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'Forward with Corbyn or backwards with Thatcher'

Unison delegates praise Labour leader's 'positive vision' for post-Brexit Britain

TRADE unionists said Britain can “go forward with Corbyn or backwards with Thatcher,” as Unison swore to fight for a Brexit of hope and investment yesterday.

Meeting in Brighton for the union’s annual conference, national executive committee member James Anthony told delegates that “we cannot let our exit from the EU be what ideologues in the Tory party and Ukip thought it would be.

“Instead, we envision a future of hope, of good public services, of welcoming immigrants to our country and inclusivity.”

The union voted to oppose racism, fight for the rights of EU citizens in Britain and to “campaign against any continuance of UK membership of the single market” where this would “expose public services to market competition.”

Unison service group executive chair Glen Williams moved an amendment congratulating Mr Corbyn’s “positive vision” for post-Brexit Britain.

Warning delegates not to regard the single market as an “advance for international peace,” Mr Williams argued that the single market’s function is about the “dominance of markets and big business,” with “no democratic accountability and transparency.”

He said: “Leaving the European Union gives us a new opportunity for implementing the ambitious economic programme laid out in Labour’s superb manifesto.

“We can either go forward with Corbyn or backwards with Thatcher.”

Conference also voted to remove a line related to “learning lessons” from France about public ownership, as Manchester delegate Cath Wilcox condemned French president Emmanuel Macron’s attack on French railway workers.

Urging solidarity with CGT railway workers, Ms Wilcox declared that “pro-EU market directives give impetus to national governments to pursue neoliberal reforms.”

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