(I could have guessed the Mercury wouldn’t use my headline…)

I’m writing this on Thursday from a picturesque valley in the village of Abergwyngarreg by the spectacular Rhaedd waterfalls. If only i could remember the Welsh i learnt at school and could read the signposts….. I’m meant to be in Holyhead! However, from Aberystwyth north all I’ve seen are Plaid Cymru posters. Labour has lost power in Wales for the first time ever and as of 5 minutes ago Keir Starmer was still the Prime Minister of the UK I expect he still will be by the time this article comes out but…well, don’t hold me to that. But the winds of change are coming.

A couple of weeks ago I spoke at the Bridgwater Workers Memorial Day rally in Blake Gardens alongside other trades unionists, notably my own UNITE union leader Sharon Graham. We both agree that it’s up to the workers at this crucial moment to make the case to the Labour Party that it should remember why it was founded, why it was needed and why it still is today. 

The  unions have called for a plan to elect a new Labour leader as it ‘cannot continue on current path They don’t think Starmer will lead Labour into the next election and although  progress has been made by the Government, such as the Employment Rights Act and the increase in minimum wage it doesn’t take the wisest of polling forecasters to conclude that the results of last week’s elections were “devastating”.

That would be telling

What about the workers?  Labour was founded by the unions in 1900. Before that we had the 2-party system of the Tories or the Liberals. Landowners v Factory owners. The Gentry v the would-be gentry. The Upper-Class v the Middle Class. Where did the working class fit into this?

They didn’t. So, they had to fight to be heard.

And nowhere more so than in Bridgwater where the labourers of this working-class town joined the Dock Wharf Riverside and General Workers Union (which became the T&GWU, which became UNITE). They marched, they held rallies, they went on strike.

In 1896 they went on such a big and effective strike that the Government sent troops to put them down. Barricades went up on Penel Orlieu, bayonets were fixed by troopers on the High street. The riot act was read; the streets were cleared at gunpoint.

Be Seeing You

They went on to form the backbone of the Labour Party in the town. Sid Plummer , a DWRG member was the first candidate for general election in 1918, John Turner, leader of the Sedgemoor Labour group and Ken Richards, the Peoples Mayor were TGWU and today myself as leader of the town council and Leigh Redman as leader of the Bridgwater dominated county labour group (and next mayor) carry on this tradition as UNITE members.

Bridgwater has a strong independent streak in it. A town born of struggle and shaped through standing up for itself.

At the rally alongside Sharon Graham, I said “Here in Bridgwater we’re not old Labour, we’re not new Labour. We’re proper Labour!” We do things a bit different round here and if we think it’s wrong, we’ll do what we think is right instead.

Now i mention Plaid Cymru because it’s the left votes Labour is losing. Most people don’t really want Reform and many will stop voting for them when they realise that it’s a party set up by millionaires to serve millionaires by using and tricking the working class. Gradually people will realise that local councils have no powers to ‘stop the boats’, that Reform are just a more right wing tory party and, well for god’s sake they’re full of  all the worse Tories now anyway!

What do we want?

But what i don’t want is a narrow faction led unpopular Labour party. I want one that anyone and everyone can join and is welcomed into. . I think this week there’s a change coming.

Places like Bridgwater absolutely need this change.

We need unity.

In fact, you know what, we need Andy Burnham.

PS; Did I mention I went to Port Merion last week?