Unison NEC: Democratic debate about relationship with Labour needed
Jim McFarlane, Unison NEC member, personal capacity
Unison held its last National Executive Council (NEC) meeting prior to National Delegate Conference next month. The main areas of discussion were to agree NEC positions on a number of motions that will be debated at conference.
Andrea Egan, general secretary, provided a report of her recent work and the outcome of the elections held in Scotland, Wales and councils in England that saw the Labour Party suffer huge losses. She put those losses in the context of austerity and policies that offered little to trade unionists and the wider working class.
She also reported on her discussions with senior government ministers and how she was “holding Labour’s feet to the fire”. As I and another NEC member pointed out, we need to do more than that. We need an open democratic debate across the whole union about its relationship with the Labour Party. Her general secretary election manifesto was clear about needing a review of that relationship.
Members who campaigned and voted for her, and welcomed this change in approach, are keen to see progress made on this. Unfortunately, conference won’t be able to have that debate this year, as a number of branch motions calling for a full review were ruled out of order by the Standing Orders Committee. Conference, being the sovereign body, should be able to decide. There is no doubt that the issue will dominate the discussion amongst delegates.
I was able to point out that the growth in support for the right populist Reform in all these elections is down to the continued austerity policies of Labour, Tory and, in the case of Scotland, the SNP and Scottish Greens. They opened the gates for Reform and we can’t expect any of them to put forward a genuine alternative, whoever is the leader.
The trade unions are key to the building of a new workers’ party. The politics of division and racism put forward by the likes of Farage could be swept aside when the trade unions move to take their place in parliaments and council chambers across the country and fight for policies in the interests of the working class.
