COMMUNIST Party leader Rob Griffiths called for the development of a national left-wing programme to draw together the various progressive positions of the labour movement today.
He told a Communist Party of Britain fringe meeting that, on reading the TUC congress documents of 1904, delegates had voiced similar concerns to their counterparts today.
"Pensions, jobs, public ownership and the dangers of war in the wake of the Boer War headed the agenda a century ago and they will continue to do so as long as you have capitalism," he declared.
Mr Griffiths said that, unless the vision of socialism - of a new kind of society - is implanted, the movement wis doomed to have the same kind of debate year in, year out.
Party chairwoman Anita Halpin warned that passing resolutions at the TUC is not enough.
"We have to work out how to turn motions into action and that requires organisation of demonstrations and stoppages," she said.
Communist Review editor Mary Davis expressed her surprise that the Prime Minister's speech to congress had received any applause at all.
She warned that the Warwick agreement has induced a "supine silence" in some sections of the movement, urging unions to mobilise mass membership anger, to defeat new Labour and reclaim the Labour Party.
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