Workers' Liberty

With John McDonnell standing to be Labour leader, trade unionists have a duty to join him in his fight. It is senseless to let an opportunity to upset the Blairites' control of the party machine go by without at least trying to wrest control from them.

John's campaign is ignored by the press as they do not see him as a credible threat. If we could parachute a few thousand activists back into the party, that could really upset Gordon Brown's apple cart. Once John is seen as a threat the media will assassinate his character and warn of the evils of the old left coming back. We need to be in a position to counter their lies.

If we organise inside the party where ordinary members are looking for change, we could make a great difference. John's policies will be well taken by most members.

There are lots of excuses for doing nothing: "the party is beyond salvage", "it does not matter who the leader is, they are all the same". But it must be better to have John McDonnell leading the party than Gordon Brown. So we should do all in our power to help John get elected.

RMT should re-affiliate to Labour to make sure that it has a vote. ASLEF has backed McDonnell and we should put pressure on the leadership of TSSA to do the same.

It is a fallacy that we cannot defeat Blair. The trade unions still have 50% of the vote at party conference and members on the National Executive. If union leaders flexed their muscles, Blair and his policies could be easily defeated. The trade union movement is a sleeping giant whose power is held in check by those who are supposed to lead it.