Trade unionists have been gathering in Brighton this week for the annual TUC Congress. At the Congress, delegates have been debating and agreeing the trade union movement’s positions on key political and economic issues.

On the final day, delegates supported a motion proposed by the University and College Union (UCU) to build an alternative vision for security “based on decent work, quality public services, equality, climate action, democracy and peace”. The motion called on the TUC to build on the ‘Wages Not Weapons’ campaign, which calls for investment in public services, rather than defence spending.

This is the second year in a row a motion on this issue has been debated at TUC Congress. In 2025, delegates backed the UCU’s original Wages Not Weapons motion, which called for the TUC to ‘prioritise campaigning for public investment in Britain’s public realm’, to ‘commit to a safe, liveable planet’, and to ‘reaffirm that our movement’s priority is welfare and wages, not weapons and war’.

As with last year, this year’s motion was highly contentious, prompting a heated debate in the hall. Alongside UCU, delegates from the National Education Union (NEU) and RMT spoke in favour of the motion. Unite, GMB and Prospect delegates were among those to speak against the motion.

Unlike last year, however, the motion did not go to a ‘card vote’, and the chair deemed it to have been clearly carried within the room.

The motion called for the trade union movement to “campaign for sustained public investment in health, education, housing, social care, social security and climate resilient”.

Alongside this, the motion called for the TUC to “raise awareness of fundamental rights, including the right to conscientious objection and opposition to compulsory military service in the UK”, and “work with the ITUC, ETUC and other partners to promote conflict prevention, diplomacy, international cooperation, human rights and respect for international law”.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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Delegates at this year’s TUC Congress passed a motion condemning what it described as the ‘institutional racist targeting, harassment and humiliation’ of Professor Jason Arday.

Arday was professor of sociology of education at Cambridge University. He was found dead in his home in August 2026 following intense media scrutiny of his academic work and public claims. The scale and nature of that scrutiny has been widely described as racist, disproportionate and unjustified. Arday’s death is currently subject to an inquest.

The emergency motion was proposed by the University and College Union (UCU) and the National Education Union (NEU).

The motion agreed by the TUC stated that “Black staff and students continue to experience institutional racism, discrimination and inequality across higher education”, and “the treatment of Professor Arday is a product of institutional and systemic racism”.

The motion will see the TUC send condolences to the family and friends of Professor Arday, call on the government to take action to end institutional racism in higher education and to push for the government “to strengthen accountability for institutions that fail to address racial inequality and ensure funding and policy support meaningful anti-racist work”.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: ConiferousForest19 – Creative Commons

The post TUC passes motion condemning ‘institutional racist targeting, harassment and humiliation’ of Professor Jason Arday appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.