The Unions & Labour

We were delighted to welcome Stuart Fegan from the GMB to campus last night to discuss the relationship between the Labour Party and the trade unions.

In an engaging talk, Stuart talked about his own background (he was the founding Secretary of the Labour Club at Portsmouth University between 1994 and 1997 before joining the GMB), the illustrous history of the GMB’s and its continued support of both the Labour Party and Labour candidates and MP’s who support its agenda. The GMB is proud to sponsor more current Labour MP’s than any other trade union, including our very own Ben Bradshaw.

Stuart answered questions about the future for trade unions, the GMB’s work on educating its members, the union’s family-friendly policies, how the advent of New Labour and the current Government has changed the relationship between Labour and the trade unions and his hopes for the future.

ELS would like to thank Stuart for coming and all those hardy souls who decided to give both Goldie Looking Chain and the Freshers’ Winter Ball a miss – or at least postponed their departure to hear Stuart speak.

Let’s make history

We launched our campaign to Make Child Povery history at the Freshers’ Squash back in October. Despite the sterling work of several charities and the Labour government, nearly 3.5m British children still live in poverty. If you’d like to help us change that depressing statistic, click here for more information.

Inside Iraq

 

Harry Barnes, the former Labour MP for North East Derbyshire and a prominent member of Labour Friends of Iraq, came to Exeter University on Friday 20 October and insisted that we should continue to support the fledging Iraqi democracy.

You can read the full text of his speech here or at Harry’s entertaining blog.

Harry kindly gave us a copy of the book promoted by the TUC  in memory of Haidi Saleh on the history of the Iraqi trade union movement. You can order a copy here or learn more about Labour Friends of Iraq by visiting their website.