Anyone who had any illusions left that a transition from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown would signal a shift to any semblance of more progressive policies should read the text of the Chancellor's speech to the CBI conference yesterday.
The Chancellor is promoting both nationally and internationally the standard neo con agenda of flexible labour, pay controls, privatisation and forcing developing world countries to open up their markets to the savagery of international competition.
Let me give you some direct quotes from the Chancellor's speech:
On Globalisation
"My theme today is that it is for us to be evangelists for globalisation, taking on the anti-globalisation and protectionist forces who fail to recognise today's economic truth that free trade, open markets and flexibility are pre-conditions of modern economic success across our global economy."
On Public Sector Pay
"We will entrench our stability, keep public sector pay under control, maintain discipline in public finances.....On pay we must do more to encourage local and regional pay flexibility."
We have witnessed the first round of this approach in the Chancellor's recent announcements of public secor pay cuts and the massive scale of job cuts in the civil service leading to the first compulsory redundancies and the pressure for local pay in some areas of the public sector.
Trade unionists at every level should take careful heed of the Chancellor's message for the future. It's simple - public sector job and pay cuts and privatisation on an international scale.
Does the phrase "Turkeys voting for Christmas" come to mind for any trade union supporting Gordon Brown for leader now?
