GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

ideas. The section where he explains capital is often used as being one of the

most effective descriptions of what capitalism is and how it works that has ever

been written as a way of conveying information, not just of conveying beauty,

but of conveying information.

If trade unions as a movement are connected to the labour movement and we

regard ourselves as having a political function, then the arts are not a choice.

They are not an added extra that we can dip into just to feel good. The

propaganda war we are in is a serious one and the forces of the right have

complete control of the mainstream media, we all know that. Even on a trivial

level, shows like the X Factor, Dragons Den, Big Brother are conveying political

ideas all the time that people just absorb and internalise. The trade union

movement has not been pushing back on that sufficiently, I would argue.

Just a little thing to finish. I want to illustrate something about the way the

propaganda war has changed. That picture on there is from the Blue Peter

annual of 1974. On one side is an article about banner makers, trade union

banner makers, and on the other side is a graphic telling of the Tolpuddle

Martyrs’ story which goes on for four pages. That is the Blue Peter annual

1974. So there was a time when ideas about trade unionism as being a

positive force were part of mainstream media. Almost every child in the country

would have seen Blue Peter at the time. There were only two channels in

1974. You came home from school and whether you liked it or not you ended

up watching Blue Peter. So almost every child, 8 million children, would have

been watching Blue Peter at that time and would have seen these positive

pictures of trade unionism, this positive image of trade unionism. You are not

going to see that now on the mainstream media, you are not going to see that

anywhere, Blue Peter certainly not. No children’s television is going to do a

show now telling you about the Tolpuddle Martyrs or Peterloo or anything else.

No one is going to tell you that, so we have to do it ourselves. I think this book

For the Many, Not the Few is a fantastic example. It actually is similarly doing

what that did in the Blue Peter annual in 1974, so I think what the GFTU are

trying to do here is to provide an alternative, a counterculture and I think as a

movement, the labour movement, and trade unions are hugely important in

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