Northern Voices says: DEFEND RAY SMITH

THE success against the dirty seven and BESNA, was the work of the rank & file members in the building trade! We can now start to rebuild the UNITE union and get rid of the blacklist, end deskilling, enforce Rule 17 and end agency working.

Yet, now one of the formost fighters for these things Ray Smith, Newcastle Central Branch of Unite the Union, and passionate trade union activist in the North East of England, is threatened by his own union because he got his branch to give the Rank & File campaigners and construction workers against BESNA and the Blacklist facilities for meetings and transport to London: also he aided the production of leaflets and assisted thwe protest.

The Rank & File campaign and Northern Voices is 'shocked to learn that Ray Smith is under investigation under the Unite union's Rule 27 and Rule 5.'


The Petition for Ray Smith:

We (the Rank & File Campaign and Northern Voices) say to Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, that: 'You have rightly gone on the record to condemn the politically motivated witch-hunts that have taken place in other unions. We think that there is no place in our union for such things either. That is why we call on you to drop the investigation against Ray Smith. Let us work together to build our union and let us have a union that is big enough and strong enough to accept that although we might at times disagree; that we are all on the same side against the bosses and the Tories.'