There could be more trouble on the prime minister’s left wing behind Times FOUND that Greens leader Zack Polanski is facing several union leaders. Polanski told the newspaper it was “crucial” for his party to “link up with the organized Labor movement”. He claimed that the relationship between the party and the unions had “started to break down”.
Can he sever the centuries-old historic bond between the Labor Party and the Labor movement, which has outlasted wars, global depressions and periods of electoral oblivion? This will be very difficult to do and will take more than a few friendly phone calls. In the end, it is probably not in the interests of most unions, which, having experienced a period of dissatisfaction with the government’s political direction, have nevertheless fared reasonably well in their first 18 months in power. Their main prize has been the Employment Rights Bill, which even in its diluted form is one of the most significant changes in the relationship between workers and bosses in recent times.
Unite recently announced that it would cut Labor Party membership funding by 40 per centa stinging rebuke, but not fatal. Meanwhile, the GMB is upset about the net zero transition, but it doesn’t really have anywhere to go, and it’s certainly not going to the Greens.
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For Polanski, an attempt to capture Labor’s union donors as he tries to replace the party on the left is comparable to Nigel Farage hanging out with wealthy businessmen and taking their funds as he tries to replace the Conservatives on the right.
In the playbook of insurgent British political parties – which Farage essentially wrote and which Polanski is following from the left – this is the last step. People around the reform leader find it remarkable the extent to which Polanski has mirrored Farage’s approach.
First, there was a relentless focus on building membership numbers and “flooding the zone” on social media, which translated into increased public interest and a rise in opinion polls. Then came the rush for donors and the hiring of credible politicians to draw up plans for a future government (Verdant, a Green Line think tank, started last week). After that, the price will be some big-name defections to the Green benches. Watch this space.
This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; get it every morning by subscribing to Substack here
(Further reading: How to stop fuel panic)
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