In November 2020 Socialism Today published an article, The Battle for Unite, (Issue No.243) in anticipation of the union’s 2021 general secretary election campaign. We quoted the BBC’s Iain Watson who said, “the result of that contest will determine whether the union works closely with Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, or is willing to be openly critical”.
The biennial Unite policy conference held this July kicked off a year of leadership elections in Unite. This October will see nominations open for the lay member executive council (EC), with voting starting in January; and later in 2026, members will vote for the general secretary position.
The Socialist Party supported Sharon Graham in the 2021 election because she stood for maintaining and strengthening Unite’s record as a militant industrial union. Under her leadership, Unite has raised its level of industrial action, and in an even more systematic manner. Since she became general secretary, Unite has called over 1,000 disputes, winning 80% of them. Those disputes have won £450 million for members.
In contrast, the ‘United Left’ group (UL) – whose candidate in the 2021 general secretary election, assistant general secretary Steve Turner, had pitched himself as someone who wasn’t “an attack dog but a deal-maker behind the scenes” – has been in retreat. It has sought to weaken Unite policy, especially with regard to the union’s no-cuts, needs budget position in opposition to cutting Labour councils, which was passed at the first policy conference under Sharon Graham’s leadership, just weeks after her election victory.
Just prior to this year’s policy conference, Unite’s director of international & research Simon Dubbins, who is associated with the United Left, declared that he would be standing as a candidate in the general secretary election. He stated that if elected he would “chart a new way forward”, without explaining what that would mean. However, the role of the opposition to Sharon Graham at this year’s conference, particularly that of the United Left, is the latest indication of what a UL-led Unite would look like.
The conference clearly set out the industrial and political battleground for these elections, revealing to the leading reps and activists what will be at stake. It brought out into the open the industrial and political roots of the clash taking place in Unite, which saw the United Left at the March EC meeting attempt to unseat the union’s chair, Andy Green (originally the UL’s candidate for the position). Failing to attain the required two-thirds majority, the UL walked out of the EC, rendering it inquorate.
Undoubtedly, the UL approached the conference with the confidence that they would be able to appeal to delegates on procedural and bureaucratic issues, and there was a real danger that the clash would be viewed in this way by delegates. However, the approach of the Socialist Party and those activists that we work with in the Unite Broad Left, helped draw out the real platform of United Left and expose its political character.
On the final day of the conference, delegates passed an emergency motion, drawn up by Socialist Party members in discussion with close allies, to support Unite’s striking Birmingham bin workers after the Labour council announced its intention to effectively fire-and-rehire the workers, imposing brutal pay cuts of up to £8,000 a year. The council has used vicious strike-breaking measures with the support of Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner. Unite has faced legal injunctions over its picketing, while the council has used agency labour to scab on the dispute.
The motion also included that if “this brutal threat by a Labour council on the watch of a Labour government becomes reality, Unite should discuss our relationship with Labour”. In addition, on the suggestion of other delegates, the motion called on the union to immediately suspend the membership of (deputy prime minister) Angela Rayner and all Birmingham councillors who are Unite members for bringing the union into disrepute and to initiate proceedings to investigate their behaviour with a view to permanently expelling them from the union.
However, before Socialist Party member Nancy Taaffe could make a contribution in favour of the motion, leading United Left member Jim Kelly raised a point of order. He asked three questions. Firstly, was Rayner a member of Unite? Secondly, would there be due process in moving to expulsions?
Given the brutal character of the Labour council’s attack on the bin workers, the vast majority of the conference correctly saw Jim Kelly’s queries as covering for the councillors and Rayner and Starmer. This view would have been reinforced by his questioning of Rayner’s Unite membership being repeated by her supporters later that day. Reportedly, Jim Kelly was one of only five conference delegates that didn’t support the emergency motion.
But perhaps it was his third question that was the most significant, asking: “Is it serious that we are going to expel Angela Rayner at the same time as we are asking for her to take on negotiations with Birmingham bins?” In that sentence is the real basis of the clash that is taking place in Unite at this stage – how the union movement should relate to the pro-big business Starmer government. The line of United Left is towards partnership, no matter what Labour throws at workers.
The emergency motion, reflecting the cold cruelty of the Labour council and Starmer’s government, calls things by its real name. Rayner, or even Starmer himself, is part of, if not at the head of management’s side, and should front up the talks. The idea that her union card would be of benefit to Unite, in a dispute that has lasted six months of strike action, four of them indefinite, totally contradicts the reality facing the bin workers and Unite. As one of the bin workers said: “If the councillors act like Tories, we should treat them as Tories”.
Undoubtedly this ‘lesser evilism’ will only be amplified by some union leaders if Nigel Farage’s Reform continues to lead the opinion polls as we near the next election. But it’s precisely because of the political vacuum created by Starmer’s policies and austerity offensive that Reform has gained.
However, the vote at Unite conference represents a political earthquake, both in Unite and generally, and shows that there is an appetite to build a political alternative for workers. Conference took place just days after Zarah Sultana announced her resignation from Labour, signalling her intention to launch a new party in alliance with Jeremy Corbyn. In the space of a few weeks, over 700,000 people (and counting) have signed up to support the establishment of such a party. But in the space between the signalling of the intention to create a new party and its actual creation, it is essential that socialists, especially in the trade unions, fight for the type of party workers need.
The Socialist Party calls for the unions to be to the fore in the building of a new workers’ party, on a pro-worker, socialist programme. The incredible events at Unite conference point the way forward, but reps and activists in the union must continue to argue that Unite must play its part in these developments.
In one of her post-conference interviews, replying to a question about Unite’s relationship with Labour, Sharon Graham responded by saying: “Absolutely, there is a possibility of disaffiliation”.
Socialist Party members would welcome this, but it would be a massive mistake to draw the conclusion that Unite must turn to non-political trade unionism. The working-class learned the lesson a century-and-a-quarter ago that building a political voice was an essential accompaniment to the industrial struggle.
This is even more the case right now, especially as Unite is to the fore in having to face up to de-industrialisation as well as having higher union density in sectors such as armaments and fossil fuel industries. These call for militant industrial action, up to and including plant occupations. But they also pose the need for taking these industries into socialist public ownership as part of a workers’ just transition, as the only way to guarantee workers’ jobs, pay and pensions.
Similarly, as the brutal struggle on the Birmingham bins shows, a political strategy that included standing candidates in elections, would play a vital role to augment, sharpen and strengthen the industrial front as well as consolidating any gains made by workers in struggle.
A new workers’ party would take this further. In contrast to the cutting Labour councillors and in opposition to their vicious strike-breaking, Jeremy Corbyn spoke in solidarity with the bin workers at the second MegaPicket on 25 July, effectively publicly launching the new party on the picket line. His support was welcomed by the bin workers, entering their fifth month of indefinite strike action.
The near unanimous vote at Unite policy conference opens up this debate in the union. It would still need a rule change to allow candidates to be supported from outside of Labour. The next rules conference is scheduled to be in 2027, and many Unite activists will now want to bring that forward. But in any case, many will now believe that branches and shop stewards committees have the right to discuss how they engage in the elections from now on, including for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Senedd and English local authorities next year and beyond.
However, that debate would be challenged by a United Left victory in the executive council and general secretary elections, as UL is clearly determined that Unite should remain tied to Labour. In addition to the handful of delegates, mainly linked to the United Left, who didn’t vote for the motion, there were others who lobbied hard at conference to take out the references to Labour before the motion was tabled.
It is therefore vital that a real left is built in Unite, with an independent programme that can fight for the industrial and political strategy and approach that is needed. It is also essential that the left fights for extending lay member democracy in the union, including demands that the Socialist Party has raised in previous rules conferences, such as the election of senior national and regional officers. This is vital in increasing lay member control of the union.
To this end, Socialist Party members have been integral in establishing the Unite Broad Left. This played a vital role at conference on the question of the Birmingham bin workers and Labour, with Socialist Party members prominent, and also in strengthening the union’s position on Palestine – opposing the brutal Israeli regime backed by Starmer, while defending any Unite member who refuses to carry out work duties in industries supplying the Israeli war machine. The United Left targeted this issue as one with which to attack Sharon Graham. But ultimately they supported the executive council statement, although not once condemning Starmer’s role in their contributions from the rostrum, again acting as a cover for Labour.
Now, following conference, it is essential that the real left in Unite leads the debate about the union’s relationship with Labour and argues that Unite plays a central role in the launching and building of a new voice for workers – a trade union-based workers’ party.
In its first year in office, Starmer’s Labour has shown its true colours, with its starting point of making the working class pay for the capitalist crisis. This is the backdrop to the cuts in child benefit, disability benefits and the winter fuel allowance, the last two at least checked if not forced back, with Unite playing a central role in the winter fuel allowance victory.
But in many respects, the Birmingham bin strike is a harbinger of the brutal clashes to come, as the crisis deepens. This has been the sharp prod that has shaken up relations between Labour and Unite, previously one of its biggest backers. But the reaction across the unions to the conference decision, shows that for many union reps and activists, the future is already here. It has taken just one year for the shallow victory of Starmer to reveal that the working class needs to build a party of its own that can stand up to this stormy period, even stormier than five years ago. Right now, Unite is a central battlefield in that struggle.
Rob Williams