Fred Leplat, CFDU national treasurer DEMOCRACY is under threat in. UNISON. Two branches - including the largest branch in England - have been suspended, activists are being investigated, "unauthorised" placards were banned on the April 10 Living Wage demonstration - and finally a conference decision allowing branches to campaign in the union is being reinterpreted through a "consultation"
This attack on democracy has been going on for a year since the national officials around General Secretary Rodney Bickerstaffe attempted to ban donations from branches to pontical organisations and prevent branches from organising together to develop : union policy.
The national Icadership was partly defeated on this issue when last year's UNISON conference adopted motion 184. This confirmed the right of branches to campaign to change or develop union policy, but stopped the controversial donations.
National officials were also defeated at national conference when they used every trick in the book to prevent a decision being made for a national demonstration for a proper minimum wage, which would have put them in conflict with the Blair government. • Given the obstacles put in the way of an effective demonstration, 20,000 people demonstratin Newcastle for a proper Living Wage was certainly a warning that union members want more from a Labour government than just rehashed policies.
hat is not the message that Bickerstaffe or the clique behind activists todav. him which runs the union want UNISON to be putting out.
Since last year's UNISON conference, national officials have attempted to roll back lay-memher democracy through a whole series of attacks.
They are now preparing the union for a sanitised conference which will be in their eyes a "show-case" for the union, and where they will not be "ambushed" as they were last year with the vote for a demonstration for a minimum wage.
The attacks started seriously after the UCLH branch organised a very large lobby of the Labour Party conterence for the minimum wage. The UCLH branch was never accused of calling an event which was in breach of the rules of the union. But branches were asked by the General Secretary to account for the money spent in sending members onto the lobby. ne Since the formation of UNISON, a small but increasing number of have been investigated - such as those from the Liverpool, Leeds and Newham branches. Some still are.
This has often occurred in branches where former NUPE branch officers were reluctant to merge, and attempted to depict former NALGO activists as bullies. This gave the opportunity for regional officials to remove and PRO porters, because they have been criticised for some of their tactics by others on the left such as the i CFDU (Campaign for a Fighting and Democratic UniSOl.
The SWP, despite some wrong tactics, have attempted to organise a fightback against privatisation at UCL Hospital and against privatisation of housing benefit in Sheffield. It is this fighting leadership which national officials want to crush. And after having dealt with the SWP, they will undoubtedly launch a wider witch-hunt which will include the CFDU and others on the left.
The recent suspension of Birmingham, the largest branch in the union by a body called the "Presidential Team" confirms thịs trend. Birmingham with 18,000 members, is not led by the SWP, but has a varied left leadership which has tried to organise against council attacks.
Some members made complaints about some branch officers: but instead of letting the members decide who should lead
CAVICES
IES Fighting for jobs - and risking a witch-hunt: Birmingham Branch them, regional officials cancelled the branch AGM and subsequently suspended the branch.
Complaints against individuals are no reason for suspending a whole branch. The real motivation for the suspension is that the Birmingham branch leadership did not agree with a reorganisation into sub-branches being proposed by national officials.
Unfortunately, when this matter was raised at a recent NEC, only six CFDU supporters and the three West Midlands NEC members voted for lifting the suspension.
Now the suspension of the 'Sheffield UNISON branch, again by the Presidential Team, takes this matter further. Complaints against Annette Carey and other SWP supporters on the branch leadership are being used to demonstrate that "good governance" of the branch has broken down. Regional officials are now running the branch, and all stewards have been asked whether they agree with the actions of the Presidential Team and will co-operate with the reorganisation of the branch before being allowed by régional officials to continue as stewards!!
The attacks on democracy also go hand in hand with an attempt to prevent any political alternative being presented to the membership. There is no national opposition to privatisation whether through "Best Value" or PFI schemes, or to the imposition of normal overtime rates for working the Millennium New Year in the NHS, or to the miserly pay Uses being offered in local government. National officials are trying to prevent the left from winning conference to a fighting strategy, or at least a national demonstration on issues of concern to the membership and which could place the union in conflict with the New Labour government.
The national leadership has therefore drafted guidelines on the right to campaign in UNISON which would, if adopied, restrict this right by preventing any branch-based initiative, such as a conference on Best Value, if it does not have the support of the Regional Committee.
Fortunately, number of branches and the CFDU and SWP, are organising against this attack on democracy. One of the proudest founding principles of UNISON was that it was to be a "member-led" union.
We must not let the Bickerstaffe and his officials ditch these principles to create a union in which all the levers of power are in the hands of full-time bureaucrats.