Matt Wrack
Matt Wrack joined the Labour Party Young Socialists in Salford in 1978 and was a member of Farnworth Constituency Labour Party during the period in which the local MP John Roper left Labour to join the Social Democratic Party. Wrack subsequently moved to London, working for a time in the DHSS before joining the fire service.
Wrack was active in the Labour Party Young Socialists before going on to join the Socialist Party, which he had left by the time he was elected to lead the FBU in 2005. His union disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 2004 but reaffiliated in November 2015. In March 2016, he rejoined the Labour Party. In September 2017, he was listed at Number 87 in 'The 100 Most Influential People on the Left'.
TUC Fringe 2021
Mark Serwotka, Rachel Hopkins MP, Matt Wrack.
Resist-Repeal-Replace
Maxine Peake, Lord John Hendy QC, Prof Keith Ewing, Andy McDonald MP, Eileen Turnbull Shewbury24 Campaign, Matt Wrack FBU, Dave Ward CBU, Sarah Woolley Bakers Union, Paddy Lillis USDAW, Kate Ewing, Mike Rix GMB, Yvette Williams Grassroots Black Left, Andy Green CTUF, Go North West Buses, Strike Map UK...
"What Next?"
The People's Assembly Against Austerity September 12 2021 with Mark Serwotka, Shami Chakrabarti, Howard Beckett, Lindsey German, Barry Gardiner, Dave Ward, Sarah Woolley, Steve Turner, Holly Turner, Laura Pidcock, Fran Heathcote, Matt Wrack, Marvina Newton, Kevin Courtney.
LRC connection
Members and delegates from affiliated organisations, including the New Communist Party of Britain, attended the annual conference of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in London last Saturday.
The LRC was established in 2004 by left-wing Labour Party members, MPs and trade unionists who want to restore the Labour Party to its original socialist roots.
The NCP affiliated to the LRC in 2005 and a number of party members and supporters took part in this year’s conference, including NCP leader Andy Brooks as well as National Chair Alex Kempshall and Theo Russell from the Central Committee.
Just 127 LRC activists took part in the one-day conference, which largely opted to close ranks around the policy statement of the National Executive Committee. This was reflected in the defeat of motions to the left of the LRC mainstream, including an NCP motion on taxation, others on Zionism, and at elections that saw most candidates returned unopposed.
Fire Brigades Union leader Matt Wrack and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell made important contributions to the general discussion on where Labour is going in the run-up to a possible general election this year. Walter Wolfgang, the veteran Labour activist, moved the Labour CND motion on peace that was passed unanimously.
The election of Jeremy Corbyn – one of the leading founders of the LRC – to the leadership of the party in 2016 and the crushing defeat of a Blairite challenge the following year has led to a mass influx of new Corbyn supporters into the party. With over 550,000 individual members, Labour is now the biggest party in western Europe. How to reach out to them and to the other left pressure groups inside Labour was another key topic in the afternoon’s discussion.
Finally, in what has become an LRC tradition, the conference closed with a rousing speech from Ian Hodson, leader of the Bakers’ Foods and Allied Workers’ Union, followed by the singing of the Red Flag and the Internationale.[1]
Centenary of the Balfour declaration
Thousands of supporters of Palestinian human rights marched through London November 2017 to mark the centenary of the Balfour declaration.
The march and rally were organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain.
It was supported by Unite the Union, UNISON, National Education Union- NUT Section, GMB, ASLEF, RMT, FBU, UCU, PCS, CWU; and Europal Forum, CND, Pax Christi, APCUK, Kairos UK, Friends of Sabeel UK, ICAHD UK, Olive, Amos Trust, APCUK and Muslim Voice.
At the rally in Parliament Square, speakers included Dr Mustafa Barghouti, Ken Loach, Andy Slaughter MP, Matt Wrack general secretary FBU, Margaret McKee president UNISON, John Pilger, Senator Paul Gavan Sinn Fein, and many others.
Glyn Secker, from the campaign group Jews for Justice for Palestinians, told the crowd: “These criticisms are not and cannot be anti-Semitic — they are to assert basic human and Jewish values.”
Describing Palestine as “the world’s biggest prison” and a “psychological torture chamber”, Secker said: “Netanyahu you do not speak for me, nor for hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world who identify with your victims.”
A video of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a long-time patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was also played to the crowd, which burst into energetic chants of “Ohh, Jeremy Corbyn”.
Ismail Patel, founder of Friends of Al-Aqsa, said that the message to the Government from Saturday’s march was clear. “First and foremost, apologise for the Balfour Declaration,” he said.
“Secondly, recognise the state of Palestine today. Third, continue with BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] until Palestine is free.
“My friends, take this message home and keep working until Palestine is free,” he added, to rapturous chants of “free, free Palestine”.[2]
Signatory for the 'Stop Trump Coalition'
Matt Wrack signed a letter posted at The Guardian on February 1 2017[3] from the Stop Trump Coalition, "a coalition of organisations and individuals [who] joined forces to protest against Donald Trump’s planned visit to the UK."[4],[5]
The letter read, in part:
- "We write to impress upon Theresa May and her government our opposition to US President Donald Trump being accorded a state visit or any official visit to this country. The US population has suffered more than a decade and a half of a fall in incomes, but billionaire Trump offers no solution to this problem.
- "Racism, sexism, misogyny, Islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, war mongering, climate change denial or policies designed to boost the wealth of the already super-rich should not be rewarded or celebrated in this country.
Morning Star contributors
Jeremy Corbyn, Len McCluskey, Matt Wrack, Louise Raw, Richard Burgon, Emily Maiden, Diane Abbott, Ken Livingstone, Ian Lavery, Elaine Smith, Bernadette Horton, Nathan Akehurst, Michelle Ryan, Grahame Morris, John Ellison.
The People's Charter
Bob Crow RMT, Matt Wrack FBU, Mark Serwotka PCS.
Morning Star rally/LP conference
Frances O'Grady, Paul Kenny, Len McCluskey, Matt Wrack, Bob Crow, Steve Gillan, Megan Dobney, Richard Bagley, Tsiaples Anastosis, John Haylett,
Momentum
In 2016 Matt Wrack was on the steering committee of Momentum UK.