TUC Congress 2025: In a moving gesture, all delegates stood in silent acclamation with TUC posters declaring their support for a Free Palestine.

On Monday, September 8, prior to its presentation to Parliament, the UK's Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) was officially announced by Defence Secretary John Healey during a visit to the defence tech firm Rowden in Bristol. He announced that Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Sheffield and Plymouth will receive investment to expand each of the areas' military and security industries. Later that day, the government presented a statement on the DIS for "debate" in Parliament. The statement [1] was given by Luke Pollard, Minister of State for Defence, on "a plan supported by £773 million of investment - a plan to make defence an engine for economic growth in every nation and region of our country". The statement reiterated that the "government have committed the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the cold war: 2.6% of GDP by 2027, and 3.5% by 2035, alongside our NATO allies". This followed Keir Starmer's announcement of the Strategic Defence Review [2] on June 2, where he announced increased spending on the war industries' armed forces as the priority for the economy to put Britain on "war-fighting readiness". However on Tuesday these plans of the Labour government were rejected by the 2025 TUC Congress representing millions of workers in the trade union movement. They rejected the plans of the government and Westminster noting that "rearmament is not a suitable standalone foundation for national renewal" and the demand was to "reaffirm that our movement's priority is welfare and wages, not weapons and war".

What was so noticeable was that the debate in Westminster arrogantly declaring its intentions to impose on "every nation and region of the country" the increased militarisation of the economy took place with no opposition within the cartel party system and without any discussion in the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland Assemblies. Minister of State for Defence Luke Pollard, as well as the opposition, spoke particularly openly on behalf of the interests of the arms industries dressed up as supporting and increasing the "defence industry workforce". The MPs' questions were mainly supporting this lie that this was to "create skilled jobs", pleading with the Minister for investment in their respective deprived areas when it was clear that this would not happen. Where were the voices pointing out that this direction for society, increasing investments in war preparations, not in social programmes, is all at the expense of the working people and their communities? The bulk of the public investment goes into the coffers of the huge armament manufacturers in Britain such as BAE Systems, as well as into purchasing armaments in the US and France. An arms trade and dangerous arms race is at the heart of Britain's economy and the continued interference and warmongering abroad does not benefit working people. Supporting Israel in its genocide of the Palestinian and continuing to escalate NATO's proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is making the world more dangerous for workers everywhere.

The opposite stand on the government's plans took place in the discussions of the working class and trade union movement at the TUC Congress. Here there was real courage and sincere debate with consequently real opposition to the government's making military spending the priority for the economy. Motion 37, moved by the University College Union (UCU) and National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) on "Wages and Not Weapons" [3], was fully debated. The motion recognised that "rearmament is not a suitable standalone foundation for national renewal" and called for the "reverse [of TUC] policy, dating from 2022, of support for immediate increases in defence spending". The motion resolved to "prioritise campaigning for public investment in Britain's public realm, decimated by austerity", to "commit to a safe, liveable planet" and to "reaffirm that our movement's priority is welfare and wages, not weapons and war". It was carried by votes in the hall and in a majority card vote with 2.8 million vote for and 2.2 million votes against. This is a significant shift in recent TUC policy, defeating the argument that increases in military spending should be supported as they create jobs in these industries.

Opposition to Israeli genocide

Motion 37, which also highlights firm opposition to British support of the Israeli genocide, citing that "British participation in the F-35 programme implicates it in Israel's grave violations of international law in Gaza", was followed up on Wednesday with a composite motion moved by the National Education Union (NEU) and UNISON supported by PCS and the Artists Union and passed unanimously [4]. This motion demanded that Britain secure a ceasefire, aid and food access for Palestinians and "immediately end all arms trade and military collaboration with Israel in line with international law", and that the government must "implement a total ban on all trade which aids or assists Israel's violations of international law including with Israel's illegal settlements". The motion also stood against the criminalisation of protest, with the demand to "repeal the authoritarian proscription of Palestine Action under counter-terrorism laws and uphold and strengthen the right to peaceful protest following the arrest of activists, including Ben Jamal, on peaceful Palestine Solidarity Campaign marches".

Following the debates on the motions and resolutions, Congress delegates were addressed by Shaher Saed from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions [5]. In a moving gesture, all delegates stood in silent acclamation with TUC posters declaring their support for a Free Palestine. This again demonstrates the quality of the stand of the workers' movement and its internationalism, differentiated from the anti-social, anti-worker, pro-war, pro-domination outlook of the ruling elites.

What was said in the debate on Motion 37

In the TUC debates, unions and their delegates expressed their views openly when speaking either for or against the motions. They spoke from their delegation's view on what they thought favoured the members of the unions concerned. The mover of the motion on Wages Not Weapons, Jo Grady, noted the "importance of such debates and it is what our movement is built on". She pointed out that "our country is broken, education, health care, public services, fire and rescue, rail mail, water - either privatised or starved of funding". In other words, she said, it is "wrecked, with thousands on the streets homeless". Yet, she said, they tell us "we can afford the worlds fifth largest military budget - £59.8 billion pounds a year, Congress. Cash found for weapons; no cash found for wages!" Referring to the motion three years ago that was adopted by the TUC Congress to increase defence spending to "protect jobs" she said that three years ago in this hall it was a narrow vote but "it put us on the wrong side of history. Today we have the chance to put that right. That means we need to overturn our support for increased defence spending." She said: "We are a justice movement. It is not good enough to say 'jobs first', not when as a result of those jobs hell is rained down on other workers elsewhere, when those weapons are used to murder children and target innocent people." She concluded by saying that we should fight for the alternative, "we must have better ambitions than that. We must demand funding in alternative employment and not more of the same." The question she put to Congress at the end was: "Do we want to live in a world of peace and justice?" The TUC Congress 2025 voted yes to peace and justice.

Also speaking in the debate, seconding the motion for RMT, Alex Gordon said, "This was a vital motion when Donald Trump demands that NATO members spend 5% of GDP on so-called 'defence spending' in the very week that the US President has renamed the US Department of Defence as the War Department." He also pointed out that the German Chancellor Merz had said that "Germany can no longer afford its welfare state because of his government's plans for massive military re-armament". He said that here in Britain "our government uses the language of 'hard choices' to explain cuts to welfare benefits ... while lavishing eye-watering sums of public money on arms spending with a false promise of reviving Britain's manufacturing industries and most deprived regions through arms manufacturing".

Alex Gordon called in the Congress not to believe the hype. He said that the announcement by the British government for "millions on defence growth deals as part of Britain's defence industry will push communities into further deprivation, funnel critical funds away from the job-rich sectors of our economy such as health, transport, housing and infrastructure renewal, and will create greater international instability. Far from being a boost to jobs and skills here in Britain, ramping up military spending is a smash-and-grab raid on our public services, public service workers' jobs and wages. Also, as Donald Trump has made abundantly clear, the jobs and profits from military spending in the UK will flow across the Atlantic into the US-dominated supply chain." He concluded that "the jobs boost the government is promoting is tiny in comparison to the level of public funds. Congress, we can make a difference this week and have an opportunity to send a strong message that the government is going in the wrong direction. Our movement needs to call for a kick-start to the economy to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. We need defence diversification, we need welfare not warfare, we need wages not weapons." All of the speeches can be followed on the TUC You Tube [6].

For a new direction for the economy, for the independent programme of the working class

The government's Defence Industrial Strategy is one of the main parts of its Strategic Defence Review (SDR) announced on June 2 and the government's Spending Review 2025 announced by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, on June 11 [7]. The SDR's aims that Britain must maintain its nefarious role in the world at all costs even if this threatens further wars that Britain cannot win and further impoverishes the British people. The SDR defends the arming of Israel by lauding the 20% of the US F-35 that is manufactured in Britain. It lauds the asset of the Akrotiri and Dhekélia sovereign base area of British overseas territory in Cyprus, from which Britain sends its cargo of death and its spy planes to Israel and Gaza as well launching its joint bombing attacks on Yemen that the SDR supports. The SDR claims that Britain's security guarantees are linked to the US, NATO, the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), and AUKUS. It declares that the cause of peace is threatened by China, Russia, Iran and the DPRK, as well as the resistance movements of the peoples of the world who are fighting for their right to be and to realise their aspirations for peace, freedom and democracy.

In summary, the main aim of the UK's Defence Industrial Strategy announced on September 8 as part of the SDR is not about "defence" or "security" for the British people, but is to take Britain in the direction of a war-ready economy for the criminal interests of the ruling elite and their ambitions to conquer markets abroad and destroy other countries that they cannot control. This cannot be accepted.

Workers' Weekly applauds the TUC and the trade unions and their delegates for fighting for the alternative, for taking a stand against this warmongering direction for the economy and standing with Palestine. We call on the whole working class and people's movements to be vigilant and step up the fight in defence of the rights of all and for people's empowerment in these circumstances. Economic renewal will only be served by people speaking out in their own name and in their collectives for all that serves their own interests for peace and real economic and national security, independent of what the Executive stationed in the Palace of Westminster seeks to dictate. This is a lesson from the TUC Congress 2025.

Reject the government's plan to dress-up the direction to a war economy as "renewal" of the economy!

For a new direction for the economy, for the independent programme of the working class!

Notes
1. Defence Industrial Strategy September 8
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025-09-08/debates/7450B4E0-BA08-439D-85E7-F20285D444E3/DefenceIndustrialStrategy
2. Strategic Defence Review: Starmer's Attempt to Put Britain on "War-Fighting Readiness" Cannot Be Accepted
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-25/ww25-13/ww25-13.htm
3. Motion 37 Wages not weapons
https://congress.tuc.org.uk/motion-37-wages-not-weapons/#sthash.9ip35g9N.dpbs
4. Composite 14 The crisis in Palestine - Comprising Motion 71 plus amendments
https://congress.tuc.org.uk/c14-the-crisis-in-palestine/#sthash.ssTuxCfw.1lASpbWU.dpbs
5. Shaher Saed addresses TUC Congress - September 10 2025
https://www.tuc.org.uk/speeches/shaher-saed-addresses-tuc-congress
6. Trades Union Congress (TUC) - You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/@tradesunioncongress
7. Spending Review 2025: Dressing-Up the Direction to a War-Ready Economy as "Economic Renewal"
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-25/ww25-14/ww25-14-01.htm

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