The GMB trade union has shocked the Labour Party with its implementation of Ed Miliband’s proposed union-Labour link changes in advance of the special conference in 2014 that will officially enact the changes.
The main thrust of the reform is that union members will become affiliate Labour members by exercising an opt-in, rather than automatically joining Labour unless they opt-out. It sounds like a technicality, but in fact it will result in a collapse in affiliate membership by between 85 and 92.5%. Each affiliate brings Labour £3 a year. Thus the GMB has estimated that 50,000 of its 400,000 will stick with ‘ This Great Movement of Ours’, and shaved £1,050,000 off its annual contribution to Labour funds.
The GMB is a much valued partner of Labour: a truly fantastic organisation which is constructive in outlook but a always stands up for its members. I am proud to call them comrades. If there was ever a trade union edition of Top Trumps, the GMB would be the card that everyone wants. So I’m puzzled as to why some Labour figures are criticising the GMB. When the union says that it is wishful thinking to imagine that millions of union members can be retained by Labour under an opt-in system, they’re simply telling us a truth that we don’t want to accept.
Already I’ve heard a few people mutter that the trade unions are no longer relevant to Labour. I believe that our relationship should be about more than the transfer of cash, but I think the case for a link is weakened in others’ eyes, even though affiliate members will continue to outnumber us individual members.
Anyway, projections say that, if other unions make similar reductions in funding to Labour, the party will face £8,000,000 shortfall in our annual budget: about 40% of total spending. Closing this gap- and the party can’t borrow more, as the Co-operarive Bank has already had to hike the interest rate on our multimillion pound overdraft with them- will be devastating.
Hiking membership fees by 50% will raise one quarter of the shortfall. Even that will be tricky as, at over £40 a year, subs are the highest of any other major party. A donation drive might get us another million a year at most.
That leaves five million a year to find. Now, the obvious answer is to cut spending… But that will have severe consequences on the frontline. For example, in my council ward there is a team of the three candidates, me and another activist trying to win a ward (population 13,000) with a slender Lib Dem majority. All we’ve been given is a few clipboards and a thousand leaflets, and have been told to raise funds for anything else ourselves. And if this is the case in a significant ward in an area where Labour is strong, I think the only place where cuts can be made in campaigning is in marginal wards and constituencies where resources are focussed. When the Tories are stacking up seven digit cheques from the likes of City-based investment bankers, this creates a dangerous disparity that will result in Labour being simply drowned out.
It’s a feature of Labour that the trade unions often fund activities at a local level that Labour wouldn’t be able to support. It’s a quirky system: want to run off a few thousand posters in a byelection? Email the CWU. Hire a bus to get delegates to the regional AGM? There’s a friend of mine in Unite who might get them to meet half the cost. I was invited to a Reception in the Houses of Parliament and was informed that Unison had sponsored the pretzels that I was eagerly devouring. Personally, I’m happier with the idea that our actives our supported with union funds, with nothing asked in return, than with the idea that our leaders have sold our policy platform to a millionaire. Ideally, I think there should be tight caps on donations to political parties (by unions, individuals, businesses or anyone else) combined with state funding for political parties based on the number of votes obtained. For 50p per vote per year, we could make political parties independent of undemocratic influences. But such a reform is unfortunately politically impossible.
Now Labour is in a situation where we certainly have a healthy partnership with our trade unionist supporters, but have placed ourselves at a horrible disadvantage by failing to pressurise our rivals into cleaning up their acts on funding. I get the distinct feeling that we’ll come to regret this.
