Speech delivered at Sands Films Studio event for THE MAN WITH THE PLAN on 12th and 13th April 2025
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00The next speaker we've got up here is getting ready, climbing up on the stage now.
00:05This is a friend and comrade that I've been on many a picket line with.
00:10This is Ian Hodgson, who is the President of the Bakers' Union.
00:14Please give him a big round.
00:20I probably won't need to lift you up.
00:23I probably might need to stand back a bit, because I've noticed the room echoes a lot
00:27and I don't want to deficit anybody.
00:30Comrade, sisters and brothers, it's an absolute pleasure to be here today.
00:35A lot of militant speeches, by the way, incredible militant speeches.
00:39So congratulations for inviting me, a moderate, by the way.
00:44And it really is an incredible event.
00:48I mean, beverage, I mean, there's a millionaire probably that we would have liked
00:52and assured it would have been all right in government, unlike the current one.
00:57I mean, beverage, I mean, he wrote about us, didn't he?
01:04It was us.
01:06It wasn't the, it wasn't the profiteers, it wasn't the landlords,
01:10it wasn't the people on the stock exchange.
01:13It was the workers, it was the carers, it was the makers of means and bread.
01:18Obviously the Bakers' Union.
01:20We've got to get a pun in there, haven't we?
01:21But he talked about the issues that impacted our lives.
01:28He talked about the facts that people were living in squalor,
01:32that our health care was so poor,
01:35that our jobs were not secure.
01:38And that was like a long, long time ago.
01:42But it could be today.
01:44Yeah.
01:45It could be now.
01:47With zero hours contracts and insecurity.
01:52Age-related minimum wage.
01:55Where we discriminate against young people,
01:57not because they can't do the job,
01:59but because they haven't attained the right age.
02:02And minimum wages that don't afford to pay the bills.
02:06That's why we as a society have to recognise
02:10that when they put in front of us
02:13arguments that suggest these people are to blame,
02:17we have to recognise
02:19that actually
02:21those political diversions and excuses
02:25won't make our lives better.
02:29They just justify making them harder.
02:32It was never.
02:34And it's never been a refugee
02:36that has taken your job
02:39or put you on an insecure contract.
02:42That was a political decision.
02:46It was never a Polish worker
02:48that lowers your pay.
02:51That was a political decision
02:53that allowed the contracts to be changed
02:56to implement such things as zero-hour contracts.
03:00That was a political decision
03:02that means that people today
03:05rely on food banks
03:06instead of having pay
03:08that can make sure
03:09they can subsidise a life for them and their family,
03:12which is one of dignity.
03:14Now, I've campaigned a long time
03:16for a right of a minimum wage,
03:18but I've stopped saying
03:19I'm fighting for a minimum wage.
03:21I want a wage of dignity.
03:23A wage that says
03:25that a worker is entitled
03:27to a decent home
03:29and a worker is entitled
03:31to put decent food on the table.
03:34Fresh food.
03:36Food that we all should have the right to enjoy.
03:39That we shouldn't be entitled to healthcare.
03:43It shouldn't be a...
03:44I'm now from North, by the way,
03:46so I realise your healthcare's probably better than mine,
03:49but it shouldn't matter where I live, should it?
03:51We should be entitled to the same
03:53because we contribute the same.
03:56Because when we have a universal healthcare system,
03:59we're entitled to the same treatment
04:01wherever we are in the country.
04:04We have a right as people.
04:06And this is the other thing.
04:08This is the other thing
04:10that's really, really important
04:11about where we are today.
04:14Because it doesn't matter where you come from.
04:17It doesn't matter how you identify.
04:21What's important
04:22is how we stand together
04:24and build solidarity together.
04:27We stand up and we fight for a world
04:31that we deserve.
04:33We make decisions
04:35and we make demands.
04:37No more crawling on our knees
04:39and accepting...
04:41accepting crumbs.
04:43We get crumbs
04:44what they celebrate
04:46with champagne
04:47called their dividends.
04:49No more accepting
04:51and living on our knees.
04:53We get up
04:53and we organise
04:54and we build a revolution
04:56and we can start it here today.
05:02If we...
05:06People sometimes think this is hard.
05:09It's hard.
05:11And it's too hard
05:12and we can't go on.
05:15But I live down the road
05:16from a place called Liverpool
05:17and I often get told
05:20when I'm there
05:20that it's not called
05:22a struggle for nothing.
05:25If it was called...
05:27If it wasn't called a struggle
05:29and it wasn't a struggle
05:30it'd be a doddle.
05:33But the reality is
05:34it is a struggle.
05:35But when it's time to fight
05:38what have we've always known
05:41as a class
05:42that when we stand together
05:45we can make lives change.
05:48We've demonstrated it.
05:50I mean we're here today
05:51talking about a guy called Beveridge.
05:53That was the outcome
05:55of the failure
05:56of governments
05:57to implement policies
05:58after the First World War.
06:01But after the Second
06:02we demanded the changes
06:04that we wanted to see.
06:07Full employment.
06:09A health care.
06:10A welfare system.
06:11Council housing.
06:13Pay that enables us
06:14to build a family.
06:15To inspect.
06:17That we can afford
06:18to live with dignity.
06:19That we don't have to use credit
06:21to buy our kids
06:23a birthday present
06:24or a Christmas present.
06:25What is wrong?
06:28What is wrong
06:29of our expectations?
06:32What is wrong
06:35when expecting
06:36that when we go to work
06:38we don't have to fill in
06:39endless poverty forms
06:41to demonstrate
06:42the inequality
06:43of the system
06:44that we work in.
06:46Wages should pay.
06:48Wages should be able
06:49to make sure
06:50that when we go home
06:52each week
06:52we can afford to live
06:54a life
06:55that we all have
06:56with dignity.
06:58Expect dignity.
07:00We live in a world
07:02where we live
07:03in the six richest world.
07:04I know someone said
07:05that we also might be
07:06the 29th
07:07on that charter as well.
07:10But I think sometimes
07:11we feel like
07:11we're at the bottom
07:12of the charter.
07:13And we see people struggling.
07:16A couple of years ago
07:17I went to a funeral.
07:19It's a true story.
07:20Went to a funeral
07:21there was a teacher
07:22and they told us
07:25this story about
07:26how they
07:26watched this child
07:28going
07:29to their lunch
07:31and every day
07:32this child
07:33got the lunch
07:34they wrapped it up
07:36and took it out
07:37of the dinner hall
07:38so they thought
07:39well we'd better
07:39tell the teachers.
07:41So the teacher watched
07:42and they approached
07:44this child
07:44and said
07:45what are you doing?
07:47You have to eat
07:48in the dinner hall?
07:50And the child says
07:51well
07:51what it is
07:52is
07:53my mum and daddy
07:55have got no money
07:55so I'm taking my food
07:58on to share it.
08:00True story.
08:01Six richest economy
08:03in the world.
08:05A benefit system
08:06that can be sanctioned
08:08to stop people
08:09having money.
08:11Stop people living
08:12with dignity.
08:13That's not respect
08:14for people is it?
08:16That's not a society
08:17that we deserve
08:18as people is it?
08:20We've got to recognise
08:21it doesn't matter
08:23like I said before
08:24where you've come from.
08:26We can't blame
08:26refugees for our hardship.
08:29It's not asylum seekers.
08:31It's not people
08:31that weren't born here.
08:33It's not those people
08:34who identify
08:34in whichever way
08:35they identify
08:36through gender.
08:38It doesn't matter
08:38who anybody loves.
08:40That's the right
08:41as a human being
08:41to the life
08:42that you choose.
08:44We either believe
08:46in the freedom
08:46of opportunity
08:48and aspiration
08:48for all
08:49or we accept
08:51that we will all
08:54face oppression
08:56in this society
08:57that doesn't respect us
08:59or give us
09:00the dignity
09:00that we deserve.
09:02It's been an absolute pleasure
09:03to come up here
09:04and address you.
09:05Salud area!
09:05Salud area!
09:05Salud area!
09:06Salud area!
09:07Salud area!
09:08Salud area!
09:09Salud area!
09:10Salud area!