Photo: By Glastonbury Left Field Photo: Plan 9 from Outer Space
Mark Serwotka is General Secretary of the largest Civil Service union the PCS. He has also been elevated to the Presidency of the TUC. So here is a man who should have some responsibility for what he says and how he acts, but like Jeremy Corbyn he originates from the fringes of politics living in the same ideological bubble.
The decision of the unions to allow a divisive character like Serwotka assume the Presidency is questionable given that he and his Socialist Party (Militant) allies broke up the long running Council of Civil Service Unions because the other unions wouldn't toe the PCS line.
PCS is a union that has been run by the far left for nearly a couple of decades and is in part due to the decline of the civil service but also due to the politicisation of the union down in numbers from it's heyday.
There was one serious split when Serwotka suspended all the reps in the Serious Organised Crime Agency for having the audacity to come to a deal acceptable to it's section members. The SOCA group left PCS en-mass. See: Mass resignation of SOCA Reps who formed the succesful NCOA.
PCS is controlled by Mark Serwotka in an alliance with the Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party and various others under the Left Unity banner. Currently under pressure due to a personal conflict involving Serwotka's desire to purge his Assistant General Secretary, Chris Baugh with current PCS President Janice Godrich. See: Socialist Party Splits in PCS.
With all this in mind it was hardly surprising to see that Serwotka seems to beleive that Israel is behind the attacks on Corbyn's Labour Party.
The Independent reports:
Mark Serwotka who leads the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and is a staunch supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, told a fringe event at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference that the Jewish state could have “created a story that does not exist” in order to distract attention from “atrocities” he said it has committed.
Serwotka told a meeting of the pro-Hamas Palestine Solidarity Campaign that:
The inference is clear. Israel, the Zionist state is behind the campaign against the growth of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. Of course Serwotka is "not a conspiracy theorist" but alleges a foreign country that happens to be a Jewish country is conspiring against poor old Jeremy.
That sounds awfully like he's referring to an "International Zionist Conspiracy" normally the province of the far right but has in recent years gained traction with large numbers of left wing activists particularly the ones claiming to be fighting for Palestinian rights.
Serwotka should be ashamed of himself. But he won't be. For years under his leadership "Palestine" was "central to the international work of PCS. Indeed Hugh Lanning the Deputy General Secretary of PCS (until his "retirement") was Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. As a result the union never developed a proper "foreign policy" even supporting the Cuban regime that sacked thousands of it's own civil servants and suppressed free trade unions.
It was necessary for me to launch a Campaign Against Anti-Semitism in PCS. During one election got both Lanning and Baugh to issue statements condemning anti-Semitism. Serwotka did at one stage ask what he could do to help.
I requested space in the PCS journal. I never had a reply...
The attempt by Serwotka to deflect legitimate accusations of anti-Semitism as the result of an intervention by a foreign power is not only wrong but disturbing.
Anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and on the "left" is very real.
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I resigned from PCS in 2015. Here is my letter:
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