In light of the recession, Labour must be the party of the working class

Today Gordon Brown will for the first time have used the word «cuts», in his adress to the TUC conference. In order to capitalise on the Tories and their «foaming at the mouth» he will have to make it clear that jobs, health, education and other social essentials will be protected, FULL STOP, NO MATTER WHAT.

Brown will also have to expose the Tories and what their real plans are without sounding like a hypocrite (which we all know he is) for endorsing some public spending cuts himself. This will be a tough balancing act, but I think that if the public can see that the Labour Party will at least try to protect their hard fought gains of the working class then there is a chance. Brown has correctly identified waste and inneficiancy as the targets of his spending cuts, while ring-fencing health, education, and front-line policing, something that the Conservative Party has recently seemed to reject.

As the row over spending heats up, it will have to be the base of Labour, that is the working class and their organisations, the trade unions, that must force the party left and make sure that it continues to embody the ethos of a social-democratic party of mass labour.