Socialist Party Australia - CWI win union elections in UK and N.Ireland

sp writes "Great breakthroughs for the Marxists

Britain
Victory for the left in union elections
Seven Socialist Party members have been elected to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS).
Socialist Party member Janice Godrich retained her presidency with an increased majority, gaining 23,081 postal votes to the right wing’s 15,199

The Socialist Party was part of a "pro democracy" left slate that won thirty-four seats to the right wings nine in the elections. The right previously held twenty-eight of the forty three seats on the NEC.

This is a massive victory against one of the most right wing leaderships in the British trade union movement.

The Socialist Party and its predecessor, the Militant, have been the driving force of the left in the union for decades. The PCS, with 300,000 members, is the sixth biggest union in Britain and organises mainly central government employees.

The right wing in the union have long been linked to the British state machine, including the secret services, as well as well documented evidence of their link to the CIA through the "trade union committee for trans-Atlantic understanding".

Right coup failed
The right had attempted to organise a coup against the left leadership last year when they refused to accept the election by the membership of the newly elected socialist general secretary, along with curbing the powers of the president. The courts were forced to overturn this coup and reinstate the general secretary and the powers of the president.

A membership ballot then supported a left initiative and voted to return to annual elections and annual conferences instead of biennial events. That is why the elections took place at this time.

It must the first time that a president of a major union brought forward their own elections by a full 12 months!

This left victory has come at a time when the British trade unions have seen a whole swathe of left leaders being elected. The unions throughout Britain are in the throws of a debate about their links with the Labour Party, which is widely seen as another pro-capitalist party. The Socialist Party is campaigning in the unions to break with the Labour Party (the unions set up the Labour Party one hundred years ago) and build a new trade union-based mass workers’ party. The victory of the left in the PCS will act as a mighty push down this road

Bill Mullins, Socialist Party

Northern Ireland
Socialist elected president of largest union in Northern Ireland
Socialist Party (CWI in Ireland) member Carmel Gates has been elected President of NIPSA, Northern Ireland’s largest trade union and the main public sector union. The election took place at NIPSA’s conference last week and Carmel won a resounding victory, polling almost 17,000 votes against 11,500 for the right wing candidate. Her vote is one of the largest ever achieved by a candidate for this post.

Another Socialist Party member, Padraig Mulholland, came within a few hundred votes of winning the Vice Presidency, standing against a former President and the strongest candidate the right wing could put up.

The Conference marked a significant shift to the left. The decision by the outgoing left executive to donate £40,000 to the fire fighters, who have been involved in months of sporadic strike action, was endorsed, with only one lone voice raised against the donation from the floor. A motion backing airport security workers who were sacked a year ago for striking against poverty wages was also passed and a donation to their hardship fund was promised.

The right wing were also defeated on a motion trying to reverse a decision by the outgoing left executive to cut the amount of travel expenses paid for various union executive meetings. The point was made that the same people who wanted to increase the amount of money paid to themselves in expenses had voted against paying strike pay to social workers that are currently taking industrial action across the North.

Socialist solution to Middle East
In the debate on international issues, a motion on the Middle East, which called for a socialist federation of the region, was passed unanimously. This from a union that purports to he non-political!

A very successful Socialist Party fringe meeting was held with Jim Barbour, Executive member of the fire-fighters union, the FBU, Gordon McNeill, sacked airport shop steward, and Peter Hadden of the Socialist Party speaking.

Unfortunately elections to the General Council (Executive) held in January this year had given the right wing a majority. A key task now is to use the position of Carmel as President and the five other Socialist Party members on the General Council to rebuild the left in the union so that it can win a majority in next year’s election.

Socialist Party, Belfast

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