I absolutely applaud the thousands of people who travelled to, or joined the march and rally in Birmingham to show their anger, frustration and contempt for this Government in power and its handling of the recession

However if they came looking for the TUC Boss or their respective union leadership to provide from the platform, an outline of a comprehensive strategy to deal with looming crisis I’m afraid all they got was bunk like “We got to make sure we vote the Labour Party back into power” and how “Not all Labour MP’s are up to their eyeballs in the expenses sleaze, so we don’t want catcalls about such”( when Richard Burden and Jim Sheridan spoke)

I'm utterly sick and fed up of union leaders continually ‘wittering “Great turnout” “We wont take this! We won’t take that!” “The Banks, the Bosses and Uncle Tom Cobley “ “Lets give a big shout so Tony Blaaa….Oh sorry Gordon Brown can hear us” “Don’t forget vote Labour”

Look my influential union friends….. Labour don’t give a flying fuck, for workers, children, old people, animals or the planet So why keep exhorting your hard pressed members to waste their time vote and effort to breath life in a moldy old corpse!

A few good apples in the barrel can’t save a rotten system, decades past its sell by date, that needs the well aimed the kick it deserves to send it into historic oblivion

Tony Woodley declared from the platform “Twenty thousand jobs have disappeared from manufacturing since this recession took hold, so we will not stand by while another two hundred and fifty thousand are swept away by this recession tide.

But we were left at a loss as what the plans were, to circumnavigate such a disaster, apart from voting Labour…. you understand

Tony also stated from the platform, in a manner suggesting a determined thorough and profound rethink on the question, that the Anti trade union laws would have to be repealed! But I strongly suspect it will be nothing more than the same old tired mono strategy of continuance with the piece meal support for the ‘United Campaign to repeal the Anti-Trade Union Laws’ legal efforts. Worthy true, but unsuccessful to date!

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite pronounced: "Billions have been spent to save the banks. But those same banks are throwing people out of their houses."

Yes Derek but you said only last week “Labour must continue to position itself as the party for jobs and social justice.” So how does that equation work then?

Union Grandee, TUC boss Brendan Barber said: “Unemployment is rising relentlessly. It will pass the 2.5 million mark next month and could hit three million by the end of the year”.
“Manufacturing, once the lifeblood of our economy, continues to suffer. Successive governments have hung it out to dry in favor of an unregulated financial services sector – and look what good that’s done to our economy”.

I’d like to know what actual good the TUC sitting on its collective backside has done its membership whilst all this was going on Brendan
Doing what members paid you to do? Organizing what was required, offering leadership and confronting the issues with steel determination perhaps?
Not quite….. Delegating your respective union PR departments to knock up a few promotions for a number of demonstrations up and down the country every now and then, a bit of Labour party cheerleading when people’s incredulity with the system has been stretched paper thin and telling members what they can see with their own eyes, would be more likely to fit the bill matey!

Calls for action from the platform of the rally were also made by a number of other speakers

Photos, Copyright Stalingrad O'Neill - permission is required for third party usage