Starting with a 1,000-strong ‘Trade unionists for a new party’ meeting hosted by former Labour MP Dave Nellist in July last year, groups of activists in trade unions have being meeting and discussing the way forward in the fight for working-class political representation. These meetings have resulted in the drawing up of motions to take into union meetings. Here, two activists in the GMB and Unite were inspired to move these in their branches and have reported how it went.
Unite: Overwhelming support – 83%
I had long discussed getting involved in my workplace trade union Unite with Socialist Party members. I had joined the ‘Trade unionists for a new party’ Zoom meeting in July with Dave Nellist. I had also been following things through the Socialist Party’s Unite caucus. In August last year, I went to my first workplace union meeting.
I work for a large insurance company, which falls under the finance and legal sector, and has staff across the country from Perth to Southampton. The union branch meetings aren’t typically very political, so when I sent a motion to discuss Unite’s affiliation with the Labour Party, I was very apprehensive and totally unsure of how this would pan out.
At that first meeting, the main topic discussed was the portion sizes in the canteen! I’ll be honest, I was thinking: how do I go from this to the motion?
Turns out it wasn’t a branch meeting as such (just Sheffield members) and the branch hadn’t had a motion in 15 years, so nobody really knew what to do with it. The branch secretary kindly went away to understand the process.
The local rep is a Green Party member and was very enthused that a political motion was being brought forward, and was quick to volunteer in seconding the motion.
So when the actual all-member branch meeting came around, the process was fully understood by all involved and was a first for all. With the help of Alex, a local Socialist Party member and trade union activist, and my local rep I was able to prepare a statement on reasons why the motion should be supported.
The motion passed in full with 83% voting in favour, I was overwhelmed with the level of support the motion received with many members messaging to say thank you for raising this motion and that they wholeheartedly supported it.
The local rep has even reached out to ask me to help with a motion he wants to bring on environmental issues!
Subsequently, the regional committee in Unite rejected the motion, but again fellow Socialist Party activists were on hand to help me understand and formulate a response.
The point is, I would never have had to the confidence or knowledge to have taken this motion to my branch without benefits from discussion and guidance within my Socialist Party branch and the wider party. It was refreshing to see the political appetite within my workplace!
Claire Wraith, Sheffield North West Socialist Party
GMB: ‘Nobody can argue with that!’
My trade union, GMB, is the second biggest donor to Labour after Unite, yet the Labour Party does not represent us. Labour is in power, yet austerity is continuing and Socialist Party members have been working inside the trade unions to open up the question of political representation for our class.
On 21 January, I went, for my second time, to the union reps meeting of my retail sector branch, this time hoping to get a motion passed and put forward to GMB Congress about political representation.
I felt very nervous and was about to chicken out because I didn’t know the correct procedure, because I didn’t know the other members yet, and because I thought that there would be pushback from the union officials. However, as this would be the last chance to put forward the motion before the deadline for congress motions, I finally decided that the only thing was to ‘just do it’.
At the beginning of the meeting one of the officials said: “Has anyone got any motions for congress, then?” I stepped forward with the motion in my hand. The officer looked at me quizzically because at the only other meeting I had attended I hadn’t said a word. I thought I had better say something, so I said: “It’s about political representation. Basically it’s about ‘why are we paying our political fund to Labour for them to do us in?’” Nobody can argue with that!
So I read out the motion and was expecting some questions, debate or pushback. Instead, everyone agreed with it and quite a few members expressed strong support for it and even delight in it! All my worrying had been for nothing. The officials, to my surprise, didn’t say anything against it (although I suspect because they know that the regional apparatus will find a way to reject it).
From this experience I learnt that:
1. Our socialist ideas are actually popular, it’s just that people haven’t heard them yet and therefore we need to boldly take every opportunity to put our ideas forward
2. I am a big chicken but there is nothing to be afraid of. The worst thing that could have happened is that they would have voted it down and thought I was too radical. I hope that I will feel bolder next time.
3. One shouldn’t wait until one is ‘ready’ but should ‘just do it’.
4. Being a member of a party like the Socialist Party allows us to achieve more than we could alone (which I knew intellectually before, but now I had experienced it). I benefited from discussions and encouragement, and the fact that Socialist Party GMB members discussed among ourselves and with other activists in the union to draw up a draft motion.
Carole Sasaki, Lancashire Socialist Party
