18.04.1996

Brent Unison’s struggle

Brent Socialist Forum met last week in support of Brent Unison’s fight against derecognition. Speakers included Liverpool dockers, Annette Wright from West London SLP and John Tymon, president of Brent Unison.

Tymon gave an honest but depressing account of the low morale of the threatened Brent Unison members.

If the next council meeting on April 22 decides to press ahead with derecognition, this will lead to a three-month formal consultation period required by law. If Brent council gets away with this it will mark an important setback for trade union rights. Therefore BSF will continue to support and build the campaign, despite the weakness of the union.

A CPGB speaker criticised the sectarian attitude of Brian Butterworth, who clearly did not want the involvement of any organisation except the SWP and would not work with Brent Socialist Forum. This narrow ‘carpet bagging’ attitude can only harm the interests of working class people and shows the need for partyism instead of a sect-like mentality.

The discussion around partyism was a productive one with the involvement of the Workers Revolutionary Party, the Socialist Labour Party, CPGB, Militant Labour and the Spartacist League, as well as the dockers and other militants present. However the Spartacists’ usual narrow doctrinaire attitude was illustrated by their protest that there could be no unity between those with different ideas. As the CPGB speaker replied, differences are natural and should not be made a splitting matter; the real question is programme.

This particular dispute shows that a working class programme capable of uniting the best elements of our class must be firmly anti-Labour.

Latest reports are that the national leadership of Unison is negotiating with the council behind closed doors. This will probably mean getting rid of regional official Stuart Barber and possibly other concessions to further weaken the union.

Anti-Tory chants led by the SWP at the Monday protest lead nowhere but into the pockets of the Labour group. Its confirmed Blairite leader, Paul Daisley, also wants to get rid of Barber, and was allowed to lead the action.

Anne Murphy