'Cult of Colston' & the 'Constipated Clerks'

by Brian Bamford
In a comment on this NV Blog John Pearson said:
 'The British ruling class can take lessons from no-one on efforts to "bury the past, hide it, and sanitize it".

 & that
'Those Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol, descendants of slaves, many of whom will have been trafficked by Colston's company, were not erasing history they were making history.' *

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THE LAST time I was in Bristol it was at the invite of the Bristol Radical History Group at a Bookfair in 2011 to give a talk on 'The varieties of historical investigation and experience'.  The Bristol Radical History Group has been at the forefront of the campaign against the slave trader Edward Colston whose statue was recently toppled in Bristol. **


Marxists writers often vary between those like John Pearson, who credit the British ruling class as superbly cunning little Machiavellian's, and those who rate the boss class as little more than incompetent buffoons.

In Bristol it was, where over recent years my friend Roger Ball would take folk on a pedestrian stroll round the city to appraise and provide an alternative view of the ‘cult of Colston’ that was said to "form part of our city’s ‘identity’."*  Only to culminate at Bristol Cathedral, to discuss 'how the institutions of the Church of England and the Merchant Venturers collide within the education of our children to promote Colston as a Parable of the Good Samaritan.'


George Orwell once remarked that 'whether the British ruling class are wicked or merely stupid is one of the most difficult questions of our time, and at certain moments a very important question.'

As long as I have lived my life the British Empire has been in a state of decline.  Men like Edward Colston, were a  bygone thing even between the wars.  As Orwell argued in The Lion & The Unicorn:  'Men like Clive, Nelson, Nicholson, Gordon would find no place for themselves in the modern British Empire.  By 1920 nearly every inch of the colonial empire was in the grip of Whitehall.' [1941]

Yet it is unlikely that either Comrade Pearson or Dr. Ball would ever venture to unleash their passions against the constipated clerks who had by then taken over from the empire builders of yesterday.  So as long as I have been alive its been the clerks that have been in the driving seat, but no one is going to launch a war against these clerks and managers, because these are the very people who sign the cheques and give the research grants so that these post-modern historians can get awarded their PhDs.  These constipated clerks are the modern managerial class who have taken over not just in the universities; and you just don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Instinctively both John Pearson and Roger Ball will identify with the clerks who among other things administer our universities and so vividly contrast with the one-time empire builders, because it is now as fashionable as it was in the 1930s for the shallow leftists to look down on physical prowess and snigger at the very idea of Englishness.

The last time I saw Roger Ball was at the Casa Club in Liverpool on the 8th, June 2018, at an event organised by Ian Gwinn and was entitled 'Fuck May 1968'; at that time Roger had been anxiously scouring the thoroughfares of the city looking for suitable architectural monuments to condemn owing to their links with slavery.  Though I have great respect for the research work Roger Ball has put into this issue, I do share the concerns of others like Derek Pattison and Les May about as to what will be the logical outcome of this kind of fetish for censorship.

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*    After popular demand the Countering-Colston group are re-running their recent history walk.

Starting with St Mary Redcliffe church, this walk takes in other historic Diocese of Bristol churches in the city centre where ‘the life and work’ of Edward Colston is still provided religious legitimacy on an annual basis.

Along the way we will share the most recent historical research regarding this man’s involvement with the transatlantic slave trade and discover how the Victorian elite created a ‘cult of Colston’ that is now said to form part of our city’s ‘identity’.

At our final stop, Bristol Cathedral, we discuss how the institutions of the Church of England and the Merchant Venturers collide within the education of our children to promote Colston as a Parable of the Good Samaritan.

**https://twitter.com/i/status/1269634408069435392

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Banned on eve of branch elections

Evan Pritchard - centre  - with cloth cap

Was it fair to issue complaints just before election?

  ON Wednesday the 28th, March,  the Unite Greater Manchester Community Branch convened for its tri-annual AGM amid some consternation about the banning of two of its members.  I had just bought some hot cross buns from Booths near Media City and I thought I'd pop in to give my comradely greetings at the Community Branch meeting at the Unite Salford Quay's office. 

To my surprise, as I entered the canteen just as pandemonium erupted I was to learn during the various loud verbal altercations and banter about the suspension of two Community Branch members from the AGM.  In the commotion it became clear that on the eve of the AGM meeting that Mr. John Pearson and Mr. Chris McBride, had both been served with letters informing them that they were subject to a complaint of such magnitude that they were now under investigation, and consequently according to the union's disciplinary process under Rule 27  'should be suspended from holding any office or representing the Union in any capacity, pending the outcome of that investigation'.

Curiously they were served  with these orders, the very day before the two men were running for office at last night's AGM.  John Pearson was standing for election as chair against the present incumbent Evan Pritchard.  Last night, this ruling was interpreted as meaning that both Mr. Pearson and Mr. McBride were not allowed to attend the meeting, and thus their nominations for officer positions were not put to the branch meeting and Evan Pritchard was elected unopposed.

Why is such a heavy hand being employed to proceed with a complaint under Rule 27:4.?

Why were written notices only delivered on the very eve of the AGM?  When Rule 27:4 clearly states that
'A member shall be given written notice ...... of any such suspension as soon as is reasonably practicable.'

After all the North West Region Finance and General Purposes Committee that ruled on this complaint, met on Tuesday, 20 March 2018, and the notices to the suspending Pearson and McBride from holding office were only delivered on Tuesday, 27 March.  Oddly this was the day before the branch elections.

This is troubling coming as it does on the heels of another recent ruling by the Assistant Trade Union Certification Officer that in the case of McFadden v Unite: 'Breach of union rule decision'; where it was found that the union had acted beyond its powers in trying to legislate on the activities of individuals at a private event.  In the Pearson and McBride case under Rule 27:4 .1 'A member under disciplinary investigation may not attend: meetings of his/her own branch'.  This has been the case since the Unite Rule Book was been updated in 2015.

People of fair minds may wonder here if this additional sub-rule 27:4.1, might not be mis-applied, perhaps by people of vindictive or vexatious intent to invent complaints to ban others whom they might not take a shine to for whatever reason; political or personal?   

In the Pearson and McBride case under consideration here, one must wonder about the timing of the issuing of these notices on the brink of the elections for AGM positions for which they had been nominated for office. 

Unite's Rule 27 does not state that a member will be suspended from participating in branch elections, it merely says the 'Regional Committee may suspend a member under this rule from holding any office or representing the Union ...'.  This does not seem to prevent a member standing for office, because any complaint against the member may fail and the suspension could well be lifted.  Hence, one may ask why were Pearson and McBride prevented from standing for office at  last week's AGM of the Unite Greater Manchester Community Branch ? 

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Putting Tameside TUC in its Place!

Manchester TUC: They Know Their Swedish Meatballs!

LAST June, in a posting on this Blog, Blanco Posnet  wrote:
‘… a former Public and Commercial Services Union (P.C.S) representative, John Pearson, was confronted by an angry Jobcentre worker outside Ashton Jobcentre, who rebuked him for displaying a P.C.S placard while protesting against benefit sanctions. Although the P.C.S union have called on their members to support groups campaigning against the Tory Government's sanctioning regime, the member of staff, (who we understand to be the P.C.S union rep at Ashton Jobcentre), denied any knowledge of this.'

Then on the 6^th, August, Blanco Posnet  posted something entitled ‘Are Ashton Jobcentre acting like NAZI's?’, which included the following:
‘… only last week a meeting took place in Ashton between P.C.S. union representatives and two invited activists who have been campaigning against the governments iniquitous sanctions regime outside Ashton Jobcentre, for the past 12 months.  The meeting was initiated by Annette Wright (pictured above) a union official of the P.C.S union and President of Manchester Trades Council, and Evan Pritchard, a lay branch official from the Greater Manchester Unite Community Union.’
After a meeting today of the Greater Manchester County Association, the union officer, Annette Wright, was asked by a Northern Voices’ journalist as to what was the constitutional status of the meeting referred to above which was held at Ikea, famous for its Swedish meatballs, in Ashton-under-Lyne.  She said that it was convened as a joint meeting of the PCS, and the Unite Greater Manchester Community Branch.
Blanco Posnet had also written, last August: 
‘… it seems that much of the time [at this meeting] was taken up in admonishing Charlotte Hughes, a leading figure in the campaign…. [and that] Ms. Hughes, a “hardworking” single-mother with four children, who runs a blog – ‘The Poor Side of Life’, a weekly diary of events outside Ashton Jobcentre – was asked to remove items from her blog concerning Ashton Jobcentre and the P.C.S. union.’  When this was raised today by the Tameside delegate in his report at the Greater Manchester County Association of Trade Union Councils, Ms. Wright became flushed in the face and her colleague from Manchester TUC, John Clegg,(bottom right of picture), was heard to utter a four-letter word, and both began hectoring the Tameside delegate.  Even the Northern Voices' Blog was mentioned in their excitable ejaculations. 
Oh dear! 
Both Mr Clegg, and Ms. Wright insisted that the matter had been resolved, and said that it was not a matter for the Trade Councils of Greater Manchester.  Ms. Wright claimed that Charlotte Hughes had not complained of her treatment, and that everything was amicable.  The duo then went on to lambaste Tameside TUC, which has helped to finance the campaign against unfair benefit sanctions in Tameside.  
After the meeting was over,  Ms. Wright was asked when she was going to put in an appearance on the picket outside the Ashton Jobcentre. 
To which, reply came there none!

PCS MEMBERS CALL ON THEIR UNION TO SUPPORT UNFAIRLY DISMISSED PCS REP!

Rank and file union reps and members of the Public and Commercial Services Union have sent an open letter to General Secretary Mark Serwotka demanding greater support for reps and members in employment tribunals.

The letter, published online here, was initially motivated by the case of John Pearson. John was a PCS rep at Hewlett-Packard, who was sacked as a result of his trade union activities during a dispute over job cuts.
John was forced to pay the Employment Tribunal fees and engage a private solicitor to fight his automatically unfair dismissal claim, after union officials refused to support him, asserting that his claim had ‘no reasonable prospect of success’. The tribunal vindicated John and his supporters by finding that he had been unfairly dismissed and that the principal reason was his activities as part of an independent trade union.


Following on from the verdict, the open letter to Mark Serwotka demands: “Full support for John from PCS as he pursues reinstatement following his ET verdict, and full recompense for the legal costs he has paid at his own expense” as well as “A written guarantee that reps and activists victimised by their employer will receive full and unwavering support when fighting that victimisation, by all available means including ET, as a point of principle.”

Hewlett Packard suspends Branch Secretary for representing PCS members!

Industrial action by PCS members at Hewlett Packard has been resumed after compulsory redundancy notices were issued last month. About 50 PCS members, at Lytham St. Annes, Newcastle and Sheffield, were amongst approximately a hundred who received notice at these sites, where IT services are provided for the Department of Work & Pensions. Many more have taken voluntary redundancy.

Shortly before the sackings took place, HP had given notice of imposition of its 1.6% pay offer. The long running dispute, which had previously seen a one day strike on 29th April, is over both the 2013 pay claim for PCS members covered by collective bargaining and job security. HP has declared its intention to concentrate work at ‘strategic delivery hubs’, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Erskine, Scotland with its other sites being run down. It is also sacking permanent staff whilst continuing to recruit in large numbers, graduates on lower rates of pay.

There is controversy too, over HP’s receipt from the Scottish Government of a £7 million Regional Selective Assistance grant. The company had told the funding authority, Scottish Enterprise, that the grant money would go towards investment in creating 720 new jobs. The union claims that HP is merely moving to Erskine, work that was previously done by the people whom it is sacking on its English sites.
Two further days of strike action took place on 24th and 25th July and a work to rule resumed from 26th July.

Meanwhile, the Branch Secretary of the PCS HP North West Branch, John Pearson, remains suspended, charged with breaching company confidentiality by sending details of the redundancy selection job pools to his branch's members. 


On 4th July, John received a warning from a HR manager that he risked disciplinary action if he accepted invitations to represent members in grievance and disciplinary cases. He has now received an instruction to attend a disciplinary meeting on Wednesday 7th August. The letter conveying the instruction to attend the disciplinary meeting contained details of a second charge :


"Failure to follow HP and client policies and processes in respect of press interviews : On 22 April, you were quoted in a Tech Week Europe article and referenced HP's work on the launch of the Universal Credit, part of its DWP account. No prior permission was sought from either HP or the DWP, contrary to HP's Confidentiality Policy and the DWP publicity request process".


The second charge illustrates perhaps even more clearly than the first that HP is aiming to destroy the very concept of an independent trade union, requiring elected officers to seek the employer's permission to talk to the press on matters affecting their members.

In view of this attack on the union, it is a cause for concern that, in the apparently simple matter of publicising on the union’s official website a brief article on John’s case calling for messages of solidarity and support for an online petition  to the Managing Director of HP, there has been several weeks of bureaucratic delay.

Messages of support should be sent to : pcs_nw@hotmail.com