Socialist Party members on Unite Executive Council
The Unite Executive Council meeting in October was the first since Sharon Graham was re-elected general secretary, and now there is also a majority of supporters of her manifesto on the EC, including members of the Socialist Party and Unite Broad Left.
That means a big shift, and the EC has been able to focus on important issues, including industrial and political strategy.
The Unite Executive sent messages of solidarity to the public sector-wide strikes in Ireland on 14 and 21 October, which will include Unite members, as well as the mass strikes and struggles of trade unionists and young people in France and Spain.
At the next EC, Unite will start the discussion on its relationship with the Labour Party, as agreed in a motion at the policy conference in 2025 in solidarity with the Birmingham bin strikers.
Another focus will be on developing the structures in Unite, including cross-sector combines to coordinate campaigns across multiple employers. This will help bring more members into participation in the union.
Relationship with Labour
The EC agreed to separate out the rules and policy conferences next year. The rules conference will be in July, where a discussion will happen about the union’s relationship with the Labour Party. Socialist Party members and others had argued to hold that before the May 2027 elections to enable a discussion to take place more urgently about anti-austerity workers’ candidates.
One option being considered is to run a consultation of the entirety of the Unite membership on the issue of the Labour Party and political affiliation, ahead of the rules conference.
While among EC members there were some hopes in Andy Burnham – a Burnham ‘hop’! – when one EC member raised that now we’ve got Burnham instead of Starmer should we up our affiliation to the Labour Party, no one argued in support of that idea.
Whatever happens with the union’s rules, Unite will look at how Unite holds sponsored MPs to account. Up till now it’s effectively been that you’ve got to be in the Labour Party to be in the discussions, but those MPs should be responsible to the whole union.
Unite will be campaigning to defend the pensions triple lock and for a wealth tax of 1% on those earning over £4 million. If all the Unite-supported MPs voted for that, Burnham would lose his majority.
Unite should be arguing to go further – for nationalisation of energy, and to bring privatised health services back into the NHS, for example.
Since the economic collapse in 2008, the only ‘solution’ to the crisis of capitalism has been austerity. Now workers are demanding change. There’s a demand now for pay restoration, not just keeping up with inflation. Unite has seen a 17% growth of young members, and new reps. We can see the rise of action.
There was general agreement at the EC that the Unite reps on the TUC General Council should vote for the PCS motion to be enacted, that the TUC “urgently call a national Saturday demonstration” against Labour austerity. If we don’t get that by the end of the year then we need a coalition of those unions that are willing to fight to act together, and Unite should be part of that.
