TRADE UNIONS have a crucial role in creating a fairer and more equal society, and we are now working with a Labour government that is undoing the damage done to our society by 14 years of Conservative rule.

The scale of the task is huge. With the far right seeking to exploit the very real frustrations of working people to fuel the politics of hate and division, we are calling on Labour to be bold in its vision, to push back on far-right narratives and continue to commit to delivering for working people.

The best way to defeat grievance politics is to improve jobs, raise living standards and invest in public services and our communities.

It is horrifying that unions, co-ordinated by the TUC, are having to prioritise developing strategies to tackle the far right, and incredibly worrying that popular support for extreme right-wing parties has grown to levels we have not seen since the 1930s.

The power and influence right-wing figures across the globe are amassing is terrifying, with their appalling views being normalised in mainstream political debate, and the increasingly right-wing agendas of the Tories and Reform are getting so much media coverage.

The politics of hate seem to have taken hold in our society. We know that racism is a defining feature of the far right, but the far right is also anti-feminist, holding and promoting sexist views about women and our role in society, as well as actively encouraging discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people, spaces and communities.

We have witnessed disgraceful scenes of right-wing extremists on our streets, and it is clear from the racist attacks on hotels, which house migrants and refugees, that the far right pose a very real threat to people's lives.

Protesters say they are acting to drive out a threat to women and girls; I doubt the irony of that misleading claim is lost on many Morning Star readers, when two out of every five people arrested in the riots last summer had previously been reported to the police for violence and abuse against women.

Let us be clear. These so-called protests have absolutely nothing to do with protecting women and girls. They are driven by racism and hatred — and nothing more. The far right spread fear and anxiety in our communities and in our workplaces. They threaten lives and the values of unity and solidarity that our movement is based on.

Millions of people are stuck in insecure work and feel they don’t have a voice because union power has been crushed, and that is being addressed in the government’s historic and far-reaching Employment Rights Bill, which is opposed by the Tories, Lib Dems and Reform UK.

In the meantime, the far right is seeking to exploit concerns through fear, lies and unachievable easy answers. They are exploiting the sense of injustice that so many people feel, and they are using it to grow in strength and popularity.

The surest way to defeat them is by delivering decent jobs, good wages, strong and enforceable workplace rights, well-funded public services and decent homes. So now more than ever, our Labour government’s plan to make work pay and deliver justice and equality for working people really matters.

What we must do is present a positive vision for the future and show people how things can be better for them. What we must avoid is trying to outdo Reform on their agenda or push mainstream politics ever further to the right.

Not only is that fundamentally wrong and against our values, but it makes their appalling views appear to be accepted and acceptable, which will only grow the influence of the far right and boost their potential for electoral success in the long term. Our Labour government can, and must, improve the lives of working people. This must remain their focus, and it must remain the focus for all of us.

Labour must not allow the Tories and Lib Dems to water down key protections in the Employment Rights Bill. Their peers voted to create loopholes like turning a legal requirement for employers to offer guaranteed-hours contracts into a much weaker “right to request” — letting employers off the hook for paying compensation for cancelled shifts, if just two days’ notice is given; and scrapping the new day-one right to protection from unfair dismissal.

Equally, Reform UK MPs showed their true colours, as the mask slipped and their true anti-union and anti-workers’ views came to the fore, when they voted against the Bill at every turn.

Trade unions have a longstanding commitment to countering the far right. We will use our industrial power and our political influence to organise and rebuild workplace justice, to grow union power and to win for working people. That is how we challenge hatred and division. We are standing together against hate.  

Joanne Thomas is general secretary of Usdaw.