This year’s Unite Policy Conference convenes a year into Starmer’s Labour government. We are also at the end of Sharon Graham’s term as General Secretary and heading into a new election, so it is important we make a balance sheet of the union under Graham and look at what role Unite must play going forward.
By Socialist Alternative members in Unite
Sharon Graham was elected in 2021 amid a wave of enthusiasm on the left. Her campaign pledged to “get the union back to the workplace”. She pledged to give workers more power by setting up combines: bodies bringing together shop stewards in every sector, as well as to form a “shop steward parliament”, in order for workers to take control of their own disputes.
Labour or new left party?
Perhaps the biggest change brought in by Graham’s initial victory was in relation to the Labour Party. “We have tried our political project through Labour – and failed” declared Graham’s manifesto. Instead, the union’s political strategy was not to focus on Labour or building a new party but ‘building from the ground up’.
Graham’s refusal to speak at the 2021 Labour Party conference was widely seen as a snub to Starmer’s Labour leadership. Instead, she stood on a picket line along with striking Woolwich Ferry workers. It was also positive that she was the only union leader to vote against Labour’s austerity 2.0 election manifesto and that Unite contributed no additional funds to their election campaign.
Socialist Alternative agreed with the call for no more blank cheques for Labour, but we have also criticised the idea that industrial militancy should be counterposed to political action. This leaves the working class disarmed and without a political voice.
As many delegates were travelling to the conference, they will have heard announcements from Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn that a new left party will be launched soon. We call on Unite to back this development and play its part in making that a party of, by and for working-class people!
Trade union democracy
While the first months of Graham’s leadership saw a burst of enthusiasm for the democratic renewal of the union’s structures, progress has since stalled. The promised ‘democracy review’ into Unite’s structures has yet to bear any fruit, and there has been no further mention of the shop steward parliament.
The industrial combines which have been established have been a limited success, giving stewards some control over their disputes. However, many are still run in a top-down fashion and led by paid union officials. It is a mistake to believe that ad-hoc structures can grow outside of the largely ossified official structures of the union while leaving the old bureaucracy in charge. We must continue the fight to make Unite a democratic union.
War and imperialism
Unite’s initial response to the Israeli onslaught in Gaza was to call on Hamas to return the hostages, with no demands on Israel and its imperialist allies. It was not until a month into the genocidal slaughter that the union called for an immediate ceasefire. At no point has the union leadership outlined what role its members can play, particularly in the arms industry, in acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people and helping to bring about an end to the bloodshed. Rather we have been told that the union’s interests are simply the ‘protection and advancement of our members’ interests at work’. By taking this narrow approach, refusing to take a stand on political questions, Graham has ended up defending NATO over union members looking to take a stand against war and imperialism.
Similarly, Unite has avoided any criticism of NATO’s role in the inter-imperialist proxy war in Ukraine, for which Ukrainian (and Russian) workers are facing the bloody consequences. Instead, Unite should be boldly taking up the call for workers’ action to shut down the war machine, building international solidarity with trade unionists in Palestine, Ukraine and around the world, and fighting for a plan of green jobs not bombs!
Under this pro-capitalist Labour government, the trade union movement is faced with the task of building a real opposition. This includes within the workplace as the first and last line of defense for workers defending jobs, terms and conditions, as well as developing a political alternative to the major parties and the far right. Talk from the General Secretary is not enough. Real steps are required in order to ensure that the union is fit for the huge task that lies ahead.
Divisions within the union
At this conference there are many motions being raised on the issue of Gaza, which on the face of it socialists would support. However, they are being raised in many cases by United Left, the grouping around the old leadership of Len McCluskey.
Their seemingly radical approach on these questions is a smokescreen for those who want to draw the union closer to the Labour leadership. During the 2021 GS election UL candidate Steve Turner campaigned on a platform of doing back room deals with Labour, de-emphasising the role of organising. He even went so far as to criticise Graham’s organising department and its campaigns against Labour mayors in Manchester and London.
They are also the same faction within the union who have attempted to block a report coming to light on the fact that £80 million of the union’s money has gone missing on a hotel complex in Birmingham and affiliated services.
While we criticise Graham for her shortcomings, we are clear that UL must be opposed and that a win for them in next year’s election would be a big setback. The left within the union must organise not just for a Sharon Graham victory but for a fighting programme opposed to austerity, militarism and the capitalist system creating them.
