(Branch Secretary, CPSA ONS Newport, personal capacity) THE SECOND annual conference of 'Left Unity' in the CPSA on November 29 was attended by eighty activists.
This will be the last such conference before the merger with the other major civil service union PTC on January 1.
Members voted to accept the merger in October, on terms which had been rejected by both unions' annual conferences, and which are calculated to entrench the power of the bureaucracy.
The membership had been consistently misled about what was on offer, continuing the long series of manoeuvres which strengthened the control of both unions by rightwing cliques espousing the politics of "business-unionism".
Within CPSA the left had been weakened by factionalism and an over-reliance on contesting national union elections.
The dire need for a strong united fightback against the right has, however, impelled CPSA's three socialist groups to transform Left Unity from a loose electoral pact into an increasingly cohesive organisation.
This is now to be further strengthened by the addition of the PTC Broad Left, and hopefully the same union's 'Unity' group.
The conference made welcome declarations of intent, passing motions which committed Left Unity to becoming "an active campaigning socialist organisation" and to organise solidarity with workers in struggle. The need for such an organisation, capable of providing a fighting leadership for the new union, cannot be in doubt.
Under the Tory governmen,t right-wing 'New Realist' union leaders sat on their hands while civil servants faced repeated attacks.
There is little sign of any change coming from New Labour, with the continuation of the pay freeze and other Tony policies, and unwelcome innovations like the New Deal.
The right wing union leadership are as unwilling as ever to organise