At the first meeting of the newly elected National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the president used his powers to block discussion of crucial questions.
In May, members voted for a change of leadership in the NEC elections. The ‘Left Unity’ grouping lost its majority to a coalition of activists standing for change, which includes Socialist Party members and the Broad Left Network in which they participate.
The union’s annual conference quickly followed, where delegates rejected the strategies put forward by the outgoing NEC and instead supported the fighting strategy on pay, jobs cuts and pensions put forward by supporters of the Broad Left Network.
However, the ousted leading group still holds the positions of general secretary and president.
At the first meeting of the NEC, Broad Left Network supporters put forward a political strategy for the union in this general election to back up the industrial strategy agreed at conference.
What the resolution said
This resolution referenced existing union policy, which includes “the ability of branches to apply to the NEC in order to support candidates for election in particular constituencies”.
It argued: “A Labour government is the most likely outcome of the pending general election – but this is not an excuse to demobilise the union’s campaign. It is grounds to step up these campaigns. We must put emphatic support behind those parliamentary candidates who support our members and their legitimate demands and needs. The NEC must take steps to mobilise members, to demonstrate clearly our intention to fight, and must place clear demands on the likely incoming Starmer-led Labour government”.
The resolution added: “Noting his decades of support for workers’ rights, for pay justice and national bargaining in the civil service, for the full funding of public services, for an end to the scourge of privatisation, for the nationalisation of energy, railways and the Post Office, and for his opposition to racism and oppression domestically and internationally, from South Africa to Palestine, the Public and Commercial Services union endorses Jeremy Corbyn as the candidate for parliament in Islington North.”
The resolution called on the union to meet with Keir Starmer to present the union’s agreed demands on pay and pensions, and for repudiation of the Tory plan to cut 70,000 jobs, instead calling for 100,000 new civil service jobs.
Further, it “reaffirms the right of branches to propose support for candidates in any parliamentary constituency in their geographical footprint to a branch EGM, where those candidates are positively identified as publicly supporting the minimum demands outlined above, where they are not in breach of PCS policy on equality”.
“Even whilst we take steps on our political strategy, we must also ready ourselves to renew our industrial campaign should a pro-austerity government, committed to following through planned Tory cuts in the civil service and related areas, be elected.”
This is the discussion that the president used his powers to block!
Democratic discussion needed
An important debate could have taken place. The coalition that now has the majority on the NEC is united in its determination to build a fighting, democratic union with a serious industrial strategy on the issues that matter to members. However, not all parts of the coalition agree on a way forward politically. The Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL), for example, which forms the biggest part of the Independent Left grouping in PCS, takes a different view. The AWL argues for support for Labour candidates across the board, even against Jeremy Corbyn.
Socialist Party members in the union at all levels want these crucial issues debated out democratically.
- See the resolution in full at bln.org.uk
