MY NEXT door neighbour is standing for the council. Matt Hanley is a thoroughly nice bloke, on the socialist wing of the Green Party, a former union rep who has organised low-paid retail workers, an active anti-fascist, and a full-time campaigner for human rights. So obviously I won’t be voting for him.
I’m a Labour Party member, so I can’t; I will campaign for the Labour candidate instead. The point I am making here is that sometimes in politics, it is sometimes necessary to choose between good competing candidates for the same job.
This is very much the case for lefties considering who to back in the coming contest for general secretary of Unison. Once again, the left vote will be split, this time between three rather than the customary two leftwing challengers.
Those planning to run against £127,000-a-year incumbent Dave Prentis are Socialist Party member Roger Bannister, United Left and Labour Representation Committee man Paul Holmes, and little-known left independent Delroy Creary. The latter has garnered only minimal support, I gather.
I cannot pretend that I follow every nuances of the ongoing sparring between contending political factions in Britain’s largest public sector union. But time was when part of my pay cheque as a journalist was derived from keeping tabs on what was going on in Unison’s predecessor NALGO, and ever since then I have held Bannister in good regard.
He has a more than credible track record in past contests. Last time round, he secured 41,406 votes, easily trouncing the 18,000 or so secured by my sometime beer buddy Jon Rogers. [Note to Jon: pull your socks up, slacker.]
That said, political considerations are decisive, and on the key political issue at stake in this election, Holmes is advancing the better position. The principle dividing line, of course, is the attitude the candidates take to Unison’s ties to the Labour Party.
Bannister is openly campaigning for disaffiliation. Holmes argues for the union to affiliate in its entirety, not only in part as it does now, and wants to democratise the Labour Link structure so that Unison can use its political weight to full effect inside what is almost certainly the only party that will have socialist MPs in a few months time. But members will get an annual ballot on affiliation, which they don’t have now.
The reality, of course, is that neither Bannister nor Holmes will win, and that Prentis will be returned for another term. Effectively, the are contesting the right to spend thousands of pounds to be the runner up. In that sense, any divisions on the left are neither here nor there, although clearly a single agreed candidate would have been preferable to a multiplicity.
But if anyone in Unison is interested in the opinion from an admitted outsider, I reckon a vote for Holmes is the best way to signal support for greater political involvement by the base of the union. I’m happy to back him.
Posted at 14:21, 23 February 2010
Comments (30)
Of course I agree - I'm backing Paul's nomination request as is UNISON United left see my blog for details www.unionfutures.blogspot.com
Id prefer one candidate obviously! and I hope all the left in UNISON do sign up to a meeting on the 3rd April where we can hopefully all get behind one candidate.
For those who want it Pauls campaign blog is www.paulholmeskirklees.blogspot.com
Marshajane
Chair UNISON United left
Well, I reckon I'll vote disaffiliation, if that's the basic difference. I think political parties and trade unions have differing interests.
Dave,
Ahh, you are as tribal as the rest of us, and when you finally leave the LP you'll then swing behind another set of candidates, probably without a seconds thought :)
The Holmes campaign couldn't even get its act together to send his election address down to the south west. Incompetence aside, standing for the link with Labour in a major public sector union now, after 13 years of attacks and privatisation, is a joke. People are quite rightly pissed off that Prentis has bankrolled Labour to the tune of about £1m a year and we've got nothing in return. Us turkeys are not going to keep on voting for Christmas. Bannister is by far the most credible left candidate.
Ahh, you are as tribal as the rest of us, and when you finally leave the LP you'll then swing behind another set of candidates, probably without a seconds thought :)
Have you ever been a member of a political party? That's how all parties work AFAIK - you publicly support your party's candidates and don't say you're going to vote for someone against them. Otherwise you get thrown out.
Of course, if you prefer sniping from the sidelines to being active in any party (Labour, SWP, SP, etc) then you can freely support whoever you like.
"The point I am making here is that sometimes in politics, it is sometimes necessary to choose between good competing candidates for the same job."
Yeah, but you were talking about Diane Abbott, weren't you?
Admittedly so, Obo.
Where I live Unison caused a few gritted teeth in the local Labour party by only funnelling members' money into union-approved campaigns, rather than acting as the official printing press of the CLP like Usdaw.
The future of the trade unions may lie with the successful election of a Labour government, but that does not mean they must bind themselves to the Labour political machine. Democratisation or disaffiliation both have merits, but the fundamental issue is that Unison should be supporting pro-union policies inside the Labour party and politics generally, not the Labour party itself.
Dave. You are doing the proper thing voting Labour. Another five years in the wilderness for the Tories would be great. As long as the elderly, disabled, weak and infirm are looked after I am happy. The rest of us can get on with it. Some of the bleeding heart middle class lefties on here would be better off with the Tories. Shares Issues, tax cuts etc. A Tory win would just give them five more years to moan and bump their gums whilst taking the Tory gifts!
Dear me Dave I always thought highly of your judgement but here you are endorsing 2 fake left candidates, still I guess that's what being in the Labour Party means tell me what do you get out of it other than a feeling of unease?
I wonder who Hugh Kerr supports! A real leftie I suppose.
Hi Dave
you are so wrong on this one mate. JK would be a natural Holmes backer I reckon.
So - nuf said!
Hey Dave,
Luckily you don't have to choose between Diane and Matt H. Matt H is standing for council for the Green Party in your ward - I'm the one standing for Parliament. :)
Obviously, as a Labour Party member I'd expect you to advocate a vote for Diane, though I think it is wrong strategically - but then, I think being in the Labour Party is wrong strategically too, so go figure. :)
Matt
Dun me. Apologies to both Matts.
It seems a pity the Left in Unison cannot get their act together. Even when we hear about union members being picked upon for militant activity it's as though we only get half the picture, which half depends on which group is championing the individuals concerned, so the membership and other trade unionists are not really awoken to the general issue.
About the affiliation, it seems a pity to let this tactical issue divide the Left and leave the status quo unshaken as a result. Dave Prentis keeps making noises then does nothing, which is bound to make members skeptical and cynical.
It's not as though Roger can point to an alternative being built, and I doubt whether Unison is in a position to start thins rolling.
It does not have the RMT's political tradition or place in Labour's history. Although Unison members find themselves in the front line facing privatisation and cuts, they are also still saddled with elements that think as management and probably vote Tory. These will have no problem with opposing affiliation but having a de facto agreement with them is opportunism, and no way to raise the political consciousness of the membership.
Glad to see a candidate openly campaigning on a platform of affiliation, but a different kind of affiliation that increases TU influence in the Labour Party.
If UNISON had allowed that kind of debate over the least 5-10 years, I don't think the appetite for disaffiliation would be nearly as strong as it is.
For those interested, Roger Bannister's campaign blog is here: http://www.rogerbannister-unison.blogspot.com/.
Also, a big factor in Roger Bannister getting a much higher vote than Jon Rogers last time around was the clear position on disafiliation from the Labour Party that Roger put forward - if anything, this is likely to be even more the case now after another five years of Labour cuts, closures and privatisation since the '05 General Secretary elections.
in reply to Jimmie I would not presume to tell Unison members how to vote however having watched the contradictions of Unison leaders in Scotland and UK wide making great left wing speeches attacking Labour cuts and then giving them a million pounds a year of their members money I would certainly be voting for dissafiliation!
Although Unison members find themselves in the front line facing privatisation and cuts, they are also still saddled with elements that think as management and probably vote Tory. These will have no problem with opposing affiliation but having a de facto agreement with them is opportunism, and no way to raise the political consciousness of the membership.
Spot on. The disaffiliation campaigners are an unholy alliance of the far left and the 'apolitical' right.
Of course Bannister got more votes for advocating disaffiliation - think of all those NALGO Tories who have never liked giving all that money to a "socialist" party like Labour!
If the disaffiliation left were to be honest about their aims - disaffilate from Labour and instead back a New Workers' Party - you'd see their votes soon drop significantly.
But they know that, so they'll carry on fishing in rightwing waters oblivious to the fact that, were they successful in disaffiliating, the result would not be a more militant working class party but the loss of even the remnants of working-class political representation.
I don't think that any NuLab apparatchik will actually check your ballot paper before you put it it the box, Dave, so you could always vote for Matt Hanley. It would just be our little secret - I promise I won't tell.
Boilermaker, where have you been for the past 13 years? 'The remnants of working class political representation' Bankroll neoliberalism with nothing in return, that's your remnants is it?
Bannister does offer an alternative - back local candidates in elections who represent UNISON members interests - what's wrong with that?
Hugh Kerr. It would be up to the members to vote for disaffiliation. I doubt they would. 35 hr week, national conditions etc. Labour has never threatened those conditions. The Tories have been after those conditions for years. So who would you support then Hugh? Unison and Unite will face massive cuts if the Tories get in. But you know this Hugh. Is that what you want? Lets face it, it is either Labour or Tory in power after the next election.
Boilermaker, where have you been for the past 13 years? 'The remnants of working class political representation' Bankroll neoliberalism with nothing in return, that's your remnants is it?
I've been working in the private and public sectors, skilled and unskilled jobs, observing a few small steps forward and several major ones back in terms of workers' rights, thanks to the unwillingness of union leaders to push for socialist policies through existing structures.
Bannister does offer an alternative - back local candidates in elections who represent UNISON members interests - what's wrong with that?
Only that, if repeated in a couple of other major unions (and I presume Bannister and the SP don't favour different positions in other unions) you'll only have Liberal and Tory candidates to choose from when spending that political fund.
You and the NALGO Tories might think that's progress. I don't.
Could some Labour Party member please explain what 13 years of Labour governments have done to repeal antitrade union legislation ?
13 years as a longtime.
Could modernity please explain why he persists in wasting everyone's time by asking thick as pigshit rhetorical questions on the internet?
The Fairness at Work legislation has genuinely improved things for unions in industries where the battle to get recognition has constantly to be fought for. It's piss-weak in many ways, but it has made a concrete and tangible difference for a lot of unions.
The Tories would probably scrap it. That's a meaningful difference, right there.
That said though, New Labour's overall attitude to the unions has of course been pretty appalling.
modernity. As far as I am aware trade unions are free to recruit and organise. I still pay my pensioners rate. Is your problem that the trade unions do not run the country! The Block Vote we know better and all that previous nonsence.
"back local candidates in elections who represent UNISON members interests" -
That's part of what I have a problem with. Are UNISON members' interests distinct from those of the working class as a whole?
I expect Roger would say of course not, as would I, and all those other workers who supported NHS workers in past struggles, and those Leeds people who blamed the council and not the binmen for inconveniance of a strike.
But not everybody thinks like that or articulates it. In my area, health workers are concerned at A&E closure, but other workers and their families will be hardest hit by it, and should be alerted.
Cuts like this have come up before, and the trades council united together with left groups, special users and community campaigns.But the hardest bit now seems reminding Unison that they are part of the working class and that we exist.
Setting up a Labour Party was an advance on ordinary trade unionism because it stood for class, not sectional interests. Plainly that is no longer the case. Our Labour MPs were harder to contact last time, and local Lib Dem made better impression and will probably win seat -even though she is no real friend of ours. Union leaders vying for influence -and paying for it with scant to show -have no answer. (cf The USA)
We need a socialist alternative. But merely proclaiming it when we have 57 varieties of left group isn't the way. We need to raise consciousness and involvment. Part of that for Unison is settling the historical question of being Labour not Tory. And part now is being prepared to support those candidates whether Labour or alternative who fight for union rights and peace, defend public services, and advance the interests of Unison members as part of the working class.
In fact the sp do have different demands in different unions they won't back Paul cos he won't call for disaffiliation, but happy to back McClusky in unite who is to the right of Paul in Pro Labour party terms.
Thanks trying to work out what is going on in UNISON I managed to defeat an "emergency" motion at the branch AGM to support Dave Prentice. It seemed to be a branch emergency because the labour hacks in the branch believed the branch committee would vote Paul Holmes who represented the "hard left" and we couldn't support roger Bannister because of his connections to Derek Hattan!!
Anyway after some debate and me arguing that it was not an emergency the motion fell. Ha ha! I like the look of Paul Holmes and good luck to him but I think I will vote Roger Bannister on the basis of his position of disaffiliation.
In Edinburgh we are facing £90 million cuts on the basis of the previous administration's mis-administration and cut to the Scottish Government funding. They gave te banks a blank cheque but now we face massive cut backs, redundancies and in 13 years still not sorted out equal pay for women. As a trade unionist I will not vote for anyone who supports the Labour Party however I like Paul Holmes style - and wish him all the best.