28.05.2008

Debating pay, politics and Iran

Dave Vincent reports on the PCS conference and the growing politicisation of delegates

The annual elections and conference of the Public and Commercial Services union saw the Socialist Party-led left retain control as against the right (despite the latter’s increased support). The SP got its way on all the main issues at the May 21-23 conference in Brighton and also helped ensure that PCS overwhelmingly agreed to affiliate to Hands Off the People of Iran.

There was the usual low turnout (11% this time) for the April-May national executive elections, with the ‘Democracy Alliance’ pact (SP-dominated Left Unity and the PCS Democrats) once again winning out. Although SP president Janice Godrich increased her majority over her rightwing and Independent Left challengers, the rightwing ‘moderates’ - known as ‘4 the members’, despite getting only a 10th of the Democracy Alliance’s branch nominations, managed to get three elected to the NEC. Six more were barred by departmental limitations (to stop the largest departments getting all the places).

Once more, Independent Left came last of the three factions and its claim to have increased its vote by 22% is not quite so impressive when you take into account that a couple of independents with fewer branch nominations beat some of the IL candidates. As for me, standing for the first time (as an independent socialist, without support from any faction or network), I came 78th out of 78th. If I were I so inclined, I might describe this result, in true left spin-doctor style, as a good first-time effort and a base upon which to build!

I read the election results as meaning that the members whom the leadership has reached at workplace meetings are supportive of the NEC’s national pay campaign. However, those who have not been reached often do not support the idea of a national campaign consisting of more unpaid one-day strikes and other action. Hence the close vote and increased support for the ‘moderates’. The more militant members who feel the national campaign needs more targeted action are much fewer, reflected in the vote for the IL.

It was reflected too in the main conference set-piece debates between the strategies argued for by the NEC and those proposed by leading IL members. PCS, with 1,200 delegates, holds one of the largest trade union conferences in Britain because of a more generous delegate-to-membership ratio than many unions. But to the less experienced the order paper must have been a confusing mess. In addition to the published agenda there were a plethora of emergency motions, with an NEC motion heading all the main sections, before opposing ones from IL and other branches.

Delegates were faced with an ‘omnibus’ debate on the national pay campaign, with six motions ranged against each other. If the NEC’s strategy were endorsed, then opposing motions would fall - and that is exactly what happened. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka had addressed the 22 departmental group conferences held immediately before the main national conference to win delegates to the NEC’s emergency motion.

I stated from the podium that conference used to list motions from branches, with the NEC stating which it supported and which it opposed, but now we had the NEC putting its own motions, which were always placed first. This gave the NEC an inbuilt advantage, as delegates who supported the left-led NEC were placed in the position of having to oppose it if they had concerns addressed by the other motions. This point got appreciable applause that I know worried the NEC from conversations I had outside conference.

The NEC’s emergency motion on the national campaign sought an endorsement of recent talks with the government/treasury, whereby compulsory redundancies would be harder to implement because departments are now supposedly committed to ‘do more’ to take on staff being displaced elsewhere. This was being touted as a real breakthrough. In addition, the NEC has changed its priority on national pay - it argued policy should now be that pay progression (ie, a reduction in the number of years needed for staff to reach the maximum salary) should be funded separately from the annual pay rise. Leading IL member Lee Rock challenged the job security agreement, stating it was couched in too many ‘should be considereds’ rather than ‘will be dones’.

Conference basically agreed with the new emphasis on pay, but the battle over strategy came down to whether all industrial action will remain unpaid. Should we continue with the same strategy of odd strike days here and there together with an overtime ban and possible work to rule; or should paid selective action have a place in the armoury?

Guest speakers from the National Union of Teachers, speaking in another session, helped to shore up the NEC case. NUT president Bill Greenshields and acting general secretary Christine Blower talked about the united action of teachers and many civil servants on April 24 and stated that further united action across the public sector was “unstoppable”. They commended the close working relationship between PCS and the NUT on the TUC general council, but their proposals often met with opposition from unions affiliated to the Labour Party.

Astonishingly the NEC and their supporters expressed real hostility to paid selected action, stating it was a failed strategy. Others, such as myself, Lee Rock and Charlie McDonald, stated it had been wrongly used in the past and still had a place. To let the employer know it would not even be considered was a real mistake. However, the NEC’s line was easily carried.

SWP out on a limb

The political motions I proposed met with a mixed response, with the call to back Hopi being opposed by just two delegates, while my call for a change of line in relation to the Make Your Vote Count campaign (MYVC) was defeated. The motion urging PCS affiliation to Hopi had the support of the Socialist Party-dominated NEC, so that was a great help.

As I have said, departments and agencies hold their own ‘mini-conferences’ immediately before the main national conference to discuss their own sectional concerns, and at my group conference (ministry of justice) it was edifying to have another delegate seek me out to say he appreciated my Hopi motion. At the national conference he actually got up to make important points in answer to the opposition. It shows that others will work to support you once you raise the issues.

In my proposing speech, I stated that the first casualty of war is the truth and that the ruling class will always try to advance a moral reason to support its wars as part of its propaganda build-up. In the case of Iraq it had been WMD, 45 minutes, etc. But the lies Blair told finished him, whereas the two-million-strong march gave hope to the Iraqi people, exposed the charade that is UK democracy and probably reduced terrorist attacks against Britain - would-be terrorists could see that ordinary British people did not support their government’s war drive.

Opposition came, as expected, from the Socialist Workers Party - to be more precise, from two SWP members. They said that Hopi had been excluded from the Stop the War Coalition because it is “divisive”. The people of Iran have freely chosen the theocratic regime, whereas Hopi insists on secularism. This was challenged by my fellow MOJ delegate, who stated that elections in Iran were not free. And, credit where it is due, the SP speaker for the NEC also spoke well.

In my reply to the debate I stated that PCS was the 13th union to affiliate to the Stop the War Coalition (thanks to a motion also proposed by myself), but that we would be the first to affiliate to Hopi. Conference duly ensured we were! The only opposition came from the two SWPers.

My motion on Make Your Vote Count called for it to be reduced to the targeting of marginal seats, with monies saved going to aid selective action and hardship funds. I reminded delegates that the 2007 PCS conference had rejected the idea of using our political fund to back Labour left and left-of-Labour candidates (we are not affiliated to the Labour Party) who support PCS policies against war, racism and privatisation, and for public services, and therefore we could not support John McDonnell - someone we like who supports PCS campaigns in parliament - when he challenged Gordon Brown. (McDonnell addressed conference again this year, and as usual went down well, being both witty and principled.)

The motion was bitterly opposed by the NEC, MYVC being its pet project, but it did get the support of a third of conference delegates. I will be back on this question next year, trying to get the PCS leadership to allow ordinary members to debate the key political questions - whether we should use monies from our political fund to support left/green alternatives to the big three and, if so, who.

As well as McDonnell and the NUT leaders, conference heard a number of other guest speakers. Dismissed PCS activist Eddie Fleming (Hastings child support agency), having addressed a packed fringe meeting the night before, contrasted his dismissal for defending members and the support of department for work and pensions management for a member of staff to stand for the BNP.

He compared his campaign with that of sacked NHS nurse Karen Reissmann - both had used disciplinary proceedings against them to build their branches, thus attracting new activists to carry on the fight. This was the way to fight management’s victimising of trade union activists, he said. Eddie got a warm standing ovation. Dismissed Unison activist Yunus Bakhsh was also mentioned - but with the added feature that his union was also attacking him!

All in all, there is no doubt there is a more fraternal atmosphere at PCS conference than in the dark days of civil war when the right controlled the NEC. The clear majority of delegates feel we are a fighting union, intent on uniting the public sector in a common defence of jobs, pay and services, with honest discussion about how we fight the attacks.

Nevertheless there are certainly some concerns about the left NEC acting like the right in giving a favourable spin to the outcome of talks with the government/treasury and in what looks to be the beginnings of the stage-managing of conference.