Broad lefts and rank-and-file groups

Night Tube battle will run into 2022

A further weekend of action (10-11 December) has continued to disrupt management’s plan to re-open Night Tube while abolishing the Night Tube driver role. The reballot closes on 20 December, and there is further action on 17-18 December, including a full 24 hour strike on all existing Night Tube lines on Saturday 18th. As well as voting yes in the all-grades ballot across London Underground for action against cuts across the board, drivers need to prepare for further action in the specific Night Tube dispute. • With the election of Alex Gordon, a member of the Communist Party of Britain’s...

RMT: We need rank-and-file organisation

With the election of Alex Gordon, a member of the Communist Party of Britain's Executive Committee, as National President, the Broad Left faction – an alliance between supporters of the Communist Party/Morning Star and other Stalinists, and a traditional 'Old Labour' element – has further...

Referendum win for change in the United Auto Workers

After two years hard campaigning across the United Auto Workers union in the USA (UAW), the Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) grassroots campaign has won a historic victory with 63% of union members across all sectors voting for direct election of International Executive Board officers. Currently, election is indirect, by delegates, and UAWD says that leads to little contest and scope for cronyism and corruption. The results must be certified by a federal court, but it is expected that will be a formality. UAWD chair Scott Houldieson described the new voting process as a “huge step in the...

Steps forward at RMT AGM

Daniel Randall was a delegate to the recent AGM of the RMT rail union. He reports here in a personal capacity. The annual general meeting of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport workers (RMT) took place in Leeds from 24-29 October. The AGM had held-over business from the truncated 2020 AGM, which took place online, as well the 2021 business. It took place against the backdrop of threats including big job cuts in Network Rail, a pay freeze across the rail industry, and cuts on Transport for London. Recent officer elections in the union have seen the Broad Left alliance between...

Surprise vote in NEU

The Deputy General Secretary (DGS) election in the National Education Union (NEU) has been won by "moderate" candidate Niamh Sweeney. It had been expected that Gawain Little of the “NEU Left” would win. Workers’ Liberty supported Martin Powell-Davies, the candidate of the rank-and-file Education Solidarity Network, and we advocated a transfer to Sweeney to stop Little. Little is a prominent member of Communist Party of Britain, with all that entails. In the first round Little got 9,953, Powell-Davies 6,724, and Sweeney 11,035. Sweeney got around 60% of Powell-Davies’s second preferences...

The World Transformed: scratching the surface

A lot of radical things were said at this year’s The World Transformed festival. As one participant said, many speeches only scratched the surface. Clear political conclusions or concrete demands weren’t always drawn out. For example, at a panel on “Kill The Bill,” speakers said that we cannot support police reform and that we must instead “abolish the police” – all the while talking about the negative implications of the police bill. Occasional jibes were made at “white people talking about Trotsky or whatever, telling us how to do a revolution.” Nevertheless, TWT was an informal, accessible...

Vote Martin Powell-Davies in NEU!

Voting in the election for the first ever elected Deputy General Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) opens on 4 October, with ballot papers being sent to members’ homes. Voting closes on 29 October. Socialists, rank and file activists, and members should vote for Martin Powell-Davies, the Education Solidarity Network (ESN) candidate. Martin is standing on a 10-point manifesto: 1. Action to protect the health, safety and welfare of staff and our communities from Covid-19 2. End excessive workload, and end the high stakes testing that drives so much of it. 3. A Union that builds...

After Sharon Graham's election, some immediate ideas to change Unite

Scrap all Regional Secretary posts. Overhaul the Legal Department. End meddling in lay-member democracy by full-timers. Reformat meetings of constitutional committees. Campaign for union policy on scrapping anti-union laws. Review support for the Morning Star . These are the proposals which a motion passed by my Unite branch earlier this month called on the higher levels of the union’s constitutional committees to give consideration to. The motion was passed in the context of, and on the basis of, Sharon Graham’s election as Unite General Secretary. Graham stood on a platform of change, a...

Unite: transforming our union

The Unite General Secretary election gave us a chance to talk about what our union, and wider movement, should look like.

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