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(01) This BGCM recognises the importance of the long held view in the GFTU that manufacturing industry and strong public services are connected and that workers and the private and public sectors share common aspirations and bonds of union solidarity. The decline of manufacturing and the decline of public services effect us all. (02) This BGCM believes that the current destruction of the our public services and the welfare state built by our predecessors in the trade union movement is the logical conclusion of a process that began in the 1980s with the attacks on manufacturing. (03) This BGCM therefore believes that there needs to be a new commitment nationally to rebuilding the British economy and strong public services, there needs to be an integrated national industrial strategy directed by a democratically elected government. This BGCM notes with concern that certain rules of EU membership prohibit this. (04) This BGCM completely rejects the market and the power of the banks and finance houses and recognises that the wealth produced in manufacturing, work generally and by making and selling real goods and developing beneficial public, must be reinvested into the real economy and our infrastructure. (05) This BGCM completely rejects the so called ‘economic’ reasons given for the purely ideologically driven attack on our economy, public services, workers’ rights, pensions and welfare. This BGCM further notes how extreme the situation has become with the EU and its allies in the banks taking further control over governments, such as those of Greece, and imposing regimes of permanent indebtedness. (06) This BGCM rejects the profit motive and the capitalist worsening of the crisis and calls on the GFTU to provide information, research and education to instil in a new generation the recognition that there is a workers’ alternative to the situation.
Rebuilding the British Economy and Manufacturing
Resolution 07
GFTU | BGCM Resolutions 2013/2015