Big win for left in PCS leadership elections

Socialist Party members in PCS

The left ‘Coalition for Change’ in the PCS executive election has achieved a stunning 21:14 victory, including president and deputy president, standing on a fighting democratic programme.

The coalition includes supporters of the PCS Broad Left Network, in which Socialist Party members participate. Six Socialist Party members have been elected to the new NEC, including deputy president Dave Semple and Socialist Party Scotland member Fiona Brittle.

On the same day as the PCS results were announced, Starmer’s Labour was humiliated at the polls – hammered due to its continuation of Tory austerity and its attacks on the working class.

Public services and the infrastructure continue to crumble; the Tory anti-trade union laws remain in place; and with the war in the Middle East, prices are beginning to rise faster and faster while wages stagnate. For the majority of workers the central issue in the period ahead will be the new cost-of-living crisis and how to make ends meet.

Left Unity refusal to challenge Starmer

The defeat of the Left Unity-led leadership in the NEC elections is in large part due to its refusal to put up even the most modest of challenges to the Starmer government and its austerity measures.

They refused to implement 2025 Annual Delegate Conference (ADC) motion A383, in which conference demanded a serious national campaign on pay, pensions, cuts and working conditions. They instructed bargaining groups to negotiate within the government’s 2025-26 pay limits. In the face of historic civil service job cuts to the tune of tens of thousands, they failed to launch a national campaign to defend jobs and services. They have paid the price!

This is the backdrop to 2026 ADC.

Instead of covering for Starmer’s Labour government, the new NEC will now need to mount a fight in the interests of members.

We call upon delegates to vote for motion A5, which sets out the Broad Left Network programme for a serious national campaign – though it is possible this will be updated by emergency motions submitted before conference meets.

Political strategy

Conference motion A4 from the outgoing NEC on political strategy needs to be opposed. Its commentary on Labour’s austerity programme is incredibly weak. Lots of warm words and meetings with Cabinet officials don’t amount to a political strategy – all the threats to our members remain in place.

PCS already has a stronger political strategy, which includes a commitment to supporting candidates aligned to our union policies. Following the electoral humiliation of Labour on 7 May, PCS should be actively promoting this policy. PCS should take the lead in calling a trade union conference to discuss the crisis of working-class political representation, at which the Socialist Party will raise the need for a new workers’ party with a socialist programme.

While the incoming NEC has committed to a serious fight, PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote remains in place and is part of the now-ousted Left Unity grouping.

There was a left coalition majority on the NEC from 2024 to 2025, but Left Unity also maintained the president’s position at that stage. Martin Cavanagh abused presidential powers to prevent the left majority implementing its programme for change.

Who controls the union

Cavanagh has now been defeated. However, ‘who controls the union’ will be a major theme running through many of the conference debates. Power under Left Unity has increasingly been concentrated in the hands of the leadership, which has resisted attempts to bring it to account. Despite instructions from previous conferences, the Left Unity leadership continued to falsely cite GDPR issues to restrict reps’ access to membership details. In reality, it was all about Left Unity maintaining control.

The outrageous abuse of presidential powers by Cavanagh, the outgoing president, demonstrates the need for rule changes. The two rule amendments in motions A15 and A19 substitute an NEC simple majority instead of the current two-thirds majority to overturn a presidential ruling. They must be supported.

Union disciplinary rules have a history of being used to suppress dissent, usually against the left. The incidence of such cases appears to have increased under Left Unity’s leadership. Motion A70 makes the disciplinary process clearer and more transparent. It should be supported.

Again this year many Trans+ motions, and other motions which ask who controls the union, have been axed from the agenda. Conference must support a reference back to hear a motion to amend Rule 6.22(g) which is currently being misused and abused.

Fight division

This is a period of upheaval worldwide: of war, racism, climate change and austerity. Labour’s pro-capitalist government does not start from the standpoint of what is needed for working-class communities. Its betrayals fuel the rise of the right-populist Reform and run the risk of increased racism and division.

It is vital that the unions put themselves at the head of the movement against this ‘divide and rule’, which weakens the workers’ movement in the interests of the fat-cat bosses. The Labour government’s answer has been to follow Reform into the political gutter by stepping up their anti-migrant rhetoric and policies.

The trade union movement, with over 6.5 million workers across all communities, must lead the fight against Farage and the far right on the slogan passed by TUC Congress in 2018 – Jobs, Homes, Not Racism – alongside a massive programme of socialist public ownership of utilities.

Delegates to ADC this week must send a clear message to Starmer: PCS members are up for the fight. Join us in the struggle to transform PCS into the fighting union we need.