PCS leadership: Left must stand
The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) is facing a crucial election for the post of general secretary later this year.
In a recent ballot, members of the civil service union have voted overwhelmingly that the contest should take place, thereby changing the rules laid down when PCS was created in 1998.
These stated that the general secretaries of CPSA and PTC - Barry Reamsbottom and John Sheldon - would jointly run the merged union without facing a re-election battle, because each would be within five years of retirement when the election was due. Sheldon is to leave office this year, but Reamsbottom has another four years to go before he collects his gold watch.
Since its creation, PCS has been led by two right-wing groups - the Moderates and Membership First - which previously ran its predecessor unions CPSA and PTC, respectively.
Although there are no substantial political differences between the two, they have recently fallen out as the autocratic Reamsbottom and his Moderate cronies have become increasingly intolerant to Membership First.
Panicking at the prospect of a Reamsbottom-run union after Sheldon's retirement, Membership First worked with opposition factions to ensure that conference voted for an early general secretary's election, and that this was then confirmed by a membership ballot.
In return for its co-operation, the union's main socialist group, Left Unity, which holds the balance of power on the NEC, was able to win Membership First's support for a democratisation of union elections and a campaign to restore national pay bargaining.
Reamsbottom is pursuing a legal challenge to the election, but the political factions are preparing for an election on the basis that this will be unsuccessful.
Membership First are running Hugh Lanning, currently Assistant General Secretary, and there is currently an effort to persuade the left to support him against Reamsbottom, on the grounds that a separate left challenger will split the anti-Reamsbottom vote.
This line is supported, unsurprisingly, by the Stalinist-led 'Unity' group - but also by the Socialist Party and others within Left Unity. At the Left Unity conference in Manchester on 9 September, they will urge the organisation to stand aside in favour of Lanning on the basis that he is the only one who can defeat the incumbent and that he would at least respect the democracy of the union.
This approach fails to acknowledge that Lanning offers no alternative direction for the union: he and his faction do not want to restore annual conferences and NEC elections, or to give power back to the branches.
They are not willing to lead a real challenge to government policy on privatisation, performance-related pay and the anti-union laws. They represent the same, failed policies of 'social partnership', which have sacrificed civil service jobs, pay and conditions over the last twenty years, but with a kindlier, more 'inclusive' face.
A real political alternative is essential in this election to convince members that there is another way, and to prepare for a real fight in defence of