Some 900 trade unionists, most of them delegates elected by union organisations, met last weekend to debate political representation and organising against employers’ attacks, and to launch a Workers Charter.
The Organising for Fighting Unions conference, initiated by the Respect Coalition, took place in Shoreditch Town Hall, east London.
Chris Reilly, a GMB union rep for striking workers at JJB Sports (see page 16 for report), helped set the tone for the event.
Chris condemned JJB’s millionaire owner Dave Whelan for his aggressive anti?union approach and his paltry pay offer, which amounted to 1p per hour above the minimum wage for many workers.
Throughout the day delegates spoke of the need to translate the current political radicalisation, seen in campaigns such as Stop the War, into a revitalised trade union organisation.
Jane Loftus, a postal worker who sits on the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) executive, said, “We need political trade unions. By taking up issues such as the social forums, anti?racism and the war we have helped build the CWU.
“For instance, take up the issue of climate change if you want to interest young people in the union. If we want to rebuild the shop stewards’ movement we need to be political. It’s not that people are apathetic, it’s that we don’t organise enough.”
Merger
Car worker Rod Finlayson called for unity between various initiatives to revitalise the trade unions from below. “We need a powerful shop stewards movement that can mount challenges - officially or unofficially,” he said.
He added that he supported the planned merger between the Amicus and T&G unions, saying that it would offer more democracy.
But Ted Knight from the Amicus union took an opposing view of the merger. “The result will be the strengthening of the bureaucracy,” he said.
“This will lead trade unions to become the partners of business.”
He argued that the future of the unions lay in recruiting a new generation of workers, not merging existing memberships.
While there was open and honest debate on issues such as this, there was consensus on many of the key challenges workers face.
One important issue is the attack on the NHS. Geoff Martin from campaign group Health Emergency outlined the scale of New Labour’s assault on the health service - and the growing grassroots resistance to hospital closures, job cuts and privatisation.
Noting that health secretary Patricia Hewitt has commissioned “heat maps” showing where NHS cuts might generate political opposition, he said, “You don’t draw up heat maps unless you’re worried about the political consequences of your actions. Let’s turn up the heat.”
Paul Harper is branch secretary of Maidstone branch of NHS Logistics Unison. He recounted the experience of the battle against the privatisation of NHS Logistics, which led to the first national strike in the health service for 17 years.
He said, “If you think five small Unison branches can get onto the front of every newspaper, imagine what all of the unions could do together to save the NHS.”
Picket
Education is another area where workers face battles over the government’s agenda. Mac Andrassy from Oldham NUT told the conference how militancy is growing across schools in his area.
“It really started when teachers didn’t cross Unison picket lines during the pensions strike earlier this year,” he said.
“When the teachers came out over cuts, the Unison members didn’t cross our picket lines. That’s how we were able to build up across Oldham against the attacks on us.”
There were many other inspiring stories from across the unions.
Andy Snoddy, an organiser from the T&G, recounted how the union is attempting to organise low paid cleaners, most of them migrant workers, across London.
Mark Benjamin, a PCS union member, attended the conference as a delegate from Harrow trades council. He told Socialist Worker, “I thought it was an excellent conference that brought a lot of positive energy together.
“In Harrow we have been working to bring all the trade unions together. We are also fighting against civil service jobs being lost in Harrow.
“Today was an opportunity to network with like minded thinkers.”
Opposition to Islamophobia ran through the conference. Zubada Akhtar from Birmingham Unison said, “Muslims are being referred to as ‘terrorists’. Women are seen as oppressed if they wear the veil.
“I would like to emphasise to the comrades here that they should not listen to these lies.
“My family allows me to carry out my trade union duties. I am here to show solidarity with others. We need to stick together and team up with other unions.”
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Conference votes on a charter for our rights
The Organising for Fighting Unions conference voted for a Workers Charter and elected a 17 member organising committee. This committee will start coordinating a campaign to have the charter adopted by unions throughout the country.
The immediate campaigning priorities set out by delegates were:
To organise lobbies of MPs to call for them to support the Trade Union Freedom Bill, which will reverse some of the worst aspect of the Tory anti?union laws.
To support any group of workers who take action which is in defiance of the anti?union laws and call on their unions not to repudiate their action.
To organise in support of the Public Services not Private Profit initiative.
To campaign in defence of an NHS free of private finance initiatives and contracting out.
To demand the TUC name a day for a national demonstration in defence of the NHS to take place early next year and, if they fail to do so, to support initiatives for a national demonstration from grassroots health activists.
To organise a trade union delegation to Venezuela.
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Comments
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20.11.2006 16:28
Fighting fund
As expected, we were treated to a stage-managed event with some good, inspiring speakers who said all the right things but ultimately left you thinking - what now?
Don’t get me wrong. It would be hard not to feel ready to get involved within the union movement and political organisations when you hear Galloway tell us that the bonuses received by the bosses in the City amount to £8 billion, while hospitals are facing massive cutbacks, but after a day of this rhetoric you were left wondering just what is going to happen. Will there be campaign groups set up in every town and city? Not likely if there aren’t moves to set up active Respect branches nationwide.
Let’s look at some positives. It was good for trade unionists and activists to get together. I found it a boost to hear from union members about their struggles that don’t reach the mainstream press. There were strong comments from various speakers about the need to combat war and islamophobia, including from a young muslim woman who made clear that it was her father and brothers who encouraged her to be a union rep - clearly an alternative view to that of the tabloid press.
There was a speaker from Turkey who called for international solidarity with the struggles in his country and a speaker from India who highlighted the plight of workers there. Both were well received and made you feel part of a bigger trade union movement.
John McDonnell was given the opportunity to highlight his campaign for the Labour leadership and Dave Nellist was able to promote the Socialist Party’s latest project - the Campaign for a New Workers’ Party - to polite clapping from an audience that I would guess were a majority of SWP/Respect members (contrast that with the ovation received by John Rees, for example!).
There were representatives of JJB strikers from Wigan, who are showing that there are different ways of pursuing a dispute - they are planning to leaflet Wigan football ground and ask fans to wave their yellow leaflets as a warning to the Wigan chair, Dave Whelan, who is also boss of JJB Sports. Workers involved in the NHS Logistics dispute and Merseyside firefighters were also present, giving a real flavour that there is a fight back taking place and that workers respond to calls for action when they believe a dispute is winnable.
There was a lesson for my union leadership - a comrade working at The Daily Telegraph spoke of management backing down when the National Union of Journalists called a three-day strike: management actually stated they wouldn’t have done so if it had been a one-day strike that was called - PCS executive take note.
But was the conference democratic? Good question. Clearly the impression was given by the long list of speakers of an opportunity for activists from various positions to speak.
But who drew up the Workers’ Charter? Was the bullet-pointed piece on the back of the leaflet the full extent of its demands? Why were we not alerted beforehand of the need to set up a democratically elected committee to work on the charter and its promotion following this conference?
Added to this was the issue of speakers from the floor. I fully appreciate time was limited, but was getting people to fill out a slip requesting to speak and handing it to the two-person ‘conference committee’ aimed at facilitating democratic debate? It seems to me it was more of an opportunity for vetting speakers, since there was no system in place for deciding who should speak and in what order - looking down from the balcony, I could see there was a lot of shuffling of slips going on!
It was in the afternoon that the real intention of the conference was at its most blatant, although I would guess to most folk it was obvious from the start - an SWP member I know admitted as much! The speakers of note were Valerie Wise, the Preston councillor who resigned from Labour, John Rees, Respect national secretary, and PCSU general secretary Mark Serwotka. It was these speakers who set out the ‘why you should join Respect’ agenda.
Valerie didn’t fully commit to joining Respect, but might well have done so, such were the strong hints made throughout her speech - “You tell me who I should join”. “Respect!” came the loud reply (cringe).
John Rees re-emphasised the inequalities in the world and the evils of the imperialist invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan (we don’t disagree with you, John - just let’s have something more than protest marches every few months!). He ended by making it quite clear that all he had said meant that if we agreed then we should - wait for it - consider joining Respect if we weren’t already members.
It was perhaps left to Mark to end the main speakers part of the conference with a good speech, again covering the need for fighting unions and (unless I misheard) committing himself to fully support Respect.
I still feel unclear as to what will happen following this conference. I hope I am wrong, but it felt like a Respect recruitment drive rather than an opportunity to revitalise trade unions.
So overall? It is always good that the left can get together. The conference was well organised and to hear workers in struggle and in some cases winning is inspiring and something to take back to the workplace, but I shall be very interested to see what becomes of this campaign. Will the committee of the Organising Fighting Unions movement follow this by continuing to involve us union activists at every stage of building the movement or will we just be told what to do and when to do it?
I have read with interest recent conferences and rallies, all claiming to be organising a mass workers’ party or recreate the shop stewards movement of the 70s, this being the latest one. But so far it seems so far from reading the Weekly Worker that only the CPGB is prepared to get down to the practicalities following a conference and work on a detailed programme for further developing the potential of a mass workers’ party based on true socialist principles.
Tony Wood