The labour movement had the best opportunity in 50 years to transform not merely an industrial situation and win an important battle for workers in struggle, but an opportunity to change the government of the day.

The trade unions and the Labour Party... failed miserably. Instead of giving concrete support, and calling upon workers to take industrial action, they did nothing.

I have never been an idealist - that implies you aren't going to achieve something.

We will pave the way for a transformation and roll back the years of Thatcherism...We will turn economic ruin into economic recovery, and above all pave the way for a General Election to elect a Labour Government.

The trouble with the Labour Party leadership and the trade union leadership, they're quite willing to applaud millions on the streets of the Philippines or in Eastern Europe, without understanding the need to also produce millions of people on the streets of Britain.

There's a feeling that strength is determined by the size of a union. That clearly is nonsense.

The labour movement had the best opportunity in 50 years to transform not merely an industrial situation and win an important battle for workers in struggle, but an opportunity to change the government of the day.