Questioning the Political Affiliations of UNITE

by Lenny Corr Tue Aug 18, 2009 13:00

Unite are holding a series of fringe meetings at the TUC conference in September. At one 'Saving Vauxhall jobs, defending the UK car industry' Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley are speaking but so is Ian Lucas MP, minister of state for business, a member of the government who haven't lifted a finger to support the car workers. Another meeting 'Johnnie don't Walker out on Scotland's workers; defending jobs at Diageo' is being addressed by Jim Murphy, secretary of state for Scotland and it is being chaired by a journalist from the Murdoch owned anti-union Times!
This is just a small glimpse of the problems faced by Unite members who are being made redundant and are struggling to save their jobs. Our union leaders are hand in glove with the Labour government and Gordon Brown, the affiliation of Unite to Labour is a hinderance to our members struggling for their jobs. Unite has given Labour £11 million in donations in the last few years to a government that is screwing working class people.

by Member of UNITE trade union Wed Aug 19, 2009 15:25

I read in todays Irish Times that Unite are involved in organising a demo on the 19th of September in Dublin against Nama . The protest is organised by United Alliance Against Cuts who are Unite, SWP, People before profit, and the Shinners.
It is very good to see the union taking some action on these issues but it raises many questions.
The second biggest union in the country is involved in organising a national demo against the government. A major demo could be organised if Unite take this seriously. Their involvement in this Alliance seems to indicate that the leadership of Unite do not view this as a significant initiative.
Unite should be pushing for as many trade unions as possible to support their call for a demonstration. Is this now likely after some of the Unite leadership have restricted themselves to be involved in such a narrow alliance which when you strip away the cling ons is the SWP and the Shinners?
Who initiated this alliance? On what basis was it established? Was it open to all trade unionists, and left parties and groups to go to a meeting to discuss and help establish it? Why is the Alliance restricted to the SWP and SF? Why were the Workers Party, the WSM, the Peoples Movement and Joe Higgins MEP not asked to be involved?

And a very important question for Unite members is this another example of the SWP tail wagging the Unite dog?

by Union head Fri Aug 21, 2009 15:35

'Member of UNITE trade union': As a member of another Trade Union myself, you raise many good points that are appliciable to all Unions, not just UNITE, and I tend to agree with what you say. There's just one thing where I might tend to disagree with you and this relates to your last comment and this particular section "I read in todays Irish Times that Unite are involved in organising a demo on the 19th of September in Dublin against Nama . The protest is organised by United Alliance Against Cuts who are Unite, SWP, People before profit, and the Shinners.
It is very good to see the union taking some action on these issues but it raises many questions.
The second biggest union in the country is involved in organising a national demo against the government. A major demo could be organised if Unite take this seriously. Their involvement in this Alliance seems to indicate that the leadership of Unite do not view this as a significant initiative." [Quote Ends] I am glad that at least one of the Unions is mobilising for at least one of the many Anti NAMA protests coming up, even if some people like your good self suspect that it's not for the right motives. I believe that the protest on the 19th of September in Dublin against NAMA will be big anyway, but if the other Unions come on board as well it will be enormous. I would have thought that the very fact that UNITE went public in the media about organising for this demo means that they are serious about mobilising all their members? It would be very strange indeed if UNITE made a public announcement that everybody could see about organising for the March on the 19th and then did nothing.

by Member of Unite trade union Fri Aug 21, 2009 19:50

Thanks for the comments Union Head. I should have made myself clearer. What I meant when I said that the Unite leaders were not taking the protest serious enough is that I think that if the unions gave a lead then there could be major protests against the Nama bailout and the cuts and taxation changes. If the Unite leaders were fully committed to organising a major battle on these crucial issues for working class people then I think they should have gone about it in a different way.
Unite are a major force in ICTU, if they went to the public through the media and began to campaign in a major way for the trade union movement to lead a fightback and then approached other unions such as SIPTU they might be able to create a momentum for a series of mass protests (involving hundreds of thousands) and a campaign that could defeat the government. To me that would be the way to go forward.
Already this protest on the 19th September is seen not as a trade union led demo but a demo organised by the SWP/PBP and SF with support from Unite. This will limit the attractiveness of the demonstration. What has happened makes me suspect that the SWP approached individuals who they have a close connection to in Unite and asked them to come on board as co-organisers/sponsors of the demonstration. I doubt very much that the Irish regional leadership of Unite had a discussion and decided, okay lets organise a demo about the crisis facing our members and other workers and lets asked the SWP/PBP and SF to organise it with us!
This is what I mean by the Unite leaders not taking a serious enough approach to building a mass opposition to the cuts, taxation increases and the bailout of the banks and developers - if they were fully committed to the idea of building mass opposition to the government they would have gone about it in a very different way. I also believe I feel with a lot of justification that if there had've been a full discussion in Unite amongst the leading bodies of the union (TGWU and the Amicus sections) there would never have been an agreement to proceed in this way. That is because many of the leading people in the union are Labour Party members and I think they would have argued for Labour to be involved and also because I believe they would never have agreed to not including the MEP Joe Higgins and his party. I do think that Unite will but some resources into organising for the demo but I think it will be limited.
I hope this is a better explanation of what I meant.

by left Sun Aug 23, 2009 01:15

In the UK a number of unions, most notably the RMT, have disaffiated from the Labour Party. One route that could be followed is to allow local union branches to affiliate to whatever party they feel best serves them. In some places that would likely be People Before Profit or the Socialist Party. It would be a start on offering the rank and file a real say on these things.

by Union head Sun Aug 23, 2009 02:41

Yes! Well said 'by left'! I also believe that local union branches should be allowed to affiliate to whatever party or organistion they feel best serves them; whether that be People Before Profit or the Socialist Party or Sinn Féin (Sinn Féin do also have a number of active union branches), or the Worker's Party, or the Worker's Solidarity Movement or whoever. As you say that will be a start on offering the rank and file a real say on these things, and orgainising their own strikes and marches or whatever other direct actions, if necessary, without head office approval, that they have to organise,.