DESPITE Sir Keir Starmer’s appearance at the TUC online event on September 14, most trade-union members and leaders will have realised by now that it is they that will have to take the lead in the struggle ahead.

Saving jobs, creating new ones and holding back unemployment will be the main challenge confronting millions of workers. The Covid-19 crisis will leave us fighting on several fronts.

Many trade-union members and others losing their jobs will also be threatened with eviction and the repossession of their homes. This is a trade-union issue — and there are others that are not limited to the workplace.

Only if trade unions join with community campaigners will we have a chance of turning round the threats and to win a “new normal” that so many people desperately need.

On housing, that will include working with housing campaigners including the newish private-renters’ groups like the Renters’ Union and Generation Rent and community organisations like Acorn and Living Rent in Scotland.

Trade unions must also join with others to win maximum benefits for sickness and unemployment, against racism which is used to divide us and against wars that, apart from the death and destruction, waste money that is so clearly needed for other things.

For example, the billions set aside for the Trident missile system has a better use that is now there for all to see.

The Covid-19 crisis is an opportunity for the political representatives and media supporters of big business to attempt to shift the balance of power even more in their favour. We see this already in the long term restrictions of certain collective freedoms — and key workers may soon be workers who are not allowed to strike.

The trade unions have done what they are good at, defending members’ incomes via furlough agreements and ensuring safe returns to work.

At the TUC, starting on September 14, the sector unions outline better futures in their industries, and the general unions have wider strategic demands — such as Unite, which wants alliances with industry and campaigning organisations for investment within wider economic and social policies.

What is lacking, however, is the recognition of the urgency and the scale of the problem. We are probably far away from a general election — and the new Labour leadership has chosen to sit quietly, hoping for the Tories to become unpopular by themselves. This is not a position that will inspire and gain the trust of the people as Corbyn did, and very nearly succeeded in winning the 2017 election.

The trade unions must therefore see themselves at the centre of a mass movement to take on the Tories, who may spend as much as Corbyn was proposing — but will channel the money to their rich and powerful friends, as they have done throughout the Covid-19 crisis.

Like the New Deal for Workers, pushed by the CWU and now TUC policy, the trade unions need to step up, see the common enemy and work with each other.

Although the wording would have to be agreed to avoid conflict with any rule books, what a signal it would be to the nation if they were to announce at the TUC that all the trade unions together will ensure that anybody made redundant due to Covid-19 will maintain membership privileges free or at a nominal cost.

Without such a lead from the trade unions linked with campaigners from across the movement, for liveable benefits, for peace, against racism and for sanctuary for refugees, for trade-union and civil rights, for decent homes for all, against attacks on democracy and the environmental damage, we leave the door open to the far right.

We have already seen the huge support for conspiracy theories, such as Covid-19 being man-made to change the world economy, while at the same time being harmless.

Some of this disillusions people and takes them to the right — and it certainly lets the government off the hook.

People are frustrated, angry, worried, and resent the government’s dishonesty and mishandling of the crisis. They are crying out for economic and political leadership.

But we have also seen the spontaneous growth in volunteering via the local mutual-aid groups across the country. These are a potential source of support and organisation for those who end up without jobs and homes.

Over the next few months, if the government has its way, unemployment will reach levels not seen since the early 1980s. Back then, a mass movement grew to oppose Thatcher’s policies and part of its infrastructure was hundreds of campaigning Unemployed Workers’ Centres, usually financed by local authorities.

Some readers will also remember the impressive Peoples’ March for Jobs demonstrations. Times and resources are different now but some of the tactics of the 1980s will be relevant again.

Already trades councils, People’s Assemblies and trade-union activists are discussing how to unite the inevitable hundreds of struggles across the country.

We have, through lockdown, experienced virtual meetings — and before long we may see virtual marches, linking towns and cities on routes to Parliament.

The Tory spring conference in Newport would be an ideal target for Peoples Marches to converge on, with recent memories of the Chartists’ Newport Rising commemoration 180 years ago last year.

The TUC could send another inspirational signal to people and the government by stating that collectively the trade unions would organise that in every city and big town, where it was wanted, a room and communication facilities would be made available, for campaigning against unemployment.

Workers will be expecting a lot from the TUC this year, much more than usual.

Andy Bain is the trade union organiser for the Communist Party of Britain.