The motion passed with 2,871,000 votes in favour and 2,291,000 votes against.
Delegates at this year’s TUC Congress in Brighton have voted to end its support for increases in defence spending. The Congress passed a motion – ‘Wages Not Weapons’ which reversed a policy that had been adopted at the 2022 Congress.
The motion was proposed by the University and College Union (UCU) and seconded by RMT. It called for the TUC to ‘prioritise campaigning for public investment in Britain’s public realm’, to ‘commit to a safe, liveable planet’, and to ‘reaffirm that our movement’s priority is welfare and wages, not weapons and war’. The motion argued that ‘in the current political context, ever-higher expenditure on arms will inevitably mean less money for our education, health and councils, and the green transition’.
The motion was highly contentious and triggered a heated debate in the Congress hall. After a show of hands in the hall did not give a clear indication as to the views of delegates, the motion went to a card vote. Card votes at Congress are weighted based on the size of the membership of each trade union at Congress. The motion passed with 2,871,000 votes in favour and 2,291,000 votes against.
Speaking in favour of the motion, UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “It is not good enough for us to say jobs first […] when those weapons are used to murder children and target innocent people”. She went on to say: “There can be no peace and justice while the UK continues to put weapons before wages and if we continue to support it”. At the end of the debate, Grady added: “Fundamentally, this government and governments across the world are using investments in defence to supply arms that are raining down hell on earth.”
Speaking against the motion, however, Andrew Holland from Unite said: “we understand and are supportive of the spirit of the motion, and it’s not the weapons I stand here to defend, but the jobs, terms and conditions”. Later, he added: “We must not pit workers against each other. One group of workers must not fail in order for another to succeed.”
Elsewhere in the debate, Ian Murray from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said: “War is a consequence of the capitalist system” and that “ultimately it’s the working class that end up paying for those wars”. He continued by saying: “when we call for wages not weapons, we’re not arguing against the military and we’re certainly not attacking any armed forces personnel”.
Meanwhile, Ian Clarke from the GMB union said in the debate: “We did not come here to argue for putting other union members out of jobs”, and argued that defence provides “skilled work” and “decent wages”.
Delegates from the UCU, RMT, PCS, FBU, CWU, TSSA and NEU spoke in favour of the motion. Meanwhile, delegates from Prospect, GMB and Unite spoke against it.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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