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Corbyn has brought back Labour, so the FBU brought back the firefighters
Something off the Richter scale was needed for the Fire Brigades Union to reaffiliate to Labour – yet that’s exactly what happened with the election of Jeremy Corbyn, says MATT WRACK
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A MOMENTOUS year for the Labour Party has been capped off with a historic vote by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) to reaffiliate, a decade after we split from the party.
Blairism has been jettisoned and Labour is finally starting to rediscover its roots as a party workers can vote for and support.
Labour changed in 2015, most definitely for the better. Point in fact, the FBU is back on board.
After a devastating defeat to the Conservatives at the general election in May, the mood of the party was unexpectedly lifted by the leadership campaign of Jeremy Corbyn, whose honesty, integrity and longstanding commitment to trade union values inspired many thousands to join up and vote for a leader offering a real alternative to austerity.
His campaign focused on public services, civil rights and opposition to war. It inspired traditional Labour supporters who had been left disillusioned after 20 years of New Labour, and tapped into the aspirations of young people for an alternative to long-term student debt and the prospect of a lifetime being ripped off by private landlords.
It seemed like a natural move for the FBU’s leadership to support Corbyn when he announced his campaign in July. Corbyn has a very long record of supporting firefighters, going back to 1977 when he stood on picket lines with our members in the first ever nationwide firefighter strike. We backed him initially even though we were not an affiliated union with little expectation that he would win.
Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party (how improbable that would have sounded this time last year) was a political earthquake.
Something off the Richter scale was needed if ever the FBU were to reaffiliate to the party, such was the animosity after our pay dispute with the Blair government.
The FBU severed links with the party in 2004 after being shocked at the reaction of a Labour government to a campaign we launched for improved pay. Here was a political party we helped fund, attacking our union and members and describing us, on one occasion, as “criminally irresponsible.”
The episode left a legacy of bitterness against Labour at both a national and local level. However, in the period that followed we maintained good relations with many Labour politicians, including through our parliamentary group, with the likes of Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell playing key roles, highlighting fire service issues at Westminster.
After Corbyn’s victory, the FBU executive recognised that this was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take part in a shifting debate in favour of working people, public services and trade unions.
At a special conference held in November, delegates voted overwhelmingly to make the historic move to reaffiliate to this new Labour Party.
The union did not decide to reaffiliate to Labour purely because Corbyn is a friend to firefighters. We rejoined to further the interests of our members with a party that is finally on the same page as us. Labour now has a clear cut, anti-austerity leadership which has the vast majority of the members backing it.
This is a Labour Party we can do business with, where we can press a major political party which may be forming the next government for better conditions, standards, pay and equipment for our firefighters and for all workers.
Our fire and rescue service has taken a battering since the Conservatives took office in 2010. Since then we have lost 7,000 front-line firefighting jobs and the average 999 response time to fires is at a 20-year high.
For firefighters, austerity is a life and death issue. The fewer firefighters there are, the longer it takes to get to emergencies, the more likely people will die as a result. It’s that simple.
The Conservatives are decimating our service. We need to get rid of them at the next election.
It is imperative that we get behind Corbyn and the Labour Party and defend Corbyn from those within his own party, including many within the Parliamentary Labour Party, who want to force him out.
Corbyn’s election as Labour leader is a gain that the trade union and labour movement need to keep in order to get a government that is truly on the side of workers. We cannot allow this gain to be rolled back.
- Matt Wrack is general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union.
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