Around 100 trade union activists attended the second national conference of the Trade Union Left Alliance (TULA) to re-affirm their commitment to fight against the bosses and the Tory policies being carried out by new Labour.
TULA was formed a year ago by all the major left currents within the trade union movement.
Geoff Martin, Unison's London Regional Convenor, said that the scales fell from peoples eyes about new Labour at the same time as they did about the Spice Girls. He went on to discuss the fight for a minimum wage and for decent funding for public services.
Timmy Nolan spoke about the struggle of the Liverpool Dockers against both their employers and the TGWU leadership, who throughout their struggle have attempted to stitch up deals with management behind the dockers' backs, and who still refuse to officially recognise their dispute.
Luigi Malabarba of the Italian S.In.Cobas (a national coordination of rank & file committees) described attempts in Italy to unite the trade union lefts and the attempts to create a new, fighting union. He invited all the delegates to a forthcoming meeting of trade union lefts throughout the Euro pean Union.
There were two main proposals coming out of conference. Firstly, the organisation of a lobby of parliament to demand a minimum wage and for adequate funding for public services at the announcement of the budget next year.
The second was to co-ordinate submissions to the Trade Union Congress across all the unions.
The real test for TULA will be its ability to put these proposals into practice and to lead a campaign for public services and for a decent minimum wage over the next few months.