THIS year’s TUC Congress in Brighton from September 8-11 took several key decisions to align Britain’s trade union movement with the pro-Palestine, pro-peace and anti-war movements, and demand an end to Britain’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and escalation towards a wider war in the Middle East.

The Stop the War Coalition’s well-attended TUC fringe meeting on Monday September 9 heard from PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote, the FBU’s Riccardo LaTorre, TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust, Unison president Steve North, Sean Vernell from UCU, Louise Regan, chair of NEU’s international committee, and Stop the War vice-president Chris Nineham.

Every speaker identified the need to oppose the trend in the TUC in recent years, led by some unions representing workers in the arms industry, to argue for an increase in the proportion of Britain’s GDP spent on arms production.

Britain is reeling from 14 years of Tory austerity, with racist riots scarring our towns and cities. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has declared the new government’s intention to stick to discredited Tory spending limits for the Starmer administration’s first two years.

There will never be a good time for trade unions to argue for more public money to be taken from pensioners and public services to boost the bottom line of arms manufacturers, but 2024 is the worst possible time to make such arguments.

Congress debated the British government’s support for the arms industry, focusing on the genocide carried out by Israel in Gaza. The NEU’s Louise Regan moving Composite Motion 17 on Palestine said: “…our political leaders continue to sell Israel weapons even as it stands charged in the International Court of Justice for the crime of genocide. It is obscene to continue arms sales at a time when two senior Israeli government leaders stand personally accused of crimes against humanity.”

She argued that “a comprehensive end to all arms sales is a necessary step towards ending Britain’s complicity in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.”

The NEU’s motion called on the government to “end all licences for arms traded with Israel, meeting international law.”

The motion was supported by speakers from Unison, Unite, PCS, CWU, FBU, GMB, Aslef, BFAWU and UCU. The GMB speaker said: “We know that Britain continues to supply Israel’s military and is flying reconnaissance flights over Gaza. Our government needs to do more than halting 30 export licences out of the hundreds that they have.”

The motion supported by the TUC general council, was welcomed by the Palestinian ambassador who in his address told TUC Congress delegates: “It is clear that it is calling for a full arms embargo on Israel.”

An emergency motion from the UCU, supported by RMT, called on TUC Congress to campaign to stop the escalation of war in the Middle East.

The UCU condemned Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and attacks on Iranian territory, calling on Congress to oppose any attempts to escalate the war and to demand a ceasefire now. It backed the call launched by the Stop the War Coalition for a Britain-wide workplace day of action in support of an immediate ceasefire.

The TUC general council supported UCU’s emergency motion which described the Israeli bombing of Lebanon — with Britain’s support — as “a significant and qualitative escalation” that “threatens a much wider war in the Middle East that will lead far greater death, destruction and instability in the region.”

Taken together, these two motions put Britain’s official trade union movement in a significantly better place in terms of its international policy by supporting a total ban on arms sales to Israel and opposing the incessant drumbeat of war emanating from neocons in the US State Department, the British Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and Tel Aviv.

The important work carried out by Stop the War over the past two years in convening trade union conferences to confront political problems in our trade unions on the question of opposing arms profiteering, war and imperialism has found a strong echo in the wider trade union movement.

However, the major influence on trade unionists as on politicians continues to be the unprecedented mass movement of millions of pro-Palestine, pro-peace, anti-war protesters on the streets of Britain for the past 11 months.

To change British government policy and force a ban on arms sales to Israel, British recognition of a Palestinian state and to prevent a wider war, we must maintain this movement of millions and bring more trade unionists onto our platforms and into our marches.

The next Britain-wide workplace day of action in support of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza will take place on Thursday October 10. Start making plans with your union branch and your workmates now.