see UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis and some equally furious NHS workers protesting at last year's Labour Party Conference. I was there. NHS workers were angry at the privatisation of NHS Logistics. They were angry at privatisation and PFI. They have campaigned tirelessly against marketisation and pay cuts. How does the UNISON leadership reward them? Yes. By supporting the very team which SUPPORTS privatisation, outsourcing and profiteering. Brown is already Leader. He doesn't need any endorsements. Johnson, apart from Blears, is the most right-wing candidate for the Deputy Leadership and a fan of marketisation.
I hope Dave Prentis is pleased with himself. I hope next time he gets his microphone switched off by the Labour leadership during a speech which they don't like that he doesn't expect sympathy. Because thousands of UNISON members are going to be absolutely gutted that, yet again, their leadership has let them down.
The ONLY candidate who followed UNISON policy on pay and privatisation was John McDonnell and the union leadership didn't lift a finger to get their members' interests on the agenda and John on the ballot. I hope questions are asked and hell raised at the TUC conference in September.
As John McDonnell said :" In 1997 we campaigned with the slogan "24 hours to save the NHS". Public sector workers marched in their thousands to kick out the Tories and elect a Labour government. Today they are marching again in towns and cities across the country, not for Labour, but to oppose job cuts and the closure of accident and emergency units.
Labour party members are proud that we have ploughed resources into the NHS, but they are angry when they see public money being laundered through the NHS into the profits of private companies and former government policy advisers populating the boards of companies gaining from privatised contracts.
We were told in 1997 that it was what worked that mattered. But it has increasingly become what makes profit that matters. Why should we have to put up with primary care trust budget deficits, job cuts and closures, when we spend £6bn on the war in Iraq and plan to spend £76bn on replacing Trident? "
I would like the so-called "awkward squad" to answer those questions. But let's face it. They have rolled over and died. Every single one of them. Simpson, Woodley and Prentis are a disgrace and a sad disappointment to the Labour left.