The snap General Secretary election called last Wednesday has exposed the current weaknesses of the left in Unison. Dave Prentis, the incumbent, had the NEC nod through his personal timetable for the ballot. Normally there would be some months of notice before nominations are opened but the current schedule sees the nominating period starting on 4th Feb.
Prentis has been General Secretary since taking over control of the union from Rodney Bickerstaffe in 2001. And it has be control rather than leadership that has characterised his term of office. Unison may retain one of the better rule books and claim to be led by its lay membership but the full time apparatus has firm hold of the reigns and little is allowed in terms of any independent activity at branch level. He’s now used that control and a compliant majority on the NEC to call an election with only a few weeks’ notice.
The left unfortunately is in a weak position following repeated attacks that have spread much further than members of far left groups. The disciplinary Rule I has been used to expel or suspend members of the left. The current trial instigated by 4 Socialist Party comrades has exposed the fact that the victimisation of the left has been a deliberately executed and resourced project originating in the union's HQ. Those expelled from the union have then often being pursued by the bureaucracy in pursuit of alleged financial misdemeanours ruining lives and careers.
More broadly this period has seen the union retreat into a policy of 'Partnership working' where its role is mediate with employers or even advocate for them rather than represent its members interests directly. Where conflict can't be avoided Prentis has relied on every available back room tactic, friendly chats and legal appeal available rather than trust the members in action. Towards New Labour the policy has been generally one of toeing the line and not challenging the privatisation of public services in anything apart from a few well crafted conference speeches.
There had been some rumours that all in is not well inside the bureaucracy and an element disapproves of such a slavish following of the new labour line and Prentis’ behaviour. Heather Wakefield, currently head of Local Government, was supposedly willing to challenge him and go so far as to offer some democratic reforms and end to the witch-hunt. That could have meant a break in the current bureaucratic monolith and offer some new opportunitiesfor the left. Unfortunately it seems she is not now standing and so the combined effort of the bureaucracy and right wing will go into Prentis' campaign.
The left is now forced by the move quickly into selection of a candidate and a an election campaign against Prentis without the time it would need to develop a campaign from the bottom up. Members meetings and local hustings could have helped develop a movement behind a left candidate broader than the 'usual suspects' To date two current NEC members have declared their interest.
Paul Holmes, secretary of Kirklees Unison LG Branch, is a Labour Party member and supporter of the LRC. His branch has exceptionally high density and a well developed network of stewards and reps. To accommodate a branch meeting on Single Status Agreement they had to hire the local football stadium. Paul is sure to be a clear advocate of the need to develop branches as the basis of renewing the union and can have offer clear practical experience of how to achieve it. Kirklees was also the branch that led the successful call for a special sector conference on the local government pension review that led to the union demonstrating at least a little fight.
Roger Bannister has been the most successful left challenger in the last three General Secretary elections polling 17% of the vote in 2005. He is a Socialist Party member based in the Knowsley local government branch in the North West region. The SP has the strongest representation of any left group within the national structures though they tend to often work quite independently of the rest of the left. The political reason cited is their opposition to the union's affiliation to the Labour Party and their call to immediately end the Labour link.
There are no formal statements from the candidates as yet and a meeting has been called for January 30th to decide, hopefully, a single left candidate and discuss a platform. The mechanism being proposed to decide between the two is far from ideal. Time is certainly a factor but the weighting of those invited to the meeting demonstrates the focus of the left remains too heavily dependent on national positions rather than building influence in and organising the rank and file.
Clearly democracy should be the central plank of any left platform. Regular fixed term elections for all national officers and full time officials would be an obvious starting point. Prentis has been able to use his position to call an election to his own advantage the left should be clear that is not acceptable. Only by such reforms and allowing branches to act more independently without threat of sanction from above will the union ne able to create active, vibrant and growing branches fit to meet the challenge of cuts and pay freezes.
Workers Liberty supporters are discussing our approach to the election and how it fits into our broader perspective of developing a rank and file movement inside UNISON. We’ll be posting updates as we progress in that discussion and as the situation develops.