05.06.2002

Reclaim the PCSU

The May 23 coup in the 283,000-strong Public and Commercial Services Union has provoked outrage from the rank and file. Mark Serwotka - blocked by the rightwing majority on the national executive from taking over as the union's duly elected general secretary on June 5 - reports that he has received over 400 messages of support from branches and individuals. The crude attacks of the right have given the left a head start in the campaign. Barry Reamsbottom - the outgoing general secretary at the centre of the anti-left plot - had graphically illustrated the contempt for democracy felt by his kind of trade union bureaucrat long before this latest assault on the rights of the membership. Reamsbottom had considered standing against comrade Serwotka - but could not get enough branch nominations. He was an appointed general secretary - unlike Mark Serwotka, he has never put himself and his record to the rank and file of the PCSU. Now the membership has spoken, he has decided to override them. During the mid-May PCSU conference, he spent much of the time with his lawyers. On his behalf, these people then bombarded the standing orders committee with legal threats designed to prevent a motion calling for Reamsbottom's removal as PCSU rep on the TUC general council after his scheduled retirement on May 31. The intimidation failed: the motion was passed overwhelmingly. Reports from around the country indicate that union members previously thought of as rightwing - 'scabs' even - have been appalled by Reamsbottom's actions and are prepared to back protests. So the situation is full of potential. But to take the fight forward, activists have to have a thought-out battle plan. First, this is a political attack on the left. Mark Serwotka is right when he says it is not just about "left versus right". Yes, it is a good thing that even rightwingers are now up in arms over this attack and talking about joining protests, but we have to be clear where it all comes from. The fact that Reamsbottom can talk - farcically, of course - of the union being run by "communists" for the past four years sets it all in context. Blair's demand for the "reform" of public services - a key platform of New Labour's agenda - would encounter stiff resistance from a Serwotka-led PSCU. The Economist magazine - the house journal of the British bourgeoisie - predicted developments in the union when it wrote back in April that "Mr Blair's main hope that the left may not consolidate its hold hangs on the outcome of the biannual national executive committee elections, due on April 25. If the Moderates [the right wing - IM] win, the plan is to keep Reamsbottom, the outgoing general secretary and a Moderate, in the job until 2004 and sideline Mr Serwotka" (April 13). Mark Serwotka is a prominent and outspoken supporter of the Socialist Alliance. His election is part of a crop of leftwing victories that have alarmed Blair. It is inconceivable that No10 would not have known about and least given the green light to the ousting of the elected general secretary. A political attack must be fought politically. Initial results in the high court are encouraging and would seem to indicate that the left has a strong case. However, as comrade Serwotka notes, the capitalist courts can hardly be relied on. They are quite capable of unearthing some arcane precedent that would bar Mark from the post. What is decisive is the organised strength of the working class, its readiness to fight. History teaches us that the courts are much more likely to reach 'civilised' decisions when they are faced with the prospect of a tide of working class anger being unleashed by any other verdict. Key to this must be an activated and politically engaged rank and file. This has not been the case up to now in the union and accounts for the strange position of 'dual power' that has existed. For example, the left won a series of important victories at the May conference. Yet the results of the NEC elections more or less went the way Blair hoped. Although Janice Godrich, a member of Left Unity, was elected president and LU increased its NEC representation from five to 12 seats, the right were overall winners. Reamsbottom's Moderate group won a majority, picking up seats at the expense of the disintegrating centre organised in the Membership First group. True, the turnout was just 12%. But that does not take away from the fact that the right did win, that it also has a democratic mandate (although not for this attack on comrade Serwotka, of course). Thus, the battle should not be viewed as Mark Serwotka versus the NEC majority. It should be seen as a fight for democratic control of the union from below, for the rank and file of the union to reclaim it. The attack is part of a generalised counter-assault on the left, particularly the Socialist Alliance, in the unions. This dictates that - to the extent we are able - militants in other unions must also offer practical support in the fight to defend PCSU democracy. There is also a broader political point here. Despite the SA's modest successes thus far, the alliance is clearly perceived as a real threat to the Labour-loyal trade union tops, especially when it talks of democratising union funds. The truth is that the SA is ill prepared to fight back. Its component parts - the various left groups that form the bulk of its membership - will do good work in the unions in defence of PCSU democracy. But without a regular SA newspaper to coordinate our activities, without proper organisation of our militants, without strong, ongoing organisation in the unions as the SA, time will be wasted, efforts duplicated. It sometimes seems that our enemies take us more seriously than we take ourselves. Ian Mahoney Defend PCSU democracy Wednesday June 19, 7.30pm, Friends Meeting House. Speakers include Mark Serwotka and Janice Godrich * On Wednesday June 5 - what would have been his first official working day as union general secretary - Mark Serwotka addressed a lobby of the PCSU HQ. This is an extract * Mark Serwotka spoke to Mark Fischer about the coup