Exactly 40 years ago, in September 1974, the 106th Trade Union Congress opened in Brighton. The mood could not have been more upbeat. 

A Labour government, which had pledged to “bring about a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people and their families” had come to power following the general election at the end of February.

The Cabinet included genuine socialists such as Tony Benn (industry secretary), Michael Foot (employment secretary) and Peter Shore (trade secretary).

Since March 1974 generous but entirely justified pay increases had been awarded to the miners to settle the industrial dispute which had brought down Tory leader Ted Heath and his government, and also to other public sector workers. 

A new Social Contract between Labour and the unions was in operation. In return for wage restraint to help reduce inflation, Labour had agreed to repeal anti-union laws and introduce measures to help working people. 

A sizeable section of the economy was in public ownership, with more nationalisation and the buying of public stakes in private companies promised, while trade union membership was close to 50 per cent of the entire workforce.

While right-wing Tories were horrified at the direction the country was heading — and expressed their outrage at the introduction of a new top rate of income tax of 83 per cent (and a 98 per cent rate for the biggest unearned incomes) — life for the majority was improving, with the gap between the incomes of the rich and ordinary working people narrowing all the time. 

It’s highly revealing to look at the motions that were passed at the TUC Congress 40 years ago and the deals done with workers at the same time. Here’s the record from Whitaker’s Almanac:

• September 3: The TUC  overwhelmingly approved a composite motion demanding state pensions be linked to average earnings and a quarterly review and adjustment based on cost of living. Another composite motion approved wanted the retirement age for men lowered to 60 without loss of pension entitlement.
• September 4: The TUC voted again overwhelmingly in favour of the Social Contract.
• September 5: A £115 million pay deal for 400,000 local government white-collar workers giving rises of between 11 per cent and 13.5 percent back-dated to July 1 was agreed with special consideration to lower-paid workers.

TUC delegates carried a motion moved by the TGWU expressing outright opposition to British membership of the EEC and then approved another motion supporting the Labour Party’s proposal that the country should decide by referendum.

Back in the summer of 1974, it really must have seemed that all things were possible. 

These were exhilarating days for the British left — and a golden period for underdogs generally. 

Carlisle United, who had only been promoted from the old second division in May, had just spent a week sitting proudly at the top of the entire football league having won their first three matches. 

Although they did get relegated at the end of the season, football in the ’70s, before money power determined everything, saw many smaller teams flourish in the league and cup and the sport was all the better for it.

Fast forward to September 2014 and the TUC meets in Liverpool in very different circumstances.

The progressive economic model which operated in the mid-1970s, and which had the public ownership of key industries and services at its core, has long been destroyed.

Our entire economy has, since 1979, been restructured to suit the needs of capital. The trade union movement has been relentlessly attacked and weakened by legislation — with the hard-right pushing for yet more curbs. 

We’ve had government after government presiding over “a shift in the balance of power and wealth” away from working people and their families in favour of the very rich. In 2013, just 25.6 per cent of the workforce were members of a trade union — half the rate of 1974. 

And not surprisingly, given the economic changes, we haven’t got Carlisle Utd at the top of the league, but a team, Chelsea, owned by a billionaire oligarch.

The neoliberal Britain of 2014, with its massive gap between rich and poor, is a very different country from the far more equitable social-democratic one of 1974. Yet for all that, there’s still plenty of reasons to believe that the worst is over and that at long last collectivist politics is about to make a serious comeback (Scottish referendum allowing).

For a start, privatisation, the cornerstone policy of the Thatcherites, has never been so unpopular or so completely discredited. 

In almost all parts of the economy which have been privatised since 1979 the results have been the same — fragmented, indifferent services, the mass lay-off of workers and worse employment terms for workers who remain, and much higher prices for consumers. 

Now the issue of public ownership is firmly back on the agenda and it’s the serial privatisers who are on the back-foot while public ownership campaigners have the wind in their sails with voters of all parties expressing majority support for nationalisation of major sectors including rail and the utilities. 

Second, the fragmentation of the party system due to disillusion with the main three parties opens up the possibility for the creation of new alliances. 

Labour’s front bench has still to commit to renationalisation, but other progressive parties have pledged support for public ownership, including the Greens and the National Health Action Party — valiantly fighting to save the NHS. 

We need to make sure that at next year’s general election voters have the opportunity in every seat in the country to vote for a candidate who unequivocally supports public ownership in principle and the renationalisation of public transport, water and energy at the very minimum. 

With the main parties under pressure to up their game because of new competitors for their votes, there is a great opportunity to apply pressure, particularly in the key marginal seats where a British general election is won and lost. 

Thirdly, there’s the impact that campaigns and demonstrations such as the People’s March for the NHS, the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, the UK Uncut actions, the Occupy movement and the regular demonstrations outside railway stations to mark fare increases have made. 

These have brought thousands on to the streets and are helping to radicalise a whole new generation of activists. 

Fourth, there's the power of the internet and social media and also the rise of alternative media. 

No longer can the elite control the narrative and decide which voices can or can't be heard. 

If mainstream news outlets fail to report on the growing protest movements, then their credibility will be undermined still further.

Although there have been many positive developments, there’s still an enormous amount of work to be done.

The left needs to combine its idealism with a new realism and honesty about what is required if we really want to radically restructure our economy so that people once again come before corporate profits. 

That means recognising that we won’t be able to get the changes we need if Britain stays in the EU and a member of other organisations which exist to spread neoliberal capitalism and destroy socialist alternatives.

The TUC had it right 40 years ago when they carried a motion expressing “outright opposition to British membership of the EEC.” 

Anyone who thinks that alternatives to austerity and neoliberalism can be successfully delivered within the EU only has to look across the Channel to what has happened in France under its pro-EU “Socialist” leadership.

The role of the trade union movement in helping to bring about these progressive changes will be of crucial importance. 

At a time when the majority of Britons have suffered a significant fall in their living standards, the need for strong trade unions to fight for the rights of ordinary people is obvious. 

But beyond that unions are needed to help mobilise the widest possible resistance to the dictatorship of finance capital and bring into that resistance people who have never before gone on a march or taken part in a political protest.  

It’s also important that we learn the lessons of 40 years ago and how we allowed the neoliberals to destroy the far more equitable economic model which had been created following World War II. 

The key mistake then was to underestimate the enemy and believe that the hard right was finished as a political force.

In his last speech to the Labour Party conference as party leader and prime minister in 1975, Harold Wilson warned delegates what the Conservative Party under its new leader Margaret Thatcher had in store for Britain if they were returned to power.

“The political philosophy of a once great party has now been asserted,” Wilson said. “Not a claim to unite the nation, but a policy to divide it. 

“We have been told, on impeccable and undeniable authority, that the pursuit of inequality for its own sake is now to become an end in itself. 

“It is now to become the altar, the deity, before which they seek to prostrate themselves — and the country.” 

The falling out between the Labour government and the trade union movement in the winter of 1978-9, which paved the way for the election of Thatcher’s Conservative Party, was a tragedy for which the majority of people in Britain have paid dearly. 

That falling out would have been avoided had prime minister James Callaghan called an election for the autumn of 1978 when Labour was ahead in the polls. 

Had he done so, Thatcherism would probably never have happened. The ’70s couldn’t — and shouldn’t — have ended in the way they did.

But while we can’t turn the clock back to the heady days of September 1974, looking back at the debates we had then and reflecting on the country Britain once was can help to inspire us about the future. 

We built a better Britain once before and there’s no reason why we can't do so again.  

Neil Clark is director of the Campaign for Public Ownership. www.campaign4publicownership.blogspot.co.uk. You can follow Neil Clark on Twitter @NeilClark66 and the CPO @PublicOwnership