Unite the Union welcomes increased defence spending – where do you start?!
JVL Introduction
It’s hard to know where to start commenting on the statement from Unite the Union, reproduced below, welcoming Keir Starmer’s decision to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent.
It quotes general secretary Sharon Graham saying: “‘The government has made the hard decision, the money Is available, now is the time to back Britain.”
How is it possible for a supposedly left-wing trade union leader to ignore where that money is coming from – slashing the foreign aid budget which delivers a modicum of relief to people in poor countries – and how it will be spent – on lucrative contracts for merchants of death trading in weapons to be used in war and genocide?
The hit to foreign aid has proved too much for even Starmer loyalist Annaliese Dodds who has resigned from the cabinet over the issue, though admittedly she has no objection to increased military spending.
The trade union movement can be conflicted on this issue because of members’ jobs in the arms industry (the same applies to fossil fuels). But at this time of frightening Trump-backed militarism sweeping the globe, while Israel deploys UK weaponry in its atrocities against the Palestinian people, Graham’s position is a massive betrayal of labour movement principles.
Here is a thoughtful approach to the issues at stake.
NWI
This article was originally published by Unite the Union on Wed 26 Feb 2025. Read the original here.
Increased defence spending welcome but promises on UK jobs must be real
Head of Unite and UK defence workers lobby parliament demanding government make the overdue decision to buy UK Typhoons for RAF fleet and not US made F35s
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I am a supporter of JVL and I think that JVL must officially reject the approach that Graham as well as Starmer have taken. They are war mongers! The argument that they are saving jobs is false because Labour Government should be supporting employment transfer to other industries, including the Green Energy sector. I am a retired member of UNITE and joined the Trade Union movement when I became a member of ASTMS in the late 1960’s. I have always supported a worker control policy with workers plans for Alternative Products. If you want a Defense policy then stop exporting violence and the means of War. A genuine defense armaments looks something like the Iron Dome. Although I will leave the details to those with greater knowledge. Graham won the Gen Sec position on a false basis. The Gen Sec position should be re-run, because she has sold out.
Sharon Graham’s statement is an outrage and an example of what happens when you divorce politics from the industrial struggle. You lost sight of what a union is really about, which is a better society. ‘Defence’ spending is not about defence but imperialism and attacking other countries.
It also means that welfare in this country will be hammered in order to maintain our imperial role. Welfare, NHS, Social care, Housing – all will suffer and Unite members who actually live in houses and occasionally fall ill.
Ever since the genocide in Gaza we have been campaigning against Sharon Graham’s silence. Her only statement being to attack direction action anti-arms activists. She knows full well that if you support NATO then you can’t object to what it does which is why she has no problem supporting the Ukrainian but not the Palestinian resistance.
What really gets me is the myopia of much of the so-called far left. Both the SWP and the Socialist Party still see Sharon Graham as being on the left because of her nominal support for militancy. Her support for imperialism doesn’t impinge on their consciousness.
What this means is being complicit in the rape and pillage of the Global South by imperialism and being content to wage a battle simply over the share of the imperialist cake. It is a recipe for disaster and abandons any notion of socialist internationalism.
Coupled with the SWP’s continued marching with Glasgow Friends of Israel this suggests to me that for much of the English left, the fight for socialism stops at the English Channel.
As a fairly active member in my Unite branch, I have sympathy for Unite members whose livelihoods will now be protected by increased spending on weaponry.
Having said that, I am part of the union which represents several thousand employees of charitable and non-profit organisations. You’d be surprised how many supposedly liberal or even left-leaning organisations exploit their workforce. The cut in foreign aid, along with other measures taken by Labour, puts their livelihoods at risk.
I’m also a member of JVL and proudly so. On balance, Unite’s stance on ‘Defence’ is distasteful, if not distressing.
Graham’s banning of showings of the Oh, Jeremy Corbyn documentary from Unite premises should have been a clear enough sign of her real allegiances. I believe she has expressed support for Starmer before, saying she’d never give him any trouble. But try telling the Morning Star that – they think she walks on water…
So, only one person with enough decency to resign.
No great surprise to hear the truly dreadful Harriet Harman backing Starmer on this policy grab from the Reform UK manifesto. She also supported his decision to threaten to withdraw the whip from Labour MPs who said things that were true about the war in Ukraine.
it’s misleading to present this as Graham’s policy. This position is backed (unanimously?) by the Unite NC and reflects the opinion of Unite members and the public.
I’m a Unite member, and I don’t support Graham, Sir Starmer, or Labour. All of them need dumping in the dustbin of history, and if any Labour leftists want to carry on with their constant moaning about St Jeremiah, and the ‘spirit of 45’, they can go there too.