Purge of the left under way in UNISON
FOUR SOCIALIST Party members are facing disciplinary
charges from the UNISON leadership which could result in their expulsion
from the union.
UNISON is the second largest union in Britain and
the biggest public-sector union in Britain and Europe, representing
hundreds of thousands of workers in local government and the health
service. The four being witch-hunted are Glenn Kelly, a member of the
union’s National Executive Council representing 800,000 local government
workers and secretary of Bromley council UNISON branch; Onay Kasab,
secretary of Greenwich council branch; Brian Debus, chair of Hackney
council branch; and Suzanne Muna, secretary of the Housing Corporation
branch. Suzanne is also facing severe disciplinary action from her
employer. All are seen as bold and dedicated fighters by their members.
These attacks were instigated at UNISON’s national
delegate conference in June 2007, when the four UNISON branches were
accused of producing and distributing a racist leaflet. Accusing these
members of racism at the start of the conference aroused shock from
delegates, naturally, as racism is an extremely serious accusation
within the trade union movement.
The accused were not allowed to respond to this
trumped up charge at the conference and had to produce leaflets and
speak at fringe meetings in order to answer the allegations.
The four UNISON branches had distributed leaflets to
delegates calling on them to vote in favour of allowing the conference
to debate motions that the standing orders committee – which is supposed
to ensure that conference is run according to union rules – had
rejected. The leaflet asked, ‘Were these motions rejected because they
were controversial?’ The ruled-out motions dealt with the election of
union officials, New Labour attacks on public services, and organising
industrial action.
The rejection of motions which conflict with the
leadership’s policies is not unusual. In fact, over 50 motions (nearly
one third of those submitted) were ruled out of order last year, while
this year nearly half the motions submitted by branches will not be
allowed onto the agenda for debate.
The pretext for the attack was the fact that the
leaflet contained a cartoon which depicted the standing orders committee
as ‘the Three Wise Monkeys’ from the well-known Buddhist proverb, which
has never been seen as having racist connotations.
Over 100 delegates and visitors packed a Socialist
Party meeting to hear the truth about the leaflet and begin a campaign
to stop this witch-hunt. One UNISON member expressed her outrage: the
leadership "would not be allowed to use the colour of my skin to hide
behind their undemocratic attempts to control the conference or the
delegates", she said. Other black members had given out the leaflet in
the first place and continue to back the campaign.
Explaining why the leaflet had been produced and
apologising if any unintentional offence had been caused, the four gave
written statements to the standing orders committee, members of the
National Black Members Committee, and the union’s national officer. But
the allegations were not withdrawn.
Following an investigation into five union officers
in September 2007 disciplinary charges were laid in February 2008.
However, the union decided to serve disciplinary charges only on the
four who are Socialist Party members, a clear attack on our party.
The investigation also declared that there was ‘no
racist intent’ in the production of the leaflet but that the four had
not anticipated that one person out of the 3,000 attending the
conference might be offended! The hearings began in May and have been
adjourned, with no new dates as yet.
These attacks are a reflection of the current
leadership’s determination to silence any voice that is able to
articulate the members’ frustration at the union’s failure to stop cuts,
privatisation and low pay, as well as the increasing anger that the
union continues to hand over millions of pounds of members’ money to a
political party, New Labour, that is attacking public-sector workers.
The UNISON leaders were worried by the NEC election
results just before the 2007 conference, when several prominent
right-wingers lost their seats to those committed to a fighting union.
Even though this still left them with a large majority, they feared that
this could be the beginning of the left getting stronger and challenging
their positions in the near future. Desperate to hold onto power, they
use undemocratic methods to keep controversial motions off the agenda,
expel or suspend members who oppose or challenge the leadership, and put
branches who are a ‘threat’ into regional administration. (The Leeds
branch has been in this situation for two years for organising a meeting
with other public-sector unions over pay.) In the last few weeks alone
the union has been found guilty in court of unlawfully suspending a left
activist and, in another case, of unlawfully banning a left activist
from standing in an election.
Branches have been threatened with disciplinary
action for daring to campaign against the union’s recommendations in
ballots on pensions and pay. It is clear that the union leadership is
attempting to create a climate of fear amongst activists.
This is not contradicted by the fact that the union
is currently organising an official ballot for action against the
government pay freeze, which is a product of the pressure UNISON feels
from the anger of its own members. On the contrary, the leadership knows
that it will be placed under even greater scrutiny by the union members
once even limited action is organised and that the arguments of the
left, in particular the Socialist Party, will gain a bigger echo.
The leadership also feels the pressure by the
comparison being made by growing numbers of UNISON members with the
fighting and left-led unions such as the PCS (civil service union), in
which the Socialist Party plays a key role, and the RMT (rail workers’
union). Three public-sector unions went on strike on 24 April, including
teachers for the first time in 21 years.
Not the least of the leadership’s motivation for the
attempted purge is a realisation that UNISON could go the same way as
the PCS, which was once firmly controlled by the right wing. The right
in the PCS and its predecessor union, the CPSA, with close links to the
state, used every conceivable witch-hunting tactic to stop the left,
including securing a court ruling to reverse the result of the union’s
1986 general secretary election, which had been won by Militant
supporter John Macreadie (Militant was the predecessor of the Socialist
Party).
But this could not ultimately stop the move to the
left in the PCS as members saw the undemocratic manoeuvrings of the
union leadership and its unwillingness to struggle. The PCS is now
rightly seen as a fighting left-led union.
Union leaders cannot keep the lid on members’ anger
and frustration for ever. In fighting against these attacks on Socialist
Party members in UNISON the campaign has been taken out to the members
of all the four branches as well as the wider union. Lobbies, ‘Defend
the Four’ meetings, protest letters and branch motions opposing the
attacks have been organised with more action planned. This has revealed
to many more members the undemocratic nature of their union.
A campaign to turn UNISON into a democratic fighting
union will involve a serious battle against the current leadership and
it is a credit to our party that the four are judged to be such a
threat.
Jane James
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