Broad lefts and rank-and-file groups

Until 3 February Unite union branches will be nominating candidates for the union’s Executive. Voting is 27 March to 25 April. There are two slates: United Left (UL), and what could be called the Sharon Graham (SG) slate. The United Left, long dominant on the Executive, was always primarily an electoral machine in the tradition of the old Broad Lefts, dominated by the politics of the Morning Star . Apart from a sometimes substantial dissident minority, it was uncritical of Len McCluskey, general secretary 2011-21. It declined, then was thrown into disarray when Steve Turner, its candidate in...

Workers’ Liberty members are involved in the Time For Real Change network in Unison, which won the majority on the National Executive (NEC) 18 months ago. The nomination period for new NEC elections opens on 9 January and closes 13 February. We urge Solidarity readers in Unison to push TFRC nominations in their January or February branch meetings. Candidates are listed here , and a guide to how branches nominate is here . The NEC ballot runs from 17 April to 19 May.

After over a month on strike, graduate student workers across the campuses of the University California (UC) will vote on a new contract this week (18-23 December). Their bargaining team came to a tentative agreement with management last week, after making a series of concessions on the strike’s demands, and voted by a narrow majority to recommend what they are calling a “historic” contract. Some on the bargaining team, and many workplace activists, are campaigning for a “no” vote, arguing against making concessions when the strike is still strong. A struggle in the union is taking place...

In every working-class battle, organisation at workplace and local level is essential as well as organisation from union offices and paid officials, and maybe a necessary counterweight to officials’ in-built tendency to see their own negotiating skills as central and workers’ action as a backdrop. That works at different levels. Workplace strike committees are so indispensable in some areas, given the lack of regular workplace union structures, that the union officials themselves move to create them, as the RCN has done among nurses. In other places where there are regular workplace union...

Across the country health workers have voted for strike action in unprecedented numbers. The average vote for strike among Unison members was 88%. However, Unison got the 50% turnout threshold only in five ambulance Trusts: NW, NE, SW, London, and Yorkshire, plus three hospital Trusts, Liverpool Acute, Liverpool Heart and Chest, Liverpool Uni. Ten Trusts which got over 45% are being re-balloted; other branches can put forward case to re-ballot, and members are pushing for this in some areas. GMB members in nine ambulance Trusts: SE Coast, SW, South Central, East Mids, West Mids, Yorkshire, NE...

The PCS National Executive (NEC) has rejected calls for national action alongside announced targeted action. The PCS Independent Left argued at the NEC [18 November] that members being asked to take sustained selective action should be supported by at least a day of national action by all members with mandates to strike, as a springboard to the campaign. With the posties in the CWU calling six days of action in December, and lecturers in the UCU with three days at the end of November, there could also be effective coordination with other unions. The NEC majority opposed this, with a few areas...

Some New South Wales Public Service Association members will remember when the PSA/CPSU leadership - Rank & File as they like to call themselves – brought in ‘winner takes all’ in union elections. At first the undemocratic tactic worked for the Rank & File faction. With this rule in place meetings of the union's governing body - Central Council – lasted just 15 -20-minutes. Questions and discussion were not encouraged. The Progressives PSA group restored proportional representation when they later won the leadership of Central Council. The Progressives valued different opinions and genuine...

Republished from the US rank-and-file trade union network and publication Labor Notes . This year Labor Notes held its biggest ever conference, with over 4,000 people in attendance. The video from the opening rally is well worth a watch. The rare planetary alignment in mid-June was accompanied by the equally rare alignment of the AFL-CIO convention and the Labor Notes conference . It’s not often there is the opportunity for such direct comparison of the top leadership and activist base of the labor movement. The AFL-CIO met from June 12-15 in Philadelphia. The theme of the convention was...

After the attacks at Unison conference in June 2022 on the new left National Executive (NEC) majority elected in June 2021, what should the left do to rebuild, and to equip the union in the drama over real wages, the NHS, and other public services? Workers’ Liberty argued straight after the left won the majority on the NEC, that while internal union-democracy measures are important, they must be linked to issues immediately affecting members. • The NEC should initiate a high-profile, well-resourced campaign to rebuild the NHS and for public social care, linked to disputes on pay, workload and...