Uploaded January 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The recent wave of strikes makes this debate very timely. It was filmed by WORLDwrite volunteers at the Battle of Ideas Festival in October 2022.
Until recently, many thought unions were toothless, bureaucratic bodies, their glory days behind them. The number of days lost to strikes has long been in decline. Is this really, as media and politicians claim, a return to the militant Seventies?
Some suggest that a renaissance in trade unions is being hyped up, pointing out that those not in trade unions have been more effective in organising spontaneous, larger-scale national resistance around specific issues affecting their livelihoods, such as this year’s protests by Canadian truckers and European farmers. Could such ‘populist revolts’ be channelled into organised union resistance?
Unions were also at the forefront of demanding lockdown restrictions, which had a devastating impact on many people’s lives. Can trade unions now lead the struggle against the crisis of living standards – or are they a barrier to fighting back?
The speakers are:
Paul Embery
Firefighter; trade unionist; columnist; author, Despised: why the modern Left loathes the working class; broadcaster
Lisa Mckenzie
Working-class academic; author, Getting By: estates class and culture in austerity Britain and Working Class Lockdown Diaries
Lord Moylan
Conservative peer
Jo Phillips
Journalist; co-author, Why Vote? and Why Join a Trade Union?; former political advisor; fellow, Radix
Denis Russell
Building contractor; former trade-union activist and union representative, National Union of Railwaymen
The Chair is
Rosamund Cuckston
Senior HR professional; co-organiser, Birmingham Salon
The recent wave of strikes makes this debate very timely. It was filmed by WORLDwrite volunteers at the Battle of Ideas Festival in October 2022.
Until recently, many thought unions were toothless, bureaucratic bodies, their glory days behind them. The number of days lost to strikes has long been in decline. Is this really, as media and politicians claim, a return to the militant Seventies?
Some suggest that a renaissance in trade unions is being hyped up, pointing out that those not in trade unions have been more effective in organising spontaneous, larger-scale national resistance around specific issues affecting their livelihoods, such as this year’s protests by Canadian truckers and European farmers. Could such ‘populist revolts’ be channelled into organised union resistance?
Unions were also at the forefront of demanding lockdown restrictions, which had a devastating impact on many people’s lives. Can trade unions now lead the struggle against the crisis of living standards – or are they a barrier to fighting back?
The speakers are:
Paul Embery
Firefighter; trade unionist; columnist; author, Despised: why the modern Left loathes the working class; broadcaster
Lisa Mckenzie
Working-class academic; author, Getting By: estates class and culture in austerity Britain and Working Class Lockdown Diaries
Lord Moylan
Conservative peer
Jo Phillips
Journalist; co-author, Why Vote? and Why Join a Trade Union?; former political advisor; fellow, Radix
Denis Russell
Building contractor; former trade-union activist and union representative, National Union of Railwaymen
The Chair is
Rosamund Cuckston
Senior HR professional; co-organiser, Birmingham Salon
