The first conference of the Amicus-MSF section brought only lean pickings for the left.
While this partly reflects a real relationship of forces on the ground, it is also a product of the fact that Unity Left, now the only left grouping in the union, was seriously divided over the merger terms which created the new union from MSF and the AEEU.
This conference not only didn’t see its recovery, but its further weakening with the defeat of the left candidate for Vice President.
Unlike the last few conferences of MSF prior to the merger with the AEEU, there was not one debate that dominated the week. However, it is fair to say that while the platform did not get its way on every issue, it was not overturned on any decisive question.
The biggest success for the left was in getting an emergency resolution on asylum passed, committing the union to support for the week of action. In opposing the motion, the NEC hypocritically claimed that though they supported the "spirit" of the motion, they called for it to be remitted or rejected because there was not time to carry it out. They added insult to injury they suggested that to show their "goodwill" they would make a donation of £100 - but not to the organisations calling the week of action but to the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. Despite this conference overwhelmingly agreed to support the motion. However, while this was important - and while the number of MSF banners on the June 22 march was pleasantly high, there was no sign of the national banner or of any information to branches or members that the resolution was passed.
On privatisation, delegates were angry that last year’s MSF conference policy opposing PPP in the NHS had not been implemented and gave the Executive a hard tine. Conference committed the section to opposing PFI, PPP or any new privatisations in the health service Unfortunately it also decided that not to campaign to take privatised industries back into public ownership.
On Europe, the union agreed to instigate a wide-ranging debate on the Euro and what position we should take in the forthcoming referendum. The President-elect made many delegates furious by refusing to take any speakers other than the mover in support of an amendment opposing entry to the Euro. Branches that oppose entry to the Euro will need to look at making sure the debate in the union as a whole is rather more balanced and wide ranging than the one at conference.
Chancellor Gordon Brown addressed conference, giving a speech full of left-sounding rhetoric in which he emphasised his working class roots, and talked passionately about how his policies at home and debt relief abroad were supposedly taking many people out of poverty.
Though he received a warmer and more lengthy standing ovation than any government minister has done for a number of years, by mid-afternoon the gloss had begun to wear thin. Many delegates could not connect his picture of the world with the one in which they lived and worked.
It seems perhaps as if Gordon Brown has become Prescott’s replacement in attempting to keep some connection with Labour’s traditional working class base.
On pensions, the union recommitted itself to a campaign to restore the link between the state pension and earnings. General Secretary Roger Lyons launched a campaign to defend occupational pension schemes, including possible strike action. The union’s press office made sure this was in the hands of the press before the speech was even made, but miraculously weren’t able to deliver a press release on asylum 5 working days after the motion was passed.
Probably the low point of conference was the eventual failure to exert any degree of accountability at all over Margaret Wall, MSF’s representative on the Labour Party NEC. Wall was instrumental in preventing a vote on a left motion (moved by Mark Seddon and Mary Turner of the GMB) being voted on at the March NEC.
Wall, who is chair of the NEC, manoeuvred at the March meeting to ensure the motion, which opposed any further privatisations, was referred to the policy committee – from which it may never return.
This was first raised by a delegate in the PFI discussion when Margaret Wall was not on the platform and Roger Lyons responded twice, making sycophantic comments about what a wonderful job Margaret was doing. He told delegates how important it was she sat on so many committees – but refused to say anything about the particular issue that had been raised.
Subsequently delegates attempted to refer back the section of the NEC report on the Labour Party, which had no political content but only listed the committees on which Margaret Wall sits. Again Lyons took the microphone to lecture conference about how Margaret Wall did could not be accountable to us, because she was representing the whole trade union movement. He failed of course to point out that both the GMB and RMT supported the motion in question.
Although the reference back clearly received more than a simple majority of delegates the President ruled that it did not have the two-thirds majority needed for a reference back. This was one of many occasions during the week when the supposedly left outgoing President supported the top table rather than the activists.
In many ways conference was a surreal event, because policy that was passed will anyway go to the new joint Executive and so is even less likely to be implemented than before the merger.
It is true that the left in MSF needs to strain every muscle to ensure the victory of Derek Simpson over Sir Ken Jackson. But there also needs to be a major discussion about developing a left that does not see internal elections as their main focus.
We need to build a real base amongst those members who want to fight in the workplace and against the leadership which undermines that struggle time and again.