FRIENDS of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) Educational Trust launched in Parliament on Thursday night, with activists coming together to back trade union education.

Hosting Labour MP Richard Burgon said “self-educating our class is a proud tradition of the trade union movement.”

He stressed “the wide range of course available at reasonable prices” from the trust, including “lessons about organising in the workplace to be the next generation of trade union workplace leaders… [and] an excellent education programme called The Roots of Racism, where it comes from, how it can be combatted.”

Fellow Labour MP Apsana Begum argued that the strike wave has created opportunities for the union movement to win the next generations: “I’ve lost count of how many young people I’ve met in the last few years who have asked me questions about trade unionism, who want to know what trade unionism is about.”

Zita Holbourne, speaking for the Artists Union England, said the GFTU’s courses had been invaluable to it in training reps, and the way its courses allow trade unionists to “engage and work alongside other trade unionists — building that solidarity.

“Meeting trade unionists from across the movement is very different to doing training courses only in your own union.”

The meeting heard from reps who had used GFTU courses to develop their skills, as well as from GFTU president and food workers’ union BFAWU general secretary Sarah Woolley, who arrived direct from a course at the GFTU’s Quorn Grange hotel: “I’m not ashamed to say I’ve been on a course today — if people tell you union general secretaries know everything, they don’t!” she said.

Find out more about the trust at gftuet.org.uk.