Unite, Len McCluskey & Labour's Squabble

YESTERDAY Len McCluskey accused Labour'a deputy leader, Tom Watson, of being a 'poor imitation of Machiavelli' as alleged rumours were rife of another challenge against Jeremy Corbyn's leadership following Labour's poor showing in the EU elections.

McCluskey's remarks matter because his union is a major paymaster for the Labour Party.  Judging by what he had to say he seemed to suggest that Sir Keir Starmer was likely to be a challenger for the leader's job.


The Unite union's policy agreed by the union’s 2016 policy conference made it clear that the union accepted the result of the 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union.  It also set out our union’s priorities for dealing with the process of Brexit, which included protecting jobs, defending employment rights, and opposing the racist backlash that the referendum campaign unleashed.

In June 2018, Unite even joined the National Shop Steward's Network (NSSN) which has long been dominated by the Socialist Party (formerly Militant).  The ideology of this group has been bitterly anti-EU and has been rooted in a belief in the old-fashion concept of the 'British Road to Socialism'.
The recent affiliation of McCluskey's Unite seems to have been encouraged by a decision by the NSSN in 2018 not to field candidates against the Labour Party in elections. 

By linking up with the hole-in-the-corner anti-EU Trotskyist NSSN must now suggest that Unite, which formerly backed Remain, is stuck in the BREXIT trough.

Sir Keir Starmer has now said a second referendum is the 'only way' to break the Brexit deadlock, after Labour suffered a mauling from voters in the European elections.

 Meanwhile,three former ministers are now daring Corbyn to sack them in solidarity with Alastair Campbell who was expelled yesterday for saying that he voted LibDem in the European elections.

Mr Corbyn's office has thus far refused to say if the trio would be expelled

**********

Who 'exposed blacklisting'?

A London Centric Re-writing of History.
National Shop Stewards Network [NSSN] 16, JAN 2018;

THIS week the National Shop Steward's Network Bulletin reported on the current Carillion scandal that the BLACKLIST SUPPORT GROUP [BSG]  'exposed blacklisting employers such as Carillion through a heroic campaign.'  

This is not true, because when the blacklist was first exposed the BSG didn't exist.  The NSSN say this because they are predisposed to a London centric analysis.

The BSG was only founded after the blacklist had been recognised by the chairman of an Employment Tribunal in the case of .Acheson & others v the electrical engineer for sub contractor Logic in 2007.   At that time Dave Smith, the national secretary of the Blacklist Support Group, has, I believe, made clear that he did not know about the blacklist until 2009,

The wrong-headed paragraph, which foolishly re-writes the history, from the NSSN newsletter is below:

'The Blacklist Support Group exposed blacklisting employers such as Carillion through a heroic campaign. We support their call that “the government should bail out the NHS not Carillon or their bankers. The government should nationalise Carillon now at the current market value of their shares (nothing) and go further by banning all of the construction companies involved in the blacklisting human rights conspiracy from any publicly funded contracts.”
This scandal shows once and for all that the parasitic privateer companies must be forced out of the NHS and the rest of the public sector. Last summer - porters, cleaners and domestics went on strike at Serco in Royal Barts NHS Trust. One of their main demands was to be again directly employed by the NHS.'

The exposure of the blacklist in the British building trade came about owing to the relentless efforts of what Derek Pattison and Brian Bamford as officers of Tameside TUC described in their book as 'The Boys on the Blacklist'.  This publication outlines the early campaigns in Manchester in Crown Square, and outside Manchester Royal Infirmary by a handful of local electricians.  If it hadn't been for the tenacity of these northern lads, members of the EPIU NW 1400/7 branch of what was in 2003 the Transport & General Workers Union, and is now the Greater Manchester Construction Branch, Alan Wainwright the Carillion whistle-blower wouldn't have contacted the secretary of the above branch leading directly to the case at the Manchester Employment Tribunal in which the existence of the blacklist was finally recognised:  see link below.

Read more on how the blacklist in the British building trade was exposed:  www.labournet.net/ukunion/0707/mcrelec2.html

****** 

NHS London March & advocates of anonymity

'SPIKYMIKE', otherwise known as the now retired Manchester City Council housing manager Mike Ballard, on libcom on Feb 6th, 2017 commenting on the forthcoming London NHS March on the 4th, March wrote:

'This will be big I'm sure but although I've attended a few local NHS demo's and picket lines in the north west over the last couple of years I can't bring myself to get up before 5am to catch a coach with a load of lefties down to London for a tramp around the big smoke - its bad for my health. There are some useful local campaigns around but the trade unions that will be at the forefront of this have hardly shown themselves able to mount any genuine solidarity action in the workplace where it matters (during the doctors strike fore instance) and one wonders how much of this effort will be about garnering support for the Labour Party in forthcoming elections rather than anything else?  Still it would be good to get some reports and feedback from London comrades on this. The NHS really is descending into something of a crisis - round here for instance with at least two local hospitals planning big cuts in beds just as the national news is highlighting the shortage of both beds and staff!!'

Well, it was indeed a 'big' demo, and there wasn't a red and black banner to be seen on the march. 

Yet the National Shop Steward's Network, otherwise known as a front for the Socialist Party, estimated the numbers and reported it thus:

'But this march of over 100,000, although some reports say double that attended, must be the start not the end of the campaign. The health unions and the TUC must call another national demonstration that could be absolutely massive. This would give health workers the confidence to take co-ordinated strike action, which we believe last year’s junior doctors’ dispute showed, would have the full support of patients and communities.'

On an early TUC march against the cuts some years ago, I had just come out of the Gent's Urinals at John Lewis and my heart skipped a beat when I saw the red and black banners blowing in the wind on Oxford Street.  It soon sank as the anti-climax set-in, especially as I scrutinised the feeble figures with their pigeon chests who were carrying the flags.  These bands of fellows were being followed by a bunch of press photographers hoping no doubt for something untoward to happen, and trailing behind these were the Metropolitan Police.

Last Saturday, there was no sign of the BLACK BLOC  or the anarchists with their pigeon chests, just an orderly well organized demo put on by Unite and the Peoples Assembly.

Meanwhile, on the anarchist FREEDOM webpage on February 4th, the FREEDOM 'publishing House' ran a story recommending demonstrators wear mask and entitled:  'Why covering your face at a protest is the right thing to do' by someone called Kevin Blowe.

Mr. Blowe writes that:

'In June 2015 Netpol launched a campaign to try to encourage activists to start covering their faces when taking part in demonstrations and marches.

'We saw this initiative as one of the few remaining ways of resisting the growth of intrusive surveillance on the streets, which sees police monitoring social media for images and live-streamed video, chatting to protesters in the guise of ‘facilitating’ their activism and routinely filming everyone. This data-gathering is overwhelmingly overt rather than involving undercover officers — and most of the information is handed over by ourselves without objection. It is also carried out on an almost industrial scale, intended to build up a picture of different social movements, their structures and alliances.'

This is an interesting little essay and very typical of the kind of psychological state of mind of those who inhabit the metropolitan bubble of paranoid politics with its cheap thrills for the pigeon chested.  Such an approach has no insight into what was moving the participants on last Saturday's March.

The point about the March to save the NHS was that it had mass support from people who wouldn't normally consider themselves 'activists', indeed it was probably supported by many of the officers policing the demo.

For the organisers to introduce bundles of masks wouldn't have encouraged a spirit of revolutionary fervour it would have inspired fear and alienation among the crowds.

Mike Ballard above is right to ask the question 'one wonders how much of this effort will be about garnering support for the Labour Party in forthcoming elections rather than anything else? '

Last Saturday's demo had much to do with boosting support for the Labour Party, and there is a real underlying danger that inconclusive demos of the kind we were involved in actually undermines morale in the end.

Yet, covering one's face will not improve matters anymore than knocking off a few policemen's helmets.

Trade Union Bill Progress Report

report from Bob Archer of the National Shop Steward's Network

THE Tory Trade Union Bill has completed its journey through the parliamentary process to become law.

Disgracefully, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has not organised a single national demonstration against the bill. It’s one lobby of Parliament last November saw hundreds of union members refused access to the venue in Westminster because the TUC had only booked half the seats, such was their pessimism about how many would turn up!

Fortunately, because the FBU had their fire engine outside, I was able to speak to what became an open-air rally. It was the only way the NSSN was going to get on a platform that day! I raised the necessity for the TUC and the unions to connect together the fight against Tory austerity with the fight against Cameron’s anti-union plans.

This would show the whole union movement and the wider working class that the Tories recognise the potential power of the unions - still with over six million members - as the major barrier to their cuts, if they are mobilised in mass demonstrations and coordinated strike action. The heroic struggle of the junior doctors only emphasises how broad layers in society could be united in a movement against this weak, divided and damaged government.

Instead of such a mass campaign, the TUC’s opposition has been reduced to lobbying the House of Lords. They celebrate the pruning of some aspects of the bill. But the utterly undemocratic voting thresholds (which, if applied to local elections would mean that hardly a councillor would have been elected last week) are still enshrined in it, as are measures to victimise lead pickets.

The NSSN calls for an emergency TUC congress to discuss how the Act can be resisted. This is what happened when previous Tory prime minister Heath brought in the Industrial Relations Act in 1971 and was subsequently defeated after a whole series of strikes. Such a congress, which should be opened to thousands of shop stewards and union reps, should be a ‘council of war’ that takes inspiration from the junior doctors, as well as teachers who are balloting for strikes against forced academies, and many others. 

It’s a disgrace that on the very day that marked the 90th anniversary of the 1926 general strike, the Tories have been able to bring in the most serious attack on unions for three decades with hardly a squeak form the TUC or most union leaders.

But we should take inspiration from the incredible victories over the last few days. The teachers have forced a U-turn on forced academies while Jeremy Hunt has agreed to talks with the BMA Junior Doctors. He initially said that the new contract would still be imposed but then retreated. We also salute the heroic victory of the blacklisted workers in winning a massive settlement from the construction companies. But their struggle will continue until these workers get jobs on the sites.

The NSSN, along with thousands of union activists, will be fighting for mass action to defeat the Tories – their cuts and their anti-union law. This will be a major theme of the annual NSSN conference - our tenth - on 2 July. Join our fight

Rob Williams NSSN National Chair

This year’s annual NSSN conference – our 10th - will be on Saturday July 2nd in Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL - 11am-4.30pm. Conference fee is £6 each www.facebook.com/events/1361018323924300/ - confirmed speakers: Ronnie Draper BFAWU General Secretary, Janice Godrich PCS President, Chris Baugh PCS Assistant General Secretary, Sean Hoyle RMT President

General Strike anniversary

90 years since the 1926 General Strike – learn the lessons to fight back!

NINETY years ago today, millions of workers were taking part in the General Strike to defend the miners from a brutal Tory government.  The NSSN along with militant unions has championed the idea of generalised strike action to face down Tory austerity and their planned anti-union laws. 

The PCS National Vice-President John McInally celebrates the 1926 General Strike and draws out the lessons for today’s generation of trade union fighters:

'The 90^th anniversary of the general strike of 1926 allows us to reflect on the potential of the working class through their own organisations - the trade unions - to organise and fight back against attacks on their terms and conditions.

'But the current generation of conservative union leaders will also no doubt use this anniversary to expound a defeatist narrative, best expressed at the 2012 TUC Congress during a debate on the feasibility of calling a general strike, that “..we tried that once and it didn’t work”.  This cynical, ignorant statement seeks to re-write history as a series of defeats to prove industrial action is pointless and that gains made through generations of struggle were actually gifted to us by a munificent ruling class.

'In fact in 1972 the very threat of a general strike forced the government to resurrect archaic legal procedures in order to release jailed Dockers from Pentonville prison.  In 2011 public sector workers saw a glimpse of their massive latent strength during the two million strong N30 pensions strike that was sold out by cynical “leaders” who choreographed a “settlement” with Tory ministers that robbed them of pension rights.  The 1984-85 Miners strike is also cited as “proof” that struggle is useless and only “diplomatic” entreaties can restrain the bosses from implementing the worst aspects of a never-ending race to the bottom.  But with solidarity action from the rest of the union movement, Thatcher could have been defeated then.

'Leadership now as then is critical.  In 1926, the Daily Mail accurately described the  general strike as a “revolutionary move” but with the purpose of frightening the Labour Party and union leaders, which it did.

'Jeremy Hunt’s imposition of unacceptable contracts on junior doctors is a key stage in privatising our National Health Service and he seeks to intimidate them but also warn off right-wing union leaders by claiming the strikers aim to overthrow the government.

'My union PCS along with the Fire Brigades Union called on the TUC general council to call a day of action in support of the junior doctors. The TUC must, as a matter of priority, reconsider their decision not to support this call.

'The real lesson of the general strike is not that we can’t win but with determined leadership, workers can secure priceless victories.'

Charlie Pottins on police surveillance

Charlie Pottins died in October 2015, and I last saw him in Crew

Cheshire, at the National Conference of Trade Union Councils.

We discussed the Lord Janner and the sex abuse scandal as

well as the blacklist.  We had both been in the National Shop

Stewards Network and left it together when it became a front

for the Socialist Party.  Below are Charlie's thoughts on blacklisting:

Sparks off the Rock:  Sunday, July 12, 2009   

THE row over some of Rupert Murdoch's minions routinely tapping telephones for their stories has brought diverse reactions. A journalist friend, inclined perhaps to defend his colleagues rather than consider how his skills (not to mention scruples) were being rendered redundant, has remarked on the hypocrisy of those in government who authorise telephone tapping and surveillance of mere working folk and political dissidents, yet show outrage on hearing it is done to them, as well as showbiz celebs.

On the other hand, many people point to what seems like police reluctance to go into this, compared to the alacrity with which others are prosecuted. "I wonder what the News of the World has on the Yard?", asked one cheeky letter writer. Whatever it is, those of us who remember the charging police horses outside Fort Wapping tend to assume that, broken laws or not, the Met and Murdoch's merry men and women understand they are on the same side.

Britain is said to have more surveillance than any other country. For my generation "Big Brother" held menace, for the young it's just a naff television programme offering instant "celebrity" to anyone desperate for attention. The way some people use their mobiles you can listen into them from a distance whether you like it or not, without needing any bugging equipment, though what with the over-acting performance I sometimes suspect if you could hear the other end it would just be a clear voice saying "the time now is...exactly".

But those of us who do worry about surveillance and eavesdropping are aware that they are often linked with the other, less entertaining aspects of Big Brother, such as police repression and blacklisting. Now and then the kind of thing we all suspect, or know, goes on comes into the public gaze, and people who have previously sneered that we were paranoid turn to shrugging and saying "of course, so what?", even "don't you think it is justified?"


Back in December I wrote about a new little book that was out, telling how the British government insisted on a Gibraltarian trade unionist, Albert Fava, being removed from his home and exiled , perhaps because he was too good at organising.
http://randompottins.blogspot.com/2008/12/labour-in-government-and-rights-on-rock.html

That happened in 1948, and yes we had a Labour government then. As we did when Brian Bamford had his experience, as he tells in the Summer issue of Northern Voices magazine.

"One Saturday morning in the Summer of 1967, I met Alberto Risso, then boss of the Gibraltar branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union and Gibraltar's Minister of Labour, outside the Town Hall on Main Street, Gibraltar . We were there to get the aid of Sir Joshua Hassan, who became Gibraltar's Chief Minister, to help me to continue to work as an electrician and let my young family stay in Gibraltar. Our residence permit had been cancelled by the British authorities".

Albert Fava's expulsion was ordered on the basis of intercepted correspondence with British trades unionists and the Communist Party. In Brian's case, as he was told by Alberto Risso, the authorities knew he was "not a communist", but they saw him as a "dangerous anarchist". As Brian recalls, this was at a time when General Franco was stepping up pressure on Gibraltar and about to close the frontier. Faced with a hostile fascist dictator, the British Foreign Office and security services naturally had to clamp down on Franco's enemies, the communists and anarchists!

Harold Wilson's Labour government was in office. Back in Manchester, Brian, the "dangerous anarchist" had been involved in the 1960 engineering apprentices' strike, and had served four days in Strangeways for taling part in a Ban-the-Bomb sit-down in 1962. So now he was blackballed to prevent him working in Her Majesty's Dockyard, or for any of the contractors engaged in government work. A memo was sent out to local firms warning them not to employ this man.

He managed to get a job as an electrician with Gibraltar City Council, but that was when the British government stepped in with its powers to take away Brian and his family's residence permit.

What prompted Brian to recall this episode was the raid on the Droitwich premises of a Mr.Ian Kerr and the Consulting Association which led to Kerr's appearance in court in May and his case being sent to Crown Court for prosecution. Kerr had begun with the right-wing Economic League, which gathered and circulated information on thousands of people it considered left-wing "subversives", and had its activities funded by some of the leading names in British business. .After the League was officially wound up in 1993, Kerr set up his own operation, with building firms like Costain, Laing, Balfour Beatty and McAlpine as clients, pooling informaton and paying for dirt on job applicants.

For their £3,000 a year plus £2.20 per inquiry they could receive information such as that so-and-so was "Irish, ex-army, bad egg", or someone else an "ex-shop steward". There were files on more than 3,200 people. Some workers were listed for going to employment tribunals or even raising health and safety issues.

Blacklisting is not illegal - the Labour government resisted calls from trade unionists to outlaw the banning of workers from jobs in its 1999 Employment Act, claiming it did not have enough evidence of the practice. Kerr was raided and faces prosecution under the Data Protection Act, for keeping information on computer about individuals, without their knowledge, and denying the existence of these files.

One group of workers for whom the news of the blacklist was not news were some of Brian Bamford's fellow electricians in Manchester area, who have been in dispute at the Royal Infirmary site since 2006. Sure enough their names appeared in the files. Steve Acheson, secretary of the Manchester contracting branch of my own union Unite is described as a master militant. The workers' suspicion that they were blacklisted had already been confirmed when former Haden Young manager Alan Wainwright accused his company -Balfour Beatty's electrical subsidiary - of fraud and blacklisting. Wainwright said they employed a firm to gather information, and he released names of 1,000 electricians on the blacklist. He lost an unfair dismissal claim against Hayden Young, and now it is understood his own name is on the blacklist.

One entry quoted by Brian Bamford says that "EPIU site activity in Manchester is in the hands of **** *****, and other role apart from becoming an anarchist, is to travel around the country addressing meeetings."
Clearly, a dangerous type!

The Electrical and Plumbing Industries Union(EPIU), formed when the EETPU electrical union was expelled from the TUC after Wapping, merged into the TGWU which is now part of Unite the Union. The EETPU meanwhile had merged with the engineers' union, and thus via Amicus is part of Unite's other wing. Brian notes that UCATT, the building union, is campaigning for blacklisting to be made unlawful. He wonders why Unite isn't doing more.

For now, this is a free country. You're free, more or less, to say what you like, to object to unsafe working conditions, for instance, and to join a trade union. If you gather some mates to picket, say, or go to another place to persuade others to come out, you may be accused of "conspiracy", as the Shrewsbury building workers were, and if you stop work in solidarity with others you may be in breach of the laws on secondary action, as we saw when airport workers were forbidden to come out in support of fellow workers - some of them family members -sacked by catering firm Gate Gourmet. The employers on the other hand can band together to exchange information and deny employment to someone, preventing that person earning their livelihood and providing for their family. But that is not considered "violence", or "conspiracy", and the threat that persuades you to keep your mouth shut and "nose clean" if you want to work, is not considered intimidation. Of course it is not illegal.

See also:
Haden Youngs whistleblower:
http://www.cnplus.co.uk/news/haden-young-director-tells-tribunal-that-firm-used-blacklisting-company/374072.article


Kerr in court:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/27/construction-worker-blacklist-database1

UCATT leader on blacklist:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/features/blacklist_shame

To contact Northern Voices, e-mail northernvoices@hotmail.com

Labels: building, Gibraltar, Manchester, snoops and blacklists, trade unions

How Many Cuts Have Been Stopped?

NSSN Response to Northern Voices

IT's just a month since the Tories won the general election and already workers are demonstrating how they can be stopped in their tracks! In the last week alone:-

1. Education unions in Lewisham were due to take another two days of strike action this week against academisation but the plans have been deferred.
2. Kone workers were going to continue their weekly Monday strikes against management’s attempts to use a tracking system as a disciplinary tool. But they too have won a victory.
3. For the second time, the threat of national strike action by Network Rail workers has forced the bosses to improve a pay offer. This will now be voted on by reps.

This should give encouragement to the many other disputes developing at the moment.

We salute the indefinite Scottish strikes in Glasgow and Dundee and the lengthy strike at the National Gallery in London that is continuing after the fantastic PCS national protest last Saturday. And as you can read from this week’s NSSN bulletin, there are many disputes brewing.

This is the best answer to the Tories planned new anti-union laws. We repeat our call on the TUC and the unions to call a midweek national demonstration whenever Cameron’s laws go to Parliament with the threat of mass action if they are passed.

Triumph of the Right!

THE National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) has just announced in a recent e-mail that:
'In the splendour of the unelected House of Lords, through the mouthpiece of a hereditary monarch, the Tories who were elected by 24% of the electorate have announced plans for new anti-union laws.'


Indeed, the Government's Queen's speech did state plans to introduce more anti-union laws, but if recent history is anything to go by the establishment will have little to fear from the body which entitles itself the National Shop Stewards Network.  In fact the above quote just shows just how much the far left as well as the Labour Party delude themselves. 


The Tories may well have cornered merely 24% of the overall electorate; yet the figures show that combined vote share of the parties of the right (Conservatives, UKIP and the Ulster Unionists) increased to 50.5% of all votes cast.  And if the Liberal Democrats are included as a right-wing party then the figure is 58.4%.  The parties that may be classed as on the left (Labour, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SDLP) got 39.8% of all the votes cast.


Years ago, the NSSN demonstrated its political impotence after the General Election in 2010, when it split-up, formed itself into an anti-cuts campaign, and became essentially a front for the Socialist Party.  At that time under the influence of some independent socialists, the then Chair of NSSN, Dave Chapple, and some independent syndicalists, many genuine trade unionists left the NSSN when it developed into a political runt supported by the RMT.  Since then it has failed to prevent any Government cuts.


The NSSN has shown itself to be a political irrelevance by participating in the recent elections in May 2015:
TUSC stood 135 parliamentary candidates across England, Wales and Scotland, and it had 619 candidates in the local elections.  The party gained 36,327 votes in the election, or 0.1% of the popular vote. No parliamentary seats were gained and no deposits were saved.


But if TUSC is a political irrelevance, the main stream Labour Party is now being describe as being in 'existential crisis'.  That means that the Labour Party ought to be questioning the very foundations of its own existence.  Thus we have a far left that is virtually non-existent, and a main-stream left in the Labour Party that has as I, and others, have said has outlived its mission.


Part of the problem, which needs further examination, is that the left in this country is patronizing towards the white working-class.  Left-wing politics here is based upon crude formulas, lazy analysis and cookbook thinking.


In The Observer, Nick Cohen wrote:
'The universities, left press, and the arts characterize the English middle class as Mail-reading misers, who are sexist, racist and homophobic to boot.  Meanwhile, they characterize the white working class as lardy Sun-reading slobs, who are, since you asked, also sexist, racist and homophobic.'


The trouble with the English left is that it has got itself stuck in a kind of idée fixe, a mind-set or what Mr. Cohen calls a trance from which it needs to escape if it is going to have any impact on society. 

Strikes in October & NSSN

THE next phase of the strikes to break the ConDem pay freeze will start in under 3 weeks’ time.

The decision of yesterday’s PCS NEC ensures that up to a million and half public sector workers from Unison, PCS, Unite, GMB, UCU and NIPSA will be striking in 3 consecutive days of action. The health unions had already
decided to strike for four hours on October 13. The day after, council workers and FE lecturers will be out followed by civil servants on October 15.

The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) gives full support to these workers, which can be a step up from the million-strong July 10 strike. We call on everyone to support the action – visit the picket lines and join in any strike rallies. But at the end of that week on Saturday October 18, get on the TUC’s ‘Britain Needs a Pay Rise’ demonstration in London.

The pay strikes are back on…this fight can be won!

Read from the following union websites:-
PCS -
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/national-strike-on-15-october-pcs-to-join-72-hours-of-action-in-public-sector

Unison - http://www.unison.org.uk/news/nhs-england-action-set-for-13-october

NIPSA -
http://www.nipsa.org.uk/News/News-Releases/2014/NIPSA-Members-to-Strike-on-14-October-2014

UCU - http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=7206&from=1676

Public Sector Strike & the NSSN

IT's official - the pay strike will continue into the autumn. The first
serious step has been taken towards building the strike coalition that saw
over 1 million public sector workers take action together on July 10th.
Council workers from Unison, Unite and the GMB have agreed that October 14th
will be the next strike day in the pay dispute. Importantly, Unison will be
balloting members in academy schools during September so they can join the
strike. September also sees Scottish local government workers being balloted
for industrial action over pay likely to commence with a one-day strike, which
of course should be October 14th.

The National Shop Stewards Network calls on all the public sector unions to immediately meet together to ensure at least the J10 forces are involved but as NHS workers are also
balloting, a strike of N30 2011 proportions is now possible. Moreover, coming
just four days before the TUC ‘Britain needs a pay rise’ demonstration, the
prospect is raised of a mobilisation on the scale of the mammoth March 26th
2011 demonstration that saw 750,000 workers march through London.

October 14th is an opportunity to increase generalised action that must be
seized with both hands. Even during their well-earned summer break, many
teachers in the NUT will be trying to put pressure on their union to ensure
they again line up with school staff on strike. There should be no need to
wait until October to confirm their presence. All public sector unions should
be involved in the action. A real momentum can be built to get the maximum
turnout.
We also call on private sector unions to co-ordinate discussions on how their
members can join the action. Over the last year, we have seen a rash of
disputes from workers at London Underground to Doncaster Care UK, Tyneside
Safety Glass and Argos. The Ritzy Cinema workers are currently voting on
whether to accept a deal that is only on the table because of an incredible
struggle. Thousands of private sector workers could be involved if there is a
general call for any live disputes to be co-ordinated with the October 14th
strike.

Union members have to keep the pressure on. If your union hasn’t confirmed for
October 14th, move a motion at your next branch. Come to the lobby of the TUC
Congress that the NSSN has called on September 7th. That will be a fantastic
opportunity to rally activists and rank and file trade unionists where we can
discuss how to broaden the action.

The 2014 NSSN conference agreed that the Network to hold a public rally at the
TUC Congress in Liverpool to lobby delegates to keep up the pressure for
further co-ordinated strikes – 2pm Sunday September 7th in Jury’s Hotel
opposite Echo Arena conference centre in Albert Dock. PCS General Secretary
Mark Serwotka is one of the confirmed speakers.

Download NSSN leaflet -
http://www.scribd.com/doc/235907571/NSSN-TUC-rally-2014-leaflet

GMB website -
http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/councils-and-schools-october-new-strike-date
Unison website -
http://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/local-government/key-issues/local-government-pay/home/
Unite website -
http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/unions-to-escalate-pay-strike-action-in-october/

NSSN News:
Over 300 shop stewards, union rep and anti-cuts activists attended the 8th
Annual NSSN Conference on Saturday July 5th. The speakers included Ronnie
Draper BFAWU bakers’ union General Secretary, POA General Secretary Steve
Gillan, Janice Godrich PCS President and Peter Pinkney RMT President…plus
Ginger Jentzen from the victorious Seattle $15Now campaign.

Watch a video of the first session here -
http://shopstewards.net/2014/07/nssn-conference-1st-session-feat-peter-pinkney-and-ronnie-draper/

Charlie Pottin's Comment on the historic takeover of the NSSN

CHARLIE Pottin's comment below on the Socialist Party coup inside the National Shop Stewards Network [NSSN] in 2011, that resulted in the departure of the syndicalists and independent socialists 19th, February 2011.  It now seems that the results of this historic takeover by the Socialist Party has ultimately led to the folly of the the Grangemouth massacre of trade union rights in which the NSSN has ended up on the losing side and which may have lasting detrimental consequences for the British trade union movement:

Charlie Pottinssaid...

I don't know about all 89 who voted against the SP resolution reconvening at the pub, I was a delegate from Brent TUC and voted against (as mandated) but didn't know about the meeting afterwards so didn't attend.
Remembering how the SP walked out of the Socialist Alliance when the SWP got a majority, I found it ironic that they charged others with wanting to take their ball away when they didn't like a decision. I was also amused to hear an SP member in Unison complain that the SWP and others had backed a "Labour Party supporter" in preference to him in union elections, when exactly the same charge could be levelled at the SP members in my own union, Unite, who voted for Len McCluskey rather than Jerry Hicks. I remarked on this to Jerry when I saw him later in the meeting, I think he too had found it amusing.
Anyway, the SP's move seems to have gone as I anticipated, despite their success in mobilising an overwhelming vote majority, they are left holding a hollow victory. Instead of creating a unified anti-cuts movement under their leadership they have succeeded in splitting the National Shop Stewards Network.
It will be ironic if the SWP who were the main butts of their denunciations are the only ones to stay. And if after such fierce denunciation they can try to erect some facade of unity for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (assuming that's still on).
Meanwhile back on the cuts front I am sure a united movement is emerging in each locality, usually centred on trades councils and community campaigners, and from what I can see, SP members and SWPers alike are like the rest of us, being drawn into working class activity without worrying about the empire-building rivalry which pre-occupies leaders of sects.

Saturday, 19 February 2011 17:08:00 GMT

Unite to make concessions at Grangemouth?

NEWS this morning suggests that the union UNITE is willing to make concessions over the 'survival plan' set out by the bosses at Grangemouth, Ineos, which will see changes to workers' terms and conditions.  This news will upset the National Shop Stewards Network which today congratulated the 'Unite members and their shop stewards at Grangemouth for their refusal to be bullied'.  In a statement today the National Shop Stewards Network [NSSN] said:  'The announcement by Ineos that they intend to pullout of the Grangemouth petrochemical site with the threatened loss of up to 800 jobs is an act of corporate vandalism.'

Alas, it seems they [the NSSN] spoke too soon as the union Unite is now seemingly clamouring to do a deal with Ineos.  It doesn't seem that the union has the guts to organise an occupation of the plant or put it under workers' control as may have happened in the 1970s. 

Because the NSSN is a front for the Socialist Party, and that party ideologically is mired in the the 'marching together' school of politics that dates back to the middle of the last century with calls for endless nationalisation of everything, the best and most forward looking elements of the NSSN left that organisation three years ago when the Socialist Party forced out the then independent-minded chairman, Dave Chapple, the independent socialists and the young syndicalists leaving a claque orchestrated by ageing trots such as Linda Taaffe and Bill Mullins, supported by Alex Gordon of the RMT.  These people have now led the NSSN over a cliff at Grangemouth and now vainly 'Call on the Scottish government and UK governments to immediately bring Grangemouth into democratic public ownership to secure jobs and investment. To also support public ownership with majority participation by workers and the trade unions in the running of the plant.'  Some hopes!

This merely illustrates that the British left have no real program or strategy for social change beyond a trip down memory lane back to the ideas of Old Labour of the last century.  God Help Us!

National Shop Stewards Network on a Wild Goose Chase

The National Shop Stewards Network met in London for its annual national conference last Saturday 9 June, proclaiming that it is taking place at a crucial time and all trade unionists should try to attend this event.   It declared:  'Now the task is to build mass action against the cuts and attacks, with trade union industrial action at the centre. Solidarity with our brothers and sisters across Europe is essential, as is how to build for the 20th October TUC "A future that works" demonstration and ensure that is followed with decisive action not just rhetoric.'

It is always a sign that the British trade unions are starting to flag when they have to turn to the European example.  All the indications are that the campaign against the cuts in this country is tailing off and that the government will get its pension reforms through.  This month, the anarchist paper, FREEDOM reported:  'The trade unions' great struggle to stop the government from stealing public sector pensions has been and gone with barely a whisper it seems, as participation winds down following the 10th, May walkout.'

It now looks like the young syndicalists around Dave Chapple, Secretary of Bridgewater TUC and the former national Chair of the NSSN, and the other independent socialists, who left the National NSSN steering committee last year on account of the Socialist Party's obsession with the campaign against the cuts, got it right.  Increasingly, the campaigns against the cuts in this country look like a wild goose chase, and the trade union's inconclusive demos and marching together is, if anything, undermining morale among rank and file workers.

Compared to the electrician's campaign against Besna and the blacklist, the National Shop Stewards Network's efforts look like political 'rhetoric'.  The NSSN failure to develop a serious grassroots movement, when it went into competition with the Socialist Workers' Party in an adventure in tub thumping political show business against the cuts, was a  critical mistake.  A writer in the June issue of FREEDOM comments:  'What is missing in the union equation is leverage.  Without it, begging loudly is still begging and, as the law stands, union bosses have no way of providing that leverage.  They are a bankrupt power.'  The political left is also bankrupt.

North West NSSN: Fag-End or Vanguard?

WHEN only nine turn up to a North West National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) meeting in Manchester, that proposes to co-ordinate activity to bring about the forcing of the TUC into setting 'a date for a second day of co-ordinated national industrial action', one is entitled to ask: 'are these people fleas pretending to be elephants?' It is true that among the nine activists present last night in the Subway sandwich bar on Peter Street, three unions, Unison, Unite and PCS were represented, but the decision to join with the new 'Left Unity' campaign suggests that the NSSN bosses now realise the folly of their decision a year ago to develop their own anti-cuts campaign.

That decision broke the back of the NSSN and caused the syndicalists and independent socialists to leave the organisation; leaving only the Socialist Party and a few fellow-travellers in control. Since then Bob Crow of the RMT union is reported to have said: 'The NSSN has lost some good people!'. The result was that by forcing out the syndicalists and independent activists the NSSN became an empty shell: just another anti-cuts group. The Socialist Party leaders of the NSSN talk big and claim they forced the TUC to call a national demo last March and more recently created the conditions for the co-ordinated public sector strikes on Nov. 30th but it has little conviction. In reality the leaders of the TUC had to be seen to take some action to justify their existence but they tend to be inconclusive events and probably undermine the morale of workers in the long run. These so-called 'general strikes' have been in operation in other European countries for years with often mixed results.

As part of a series of articles on 'Capitalism in Crisis' in the Financial Times, Gideon Rachman, wrote last Monday: 'The failure of the hard left to capitalise on the economic crisis testifies to how profoundly communism was discredited by the collapse of the Soviet system.' Alex Davidson of the PCS even bemoaned this collapse at last night's meeting with some qualification. The problem for the British Left, as well as the hard left, may go further than the fall of the Soviet Union. Some self-deception may be a necessary part of politics, but the self-delusion displayed at last night's meeting and of the left in this country is based in the lack of any serious alternative plan to combat the Coalition Government. That is why 'Resistance' is the most common word on the lips of the left: we've had the 'Coalition of Resistance' and now 'Unite the Resistance' - their form of 'resistance' is merely to react to the agenda set by the Government. No-where is there any attempt by the hard left or even the main stream Labour Party to present a plausible alternative program.

There are clearly problems of capitalism now, but the hard left is using the thinking tools of the stone age to deal with the consequences, and the Labour Party has no clear agenda. Gideon Rachman in his article quotes the Italian communist, Antonio Gramsci: 'The old is dying and the new cannot be born: in the interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms will appear.' Mr. Rachman writes: 'Gramsci's observation does resonate now - in an age of ideological confusion.' Perhaps it was too much to expect the folk at last night's meeting to have any fresh ideas: it was at least recognised that the trade unions had yet to recover from the defeats of the 1980s and 90s, and some had hopes that something may yet evolve out of the Occupy movement.

WHO ARE THE ORGANISERS OF DISCONTENT NOW?

IN the 1970s, students of industrial sociology were told that the union boss and the shop steward were 'organisers of discontent' in the workplace. At that time with full employment and active trade unions who seemed to have some kind of political mission this title 'organiser of discontent' appeared to be fair comment on the situation in the workplace and to a lesser extent British society: trade unions and their leaders then, in the 1960s and 70s, being central to the political life and culture, and with the FT doing a full page on labour disputes. Then, the union leaders were more charismatic, more substantial public figures such as Frank Cousins, Jack Jones, Hugh Scanlon and later Arthur Scargill. Today, the trade unions are seen more like insurance companies and the union leaders are indistinguishable from the managerial and political class that they confront. Even Arthur Scargill himself, at 73, is a much diminished figure looking like some latter day Fagan, who is today taking his own union, the NUM, to Court in order to recover his NUM union perks and grace and favour fancy flat in the Barbican.

During the disruption of the last few days neither the trade union bosses nor the leadership of what passes for the political left have had anything perceptive to say about the situation on the streets beyond mouthing the typical moral platitudes and proposing the usual half-baked law and order solutions. On Tuesday night, a Northern Voices reporter noted the absence of the extreme left parties on the streets of Manchester. Ken Livingstone, almost alone among politicians, raised the possibility of more sociological causes for the riots.

The left of centre National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) in a statement has said: 'TUC general secretary Brendan Barber predicted that the government's cuts would lead to riots.' As, of course, did the Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, during the election campaign last year. The NSSN then rightly points out: 'Whilst Brendan Barber had predicted these riots, he and the TUC have not offered an alternative by demonstrating they are capable of leading a movement to defend living conditions.' But the the NSSN go off into their own little wonderland proposing yet more inconclusive demonstrations be held and arguing for a token 'general strike', claiming that a one-day public sector strike 'was a big step forward in the battle against the cuts'.

There is a need for an alternative strategy, an alternative agenda, but there is no sign of it from the TUC or any part of the British left: 'Fight the cuts' or 'Resist the Coalition' but nothing of serious substance. That is because the British left, from the NSSN to Miliband and Brendan Barber, is deeply conservative and reactionary. Forever merely reacting to the agenda set by the Government of the day. This is rooted in the culture, politics and history of this country and is played out like some kind of ritual as events play themselves out. What is different today is that because there is no real 'organiser of discontent' to channel disquiet among the young, like Scargill, or the militant trade unions as there was in the 1970s and early 80s, there is no way to divert or, as the NSSN has said, 'counter frustration and social breakdown'. Hence, we have no mass strikes controlled by the unions ending with some negotiated settlement, but riots controlled by no one in particular. Thus, the powers that be can chorus to a man and woman about structural controls: water cannons, plastic bullets, exemplary sentences in the Magistrates' Courts, and ultimately, the call to bring in the army.

Perhaps we should consider the traditional way of channeling all these misspent energies and reintroduce the Carnival to England and the old Lord of Misrule from Medieval times? It might be cheaper than bringing in the army.

Taaffe Tells A Good Tale

WILL LINDA'S LOBSCOUSE REVOLUTION THREATEN THE COALITION?

THERE'S ALWAYS SOMETHING of the Spirit of Lobscouse about the Socialist Party! All those red round-faced folk with a west coast of Lancashire twang and glasses. Bespectacled Liverpudlian, Linda Taaffe (now living in London), wrote a triumphant report on the recent 'National Shop Stewards Network' (NSSN) London Conference [11/06/11] on pages 6 and 7 of the current issue of 'The Socialist' saying that the 'NSSN has gone from strength to strength over the last year' and that the 'NSSN has increased its presence and will continue to develop a respected role in the labour movement'.

Mrs Taaffe described the conference thus: 'A solid working class trade union conference' with '350 workers' in attendance and representing what Lynda writes was 'the best NSSN conference so far'. She tells us that 'this regular event is rapidly becoming a feature in the calendar of the labour movement.' Hence, the conference went on to unanimously support a resolution 'Saluting those unions who are balloting their members for strike action' on the 30th, June and declaring that the NSSN has 'produced 40,000 flyers and 15,000 placards all calling for a public-private sector general strike to stop ALL cuts and defend pensions.' This report was accompanied with a photo of Socialist Party veteran, Tony Mulheard, mouth open and fist clenched close to his throat threatening whatever or whoever should defy this noble Network. And well he might threaten, for Linda writes: 'We understand a couple of ... detractors snooped into the conference hall simply to do a head count'.

Who might these 'detractors' be one wonders? Well, none other than 'those who walked out from the NSSN in January ... after a democratic and open discussion', thus, writes Linda, leaving the 'NSSN stronger and more active'. 'Stronger and more active' maybe, but with a 'newly elected steering committee' cut to '24 trade unionists with positions in most of the major unions'. Last year's national NSSN steering committee had a membership of over 60 and the previous year it was over 50. It would seem that last January's breakaway from the NSSN by independent minded syndicalists and socialists has had its effect on the make up of the NSSN steering committee and Bob Crow, the General secretary of the RMT, has been reported as saying that the NSSN split resulted in the loss of some good people.

Linda Taaffe has now clarified the current dilemma for the Socialist Party and the NSSN; the NSSN may appear 'stronger' and more 'active' in so far as it is all of one mind being mainly a creature of the Socialist Party itself. Dialogue and discussion is no longer necessary because they can kid themselves that they are united. This is the illusionary strength of the narrow-minded and the monomaniac.

Thus the ingredients in the Network, or stew, are diminished in the same way that traditionally Lobscouse as a dish has less and more boring ingredients than Lancashire Hot-Pot. My copy of 'British Cookery' edited by Lizzie Boyd describes Lobscouse as being a nautical dish - a variation on Lancashire Hot-Pot - and constituting 'a monotonous diet' often including scrag end of neck of mutton, shin of beef, swedes, potatoes and carrots, while proper Lancashire Hot-Pot is from middle neck of lamb with lamb kidneys, sliced potatoes, onions, white stock and dripping traditionally served with red cabbage; in the case of Bolton Hot-Pot adding mushrooms and fresh oysters and some Lancashire cooks add curry powder. Compared to this Lobscouse, which traditionally was eaten by sailors on board ship with rock-hard ship's biscuits was a tedious affair, not unlike the Socialist Party itself. Hence, the National Shop Stewards Network today is a movement for monomaniacs which the British labour movement, with all its many faults, is not. In fact, the British labour movement is, if anything, too heterogeneous, too varied in its constituent parts.

Zusammenmarschieren & the 'New Syndicalists'

THIS MONTH a dispute broke out among the 'new syndicalists' formerly attached to the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) about how best to proceed and create a movement for radical syndicalism. The main argument was about the best tactics to use in the everyday world of work and the labour movement. The basis of the dispute was the dissembling behaviour of a union leader, in this case Bob Crow in his apparent support for the Socialist Party (formerly the Militant Tendency), against the other political groups in the NSSN.

One side argued that given the slippery vacillation of Bob Crow over this issue which led to large-scale resignations by syndicalists and others from the NSSN steering committee in January, was such that he and the half-baked political group - the Trade Union & Socialist Coalition (TUSC) - to which he and the Socialist Party are linked became a valid target for criticism and lampoon: after all, why had we resigned from the NSSN if we didn't want to hurt people's feelings? Others said that we should exercise foresight, be more pragmatic and restrained in our dealings and, it seems, avoid hurting the feelings of union leaders so that henceforth they would not be able 'to hold a justifiable public grudge in future'.

This confrontation in turn led to some interesting comments, one from 'Nick D' who wrote: 'I want to see syndicalism develop as an industrial and political force that moves millions. That requires pragmatism, to build power. Not anarcho political program in a vacuum (sic).' About a century ago the idea of syndicalism had a strong following among some groups of industrial workers and trade unionists in this country, and in 1912, the South Wales Miners published a syndicalist booklet called 'The Miners Next Step'.

One of the things that attracted me to these 'new syndicalists' with their historical roots in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and Liberty & Solidarity was their down-to-earth, business-like approach to the trade unions and labour movement. Here were a group of young people who seemed to lack the antiquated sectarian baggage of the other affiliated anarcho-syndicalist organisations. But not being sectarian should not mean that we lose the critical vitamin when dealing with people like Bob Crow and smelly little political orthodoxies like their TUSC.

The call of 'Nick D' for 'an industrial and political force that moves millions' and 'power before programme' is what Wyndham Lewis called the 'associational habit' of mind and is very north European, very Anglo-Saxon and very retro. We had such a thing in the TUC for much of the last century up to about 1985: that is what Jimmy Pinkerton, international secretary of the Syndicalist Workers Federation circa 1960, used to call 'pure syndicalism' or 'syndicalism without the vision'. It ended with the defeat of the miners. In Germany, according to Ignazio Silone, it went some way to explain why the German workers' attitude toward fascism was different from that of the Spaniards. Silone wrote in 'School for Dictators' that 'the growth of big industry has been a powerful help in reinforcing the tendency of Germans - workers included - toward zusammenmarschieren (marching together).' His conclusion regarding the German workers was that 'individual initiative has been reduced to zero' and 'their interparty struggles are essentially struggles between different machines'.

Nick D's proposal for 'power before programme' would mean that the program or vision would be set by others such as the Labour Party or, shabby little shockers like the Trade Union & Socialist Coalition under Bob, Alex Gordon of the RMT and Linda Taaffe of the Socialist Party. This weekend will see the British Left marching together against the Government cuts in public services - zusammenmarschieren - like a machine but it will be an intellectually and morally bankrupt machine and one perhaps even more derelict than the Government of millionaires that we are protesting against.

Painful Paradoxies: Hitler praises 'Socialism', Bob Crow backs 'Socialist' Party - Black Jesse Owens kisses Nazi Leni

JUST OVER 75 years ago on the 8th, December 1934, Chancellor Hitler took sharp issue with his Minister of Economy Dr. Schacht in a speech in Nuremberg on the occasion of a celebration of the centenary of the German railways which, as he pointed out, 'is now state-owned and has developed along "Socialist lines".' That was the same week in December last year, that Bob Crow, Secretary of the RMT, threw in his lot with the 'Socialist' Party against the syndicalists, anarchists, SWP and other independent socialists on the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN).

It will be 40 years next year since the black athlete Jesse Owens kissed the 'old Nazi' photographer/ film-maker Leni Riefenstahl at the 1972 Munich Olympics, according to Leni: 'As Owens hugged and kissed me, we were both near to tears. Several guests began to clap, then the applause grew louder, intensifying into a storm. Confused and embarrassed, I left the reception.'

With these kind of painful paradoxies in mind I sent the email below to Bob Crow, National Secretary of the RMT union, who is linked to the 'Socialist' Party through his personal support for the political body Trade Union Socialist Coalition (TUSC) explaining my resignation from the National Shop Stewards Network that Bob's union helped to establish.

Dear Bob, 

Last week I gave in my resignation from the NSSN (National Shop Stewards Network). Normally I would not consider doing such a thing and would have just allowed my involvement to quietly lapse, because normally I wouldn't regard myself as that important in the way of things. This time, following Lynda Taaffe's (NSSN Secretary & Socialist Party leader) assurance that you had not been misled when you gave your backing to the Socialist Party, I have decided to join with the others in making a fuss and a statement. I do this because of nature of the immature takeover of the NSSN by the Socialist Party and having studied the policies of the TUSC and listened to Alex Gordon (President of the RMT union) at his Industrial Society talk in Manchester in December with his reference to exchange controls and British sovereignty, I fear that what you may end up with is national socialism without the racism. I say without the racism, but I think an unintended consequence of your position and that of Alex Gordon - with its nod to 'Little England' - could be a drift to the encouragement of xenophobia in this country. I know that TUSC has an etc. clause here & there that is internationalist in intent, but the underlying policy is reactionary and 'Little England'. I also heard Steve Headley at the special conference criticise Dave Chapple for 'taking his ball home': well does that mean that if we were in Germany in 1933 at the time of Hitler's triumph at the elections there we should behave like good Prussians and accept the result? Far better to behave like good Spaniards and Catalans in 1936 and be the first to confront the Fascists... 

Kind regards, 

Brian Bamford

The German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, in his speech in 1934, supported nationalisation, and the policy of TUSC is as follows: 'Stop all privatisation, including the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), and the immoral privatisation of prisons. Bring privatised public services and utilities back into public ownership under democratic control.' The form of 'democratic control' is not explained, there is no evidence here that it would differ much from Herbert Morrison's model as established in the 1940s.

National Shop Stewards Network:

  Resigning in slow motion!

THE clock is ticking, and with the next steering committee of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) called by the national committee overwhelmingly dominated by the Socialist Party under secretary, Linda Taaffe, scheduled for next Sunday, some NSSN dissidents are certainly taking their time at formally handing in their resignations. Formal resignations are now into double figures on the steering committee of 60+, but probably less than one would expect at this stage given the level of feeling among the Socialist Party's opponents on the steering committee after the NSSN conference on 22nd January, at which it was generally agreed that the Socialist Party pocketed the ball.  The anarchist fortnightly, FREEDOM last week claimed that 'the majority of NSSN/Shop Steward Network national officers - all of those not in the Socialist Party - resigned their positions.'  The officers may have resigned their posts but as yet not all non-Socialist Party members of the NSSN steering committee have resigned and the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) members have said that they will stay in until at least till next Sunday's meeting before making a final decision.

At the time of this post it may be that not all the syndicalists and anarcho-syndicalists have resigned. From those who have resigned, including Dave Chapple (Chair), George Binette (Treasurer), Bob Archer (Publicity), Becca Kilpatrick (NSSN Affiliation's Officer) Pete Firmin, Brian Bamford, Keir Lawson, Stu Melvin, Glyn Harries, Emy Castlelao, Jamie Beamont, Chris Leary, Helen Steel, Gerry Downing, a statement is expected shortly.

Freedom in its report said: '(Those) 89 who voted against the (Socialist Party) walked out of the meeting and reconvened in a nearby pub where discussions were held on the next step, deciding unanimously to continue the work of trade union activists' solidarity on an organised national basis, with syndicalists, rightly, insisting that any new network would never again fall under the leadership of a single political party.' 
In fact, there may have been more than 89 at this post-conference meeting because some at the conference didn't have delegate status and were present as observers. Some of the syndicalists met in Birmingham two weeks ago to consider the position and it is expected that a general meeting of all opponents of the Socialist Party will be pondering the options in the near future.

DID BOB CROW PLAY FOOTSIE WITH SMELLY LITTLE ORTHODOXY?

MEANWHILE AT THE NSSN CONFERENCE NANCY TAAFFE STICKS UP FOR NORTH OF THE BORDER POLITICIAN TOMMY SHERIDAN

BEFORE Linda Taaffe could say 'Easy-Peasey!', or 'Higgledy-Piggledy!', or 'Hop-Skip-and-a-Jump!' Big Bob Crow had jumped into bed. Or so say some of the 'malas lenguas' - foul mouthed folk on the left who don't take a shine to the Socialist Party. Within a day of issuing an open letter to the National Shop Stewards Network and Socialist Party urging the 'maximum possible unity' and insisting 'there can be no question of any political party or organisation seeking to assume leadership of this struggle or setting up a new national organisation that would create disunity', Bob Crow seemingly went to bed with the Socialist Party. That is what his critics are now saying.

Readers must decide for themselves but on the 12th, January 2011, a statement was issued in the name of Bob Crow (RMT general secretary), Alex Gordon (RMT president), Bill Mullins (Socialist Party & co-organiser of the NSSN) and Linda Taaffe (Socialist Party and secretary of the NSSN) in which it was announced that 'Bob Crow and Alex Gordon agree with the proposal of the NSSN steering committee of 4th, December 2010 to launch an anti-cuts campaign...' That proposal was the motion that the Socialist Party and only the Socialist Party supported on the 4th December: all other parties, the syndicalists and those of no party opposed this motion preferring to avoid the process in which the NSSN became just another protest group or rent-a-mob.

What does this mean? It means, if the Socialist Party's critics don't resign, that the NSSN will become a junk shop for every fashionable fancy that the Socialist Party wants to use it for; and the other parties - the SWP, Permanent Revolution or the syndicalists - will serve the purpose of providing a fig leaf for a smelly little orthodoxy that has its roots in some distasteful politics on the left. Witness the recent perjury conviction of Scottish Tommy Sheridan, on behalf of whom Nancy Taaffe, daughter of Linda, shamelessly strode up to the NSSN rostrum on 22nd, January to uphold as a 'victim of capitalism' when what he seems to have done is roam around the downtown suburbs of Swinton with a woman journalist from the News of the World or offer himself as a copper's nark after the poll tax riots in the early 1990s. Or take Derek Hatton in Liverpool a prominent figure in the Militant Tendency, the forerunner of the Socialist Party, now there's a fine specimen of political rectitude for you. This is the unsavory politics which the Socialist Party is knee deep in. The only reason we had owt to do with them on the NSSN is because we thought they may have grown out of it. But alas, it seems we were wrong!

Where does Bob Crow stand on this and why did he turn a somersault overnight and line up with the Socialist Party knowing that it would lead to divisions? In the week following the 4th, December 2010 NSSN steering committee meeting at which the Socialist Party had asserted its control over the other groups on a vote of 21 to 17, I discussed the outcome in Manchester with Alex Gordon, President of the RMT, and he indicated that he was in touch with Linda Taaffe and disapproved of some of her critics. Alex Gordon, some will remember was formerly a member of the Direct Action Movement in the 1980s: an anarcho-syndicalist organisation linked to the Spanish CNT. I had a distinct impression then that he would side with the Socialist Party.

Bob Crow for his part has veered from taking a tactical position close to anarchist type direct action proclaiming a belief in civil disobedience and Swampy during last September's TUC Congress, but later on Radio 4's 'Any Questions' denouncing 'anarchist-style' actions at Millbank when it was raided by the students because it 'only benefited the insurance companies'. The Millbank attack was later shown to be a spontaneous student action. Now it seems with local elections looming in May, that Brother Crow is focused again on ballot box politics and that means the candidates of the Trade Union Socialist Coalition (TUSC). In the TUSC the Socialist Party is the dominant force and the current conflict in the industrial NSSN must now be an irritation if not a distraction.

When TUSC was formed in January 2010 the blog 'A Very Public Sociologist' asked: 'can TUSC break down the awful sectarian culture of the far left, and does it constitute a step toward a new left alternative'?

By provoking a vexatious conflict in the NSSN over the issue of anti-cuts the Socialist Party is closing down a culture of unity and creating resentment. The syndicalists which represented the fastest growing group on the NSSN steering committee - increasing from 3 or 4 to 14 in twelve months - have conducted themselves well in this dispute thanks in no small part to the skillful leadership of Dave Chapple (Chairman of the NSSN, Secretary of Bridgewater TUC and member of the CWU).