Liz McElroy

Tis a Thursday night in the London borough of Hackney, and a large group of local trade unionists have gathered to hear American trade union activists Liz McElroy and Lindsay Patterson talk about the successful US trade union contribution to Barack Obama's election.

'You can do it, too,' Patterson tells us, clearly believing this. 'You guys are sitting on a volcano at the moment (unemployment, house repossessions, the recession). You'd be surprised at the power that you have through the labour movement.'   

Indeed we would.

There's not a lot of point in pretending - the contrast between the Americans and locals tonight couldn't be sharper.

Few in the local union movement feel exhilarated about its structures and circumstances, or its chances of escaping either.

Trade union membership is at less than 30% - better in the public sector than in the private, but not exactly a number for proud broadcast. The Labour government - to which too many major unions remain, fatally, affiliated - has steadfastly refused to repeal a single clause of Thatcher's vicious anti trade union laws: solidarity strikes are still illegal, people who take strike action are still vulnerable to victimisation (read sacked) when they return to work, and strike action is still routinely delayed by a lengthy, complex and perversely bureaucratic balloting process that is used to great effect by Labour-affiliated unions to delay action and erode would-be strikers' confidence and commitment.

As things stand, it's impossible to imagine the democratic election of leftwing leaders like Mark Serwotka at the PCS, Christine Blower at the NUT, and the RMT's Bob Crowe coming to pass in Labour-affiliated unions like Unison. The Labour party itself has lost the union grassroots, probably forever. This is - as if you need reminding - the party that has mass-transited public services and public sector workers to a failed private sector, degrading services en route, killed half a million Iraqis and ignored repeated union conference votes to leave Iraq, tortured political prisoners, taken council housing out of council hands, gambled and lost endless public sector funds on PFIs, and blown the spare on bankers, blah blah blah.

Offputting, too, is the viciousness with which Labour-affiliated unions attack grassroots union members who advocate cutting the Labour party from the union payroll. So. Hearing two successful, articulate people detail the joys of rallying the troops round an Obama is painful. Even those of us who believe that Obama is just another corporate knickknack would still like to have one. Instead, we've got Gordon Brown. And David Miliband. And Harriet Harman. That lot ought to be standing trial for war crimes, not asking union members to stump up for their reelection.

Blah.