Socialist Party members in Unite
This year’s Unite the Union rules and policy conferences took place together for the first time, at a critical time for the union. They brought together the main industrial and political issues facing Unite, as the strike wave continues to rage and the crisis in the Tories opens up the likelihood of a Starmer-led New Labour government. Sunak’s new minimum service level anti-union legislation could be law by the beginning of autumn.
Socialist Party members played a key role in some of the most important debates, as well as in initiatives towards the building of a new left in the union, determined to prevent any obstacles to the militant trajectory of the union since the election of Sharon Graham as Unite general secretary in 2021.
Sharon ended her main conference address with the words: “The re-birth of the unions has begun.” Unite has been to the fore in the rise in industrial struggle, leading the fight against the Tory cost-of-living squeeze and the offensive of the employers. Sharon announced that, under her leadership, Unite has had 890 disputes, involving 170,000 members, and secured £400 million in gains.
Political strategy
It has also taken a combative approach to Starmer, formulating key pro-worker demands and putting them to Labour, such as renationalisation and repealing the Tory anti-union laws. But unfortunately, the necessary conclusions to this were not drawn. Had they been, it would have added a powerful weapon to Unite’s armoury.
As we reported last week (see ‘Unite conferences: Political strategy and anti-union laws’), rules amendments, including one originating from Socialist Party members, that would have opened up Unite’s political strategy, were defeated. The official Unite press release reported that this prevented disaffiliation, but disaffiliation was never called for in any rule amendment or policy conference motion.
Instead, had the amendments passed, the union would have been able to support candidates in elections, both inside and outside Labour, that supported Unite’s policies and members taking action, instead of being restricted to Starmer’s Labour Party. It would be then be the decision of Starmer and the Labour right if they wanted to expel their party’s biggest financial backer!
The vote against the rule amendments was on the basis of Sharon arguing that “this isn’t the time,” in what is effectively a pre-general election period. But the mood of the vast majority of conference delegates certainly wasn’t pro-Starmer. Sharon promised that there would be no “blank cheques” for Labour, and reminded delegates about the attack on bin workers by Coventry Labour council, which spent £9 million unsuccessfully trying to break the Unite strike. “You have to decide whose side you are on,” she demanded of Starmer. He was met with almost complete silence later in the week when he took to the stage to address conference, and left to, at best, grudging and limited applause.
However, Starmer has decided which side he is on. He has repeatedly made clear that his government will defend the interests of the capitalist elite, rather than the working-class majority, including by his steadfast insistence that public sector pay restraint will continue. By arguing to continue to exclusively fund Labour candidates, regardless of Starmer’s policies, the majority of the Executive Council (EC) have given the Labour leadership a certain “blank cheque”.
Nonetheless, this issue will continue to be discussed. If Jeremy Corbyn declares he is running as an independent, for example, some Unite branches are bound to want to back him, rather than the Labour candidate imposed by the Starmer machine.
The question of Jeremy Corbyn was raised on the conference floor by Tony Woodhouse, who this year stepped down as Unite’s national chair after 15 years. He criticised Starmer and made clear his support for Jeremy Corbyn, as well as remembering the Militant-led fighting Labour council of his home town Liverpool in the 1980s. Tony told delegates that his parents actually lived in one of the 5,000 houses that the council built in its defiance of Thatcher’s brutal cuts.
But the tabling of the rule amendments, as well as an amendment to a policy conference motion from the Housing Workers Branch, all undoubtedly helped push this mood, by setting out a real political strategy. How much more powerful would have been the demands on Starmer if the union had been able to warn him that a Labour government led by him, carrying out anti-worker policies, would be challenged at the ballot box.
Gains under threat
But the assertive stance of the union under Sharon is under threat from more conservative forces such as the United Left (UL), who want to make Unite safe for Starmer, who in turn has made Labour pliant for the bosses.
This was especially shown in the debate against the Tory minimum service levels anti-union attack. Two motions, from Barts NHS Trust and LE1228 Waltham Forest Council branches, included the need for Unite to call for action on the scale of a 24-hour general strike. But the UL-dominated Standing Orders Committee omitted that phrase when they put the motions together into one composite!
Initially at the conference, the EC, with a slight UL majority, had voted to recommend rejection of the composite motion in full. But before the debate, Sharon went back to the EC and, along with the likes of Socialist Party member Suzanne Muna, successfully argued that the EC change its position to support. The motion was moved by fellow Socialist Party member Kevin Parslow from LE1228 branch and was overwhelmingly passed. This puts Unite alongside the FBU and RMT in leading the charge for mass coordinated strike action to defeat Sunak’s attack on the right to strike.
The UL-dominated Standing Orders Committee also ruled out an amendment from the LE1111 Housing Workers’ Branch calling for “a referendum of all Unite members asking them if they agree with opening up our political fund to support any candidate, inside and outside of the Labour Party”, showing their fear of members, not putting ‘members’ first’, as they claim.
They also opposed the motion from Greenwich Council Branch, which reiterated Unite’s policy supporting legal no-cuts budgets, passed in Sharon’s first conference in 2021.
New left needed
It is becoming clear to an increasing number of Unite activists that a new left has to be built, led by rank-and-file reps and members, in conjunction with militant officers. Socialist Party members played a key role, with our allies, in an excellent meeting of over 50 delegates to discuss how such a left organisation can be developed. The day before, a ‘Workers Unite’ fringe meeting of 100 rules conference delegates, to defend Sharon Graham’s manifesto, also showed the potential, with Suzanne Muna on the top table of both meetings.
These are important developments that must be taken forward, to bring together and mobilise all those who are determined that the gains of the last two years are maintained and built upon.
The Socialist Party also held a very successful fringe meeting, with over 30 attending, with Socialist Party general secretary Hannah Sell and Unite EC member Suzanne Muna speaking. The audience also heard from Unite St Mungo’s and Brighton UCU strikers. Both disputes are out indefinitely.
