Rank-and-file support is building for the International Peace conference in June, writes Cici Washburn

Following on from a 4,000-strong international peace conference in Paris last October, the 20 June conference is building momentum at the base of the labour movement. Workers are raising the model motion in support of the conference in branches and trades councils up and down the country.

Many trade unionists see the conference as the next concrete step following the massive wages-not-weapons vote at the TUC last year. This was the case at the Luton trades-council meeting and in other places. Given Trump’s drive to war and the European leaders’ rush to rearmament, they are clear that we will pay for these wars in welfare budgets. In a Unite meeting where the motion was passed, half of those in the meeting were ex-forces but they were clear that they don’t want welfare budgets cut to pay for ‘their’ wars.

As Mark Dee Smith, Bedfordshire University Unison said,

‘Organised workers have always been at the forefront of resisting militarism. The International Peace Conference has clearly caught the mood and demonstrates that the Mediterranean workers opposing the Israeli war machine are part of a tradition as well as a current.

The FNEC FP-FO teachers’ union in France is fully committed to preparing for the conference and the National Executive of the NEU is also supporting the conference. As a teacher in East London said,

‘Teachers always aim to emulate “best practice” in the classroom. The International Peace Conference is partly about learning from the successes of trade unionists and other activists abroad so that we can strengthen our anti-war movement here. But it’s also about drawing links between our national movements to ultimately build on an international scale. You can’t confront nationalist aggression without an internationalist alternative.’

Nathan Street, a Unison HE worker, said,

‘Workers in Higher Education are motivated by issues that go beyond the bread and butter union issues of pay and conditions. Our institutions have been some of the most prominent in terms of workplace days of action for Palestine. Many of us are driven by internationalist, anti-imperialist and anti-colonial values, which can manifest in syllabus and research. But it needs to be put into practice not just theory. If that wasn’t enough, it’s also in our material interests as the current funding model is reliant on retaining peace and the international recruitment of students. It’s vital unions and their members do all they can to support, build and attend the Peace Conference in London for the whole world to see.’

Given the scale and depth across society of the austerity measures that will take place following further increase in arms spending, we also need to build the conference in wider areas of local communities. Lambeth pensioners’ action group (Lampag) has passed the motion which is an example of how we can build bigger and broader. The Progressive Lancashire opposition group, the group of Green and Palestine independent councillors opposed to Reform on Lancashire County Council is supporting the conference.

At a Unite retired members’ meeting where the motion was passed, after the branch agreed a donation towards the conference, individuals made additional personal donations as they feel so strongly that the conference is necessary and should be supported.

Simon Midgley, a Unison health worker in Bradford, reiterated,

‘Our world is becoming more dangerous year on year. We have to promote an alternative vision to the dominant narrative. A vision which demands that our government increases spending on education, health, housing and social care rather than military expenditure.’

The PCS, NEU and RMT are officially supporting the conference. We need every branch across the country to be supporting this conference and sending rank-and-file delegations; this is what will strengthen the British anti-war and trade-union movement for the battles ahead and will create a powerful international movement against war which couldn’t be more crucial.
Download the model motion from stopwar.org.uk/resources.