Unions’ relevance

The discussion now under way within the ICTU in regard to the commission on the future of the trade union movement will only be relevant to or have any meaning for the tens of thousands of organised workers if it honestly looks at the effect that the dead hand of class collaboration has had on the movement.

The debate cannot be confined to the top echelons but must engage with the grassroots.

The problems facing our labour movement are not solely structural but are, at their very roots, political. To continue with the same approach and political ideas and values of the past and expect a different result is the road to oblivion. The movement needs to become more radical in its defence of workers’ interests or it will become redundant.

Paul Doran

Monastery Walk

Clondalkin

Dublin 22