24.07.2002
Blair's Calais
Queen Mary I of England once famously lamented, "When I die, you will find 'Calais' inscribed on my heart." She was referring to the loss of the great French port as an English crown possession. After the high drama of this last week, we are left wondering if prime minister Tony Blair might, somewhat less publicly, be thinking in similar terms about his loss of Amicus, the million-strong trade union which has just elected as its general secretary Derek Simpson, the left challenger to Blair's favourite, Sir Ken Jackson. Certainly, the significance of this particular union election result, in comparison to a recent string of victories for the left against Blairite candidates, should not be underestimated. Derek Simpson's 400 votes majority, on the fourth recount, came in a poll of those Amicus members who were formerly in the Amalgamated Electrical and Engineering Union. However, the instrument of amalgamation of the AEEU with the Manufacturing, Science and Finance union lays down that it is the AEEU's general secretary who assumes the leadership position for the whole union, after a two-year interregnum in which joint general secretaries hold office. Amicus is not just any union for Blair. One quarter of all union-sponsored Labour MPs are funded by Amicus. The union holds a large block vote at Labour Party conference and the prospect of this autumn's conference withholding endorsement of Blair's policies on issues such as public services reform and war on Iraq has become very real. Moreover, Amicus is the single largest financial donor to a Labour Party, which, it was also revealed last week, is in serious debt trouble. Just before last year's general election, for instance, Jackson had handed over a £2 million donation. No wonder then that Blair had delivered his televised 'This is my son, in whom I am well pleased' endorsement of Jackson's qualities as a union leader ("Ken and I are working for the same aims" had been Blair's actual words). And now Ken has gone. Jackson had indeed worked for the same aims as the pro-capitalist champion, Blair. The former, alongside the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, John Monks - himself leaving to take up a European union job next year - was the foremost advocate of the 'social partnership' approach in dealing with employers. This is based upon 'sweetheart deals', trade union recognition pacts negotiated directly with employers, behind the backs of the workers. The union then acts as a productivity and 'flexibility'-chasing policeman of the unionised workforce. Derek Simpson had made this practice the focus of his strategic attack on the type of trade unionism espoused by Jackson. The right wing were in shock after brother Simpson's victory finally became clear last Thursday. Initially, Jackson and the right-dominated AEEU section executive committee tried to secure the setting aside of the election result, in emulation of the actions of Barry Reamsbottom and the executive committee majority in the PCSU civil service union. Incredibly, the argument of the Jacksonites was that adverse publicity following allegations of electoral malpractice might have cost brother Sir Ken the election. The actions of Jackson campaigners, which had led to the resignation of one senior regional official of the union and pending disciplinary action against six more of Jackson's staff, had been exposed, notably in The Guardian (July 16; see also Weekly Worker July 18). One witty comrade, in a contribution to the Socialist Alliance's internet discussion group, compared the Jacksonite case to that of a man accused of murdering both parents who appeals for clemency on the grounds that he is now an orphan. Shrewdly, Derek Simpson's supporters on the executive committee derailed the move and simultaneously gave Jackson time to take counsel and to reflect, by walking out of the committee meeting, leaving it inquorate. The counsel was quick in coming. The ex-MSF joint general secretary of Amicus, Roger Lyons, in a BBC radio interview, advised Sir Ken to accept defeat. If the latter had complaints to make about the conduct of the election, he should have registered them before the votes had been counted, Lyons said. In what was clearly a damage limitation exercise and a move against AEEU sectionalism, he stressed that Amicus was now a unified union, with a strong executive committee "which should be working together". It needs to be noted that Lyons is himself a strong supporter of the Blair government who has not hesitated to use administrative sanctions against the left within his former union. In particular, he sacked the officers of MSF's London regional council, after they had challenged in the courts the Labour Party's disfranchisement of the union in the London mayoral nomination process. The London membership of the union had voted overwhelmingly to back the bid of Ken Livingstone to become the Labour Party nominee. The stance Lyons has now adopted demonstrates the defensive position that remaining union rightwingers are in. By Saturday night, Jackson - said to be devastated at his rejection - had capitulated, stating that, after 35 years of loyal service, he was not prepared to see his union "embarrassed or hindered". Although he attended the Amicus workshop at the Socialist Alliance's trade union conference on March 16, where he gained support for his election campaign, Derek Simpson is not an SA supporter (see Weekly Worker March 21). Formerly a CPGB member, he is now a Labour Party man. Nevertheless, he made it plain to the press, after the result was announced, that he is "not a Blairite". His victory will, without a shadow of a doubt, see a repositioning to the left of key figures in the union bureaucracy. John Edmonds of the General, Municipal and Boilermakers Union, for instance, used the occasion of Jackson's defeat to harden the hostile stance he has taken towards the second Blair government. First, he told the press on Friday that, "People in Downing Street have got to engage seriously with the unions, or they face complete catastrophe. Downing Street's entire strategy has collapsed with the loss of Sir Ken." Then on Saturday, at a conference of the Socialist Campaign Group, he announced that he had "come not to praise New Labour, but to bury it" (see front page). A significant leftward shift in the union bureaucracy will no doubt be celebrated by many Socialist Alliance activists. Ironically though, because the Labour Party is still a bourgeois workers' party and will be profoundly affected by such a shift, the SA could face its most serious political challenge yet in the coming period. With the birth of a new Labour left no doubt being increasingly trumpeted, a Socialist Alliance which has been much too slow in finding the will for partyist unity could face a crisis. Derek Hunter
Worker