Labour Conference 2011: Murdoch's 'moral pollution' needs to be eradicated, Unite tells Labour party conference

27 September 2011

News International's moral pollution has seeped into the fabric of British society and its influence should be eradicated, Unite's General Secretary, Len McCluskey told the Labour Party conference today (Tuesday, 27 September).

Unite, the largest union in the country, was leading on a motion that called for James Murdoch to stand down as Chairman of BSkyB in the wake of the phone hacking scandal that rocked Rupert Murdoch's media empire this summer.

Len McCluskey told delegates in Liverpool: 'There is no-one in this hall or indeed in the country who will not have felt revulsion at the revelations of this summer regarding the activities of News International journalists.'

'Rupert Murdoch did not become an enemy when he turned on Gordon Brown and the Labour Party at the 2009 party conference. He was the enemy of everything decent and democratic in this country long before that.'

'He has a long history of attacking working people, starting with his onslaught on the unions at Wapping 25 years ago, throwing thousands of loyal workers onto the scrapheap.'

'The moral pollution that his company fostered has seeped into the very fabric of British life – from politicians to the police, and, more widely, to the moral malaise peddled by the right-wing jingoism and sexism in his papers. There is a moral and political thread that leads straight from Wapping to Milly Dowler.'

'This pollution includes the contemptuous way his papers treat working-class people - not least the Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough, and who they smeared in a way my city – this city - will never forget.'

'Murdoch's minions did all of this because they thought they could get away with it - that they were above the law. And for years they were right as our own leaders were too bedazzled by his power. Or simply too afraid.'

'To stand up to Murdoch and take the slightest step to curb his power or even apply the law was to excite his wrath.'

'The Labour party needs to learn lessons – and they won't be learned by standing down by the banks of the Jordan blessing Murdoch's children.'

'They will be learned by setting up the two commissions called for in this motion
One is for an overdue look at the rules controlling media ownership and the unacceptable concentration of power of which the Murdoch empire is the worst example.'

'And the second is to look at a still wider question – how independent trade unions are essential in ensuring that the rich and powerful do not get it all their own way. That they do not control our politics without the slightest counter-balance in society as a whole.'

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.