PCS: Baugh back in the running?

The squabbling between the various far-left factions in the main civil service union PCS has taken it's latest turn as the Socialist Party proudly inform us that:

Left Unity, the broad left in civil servants' union PCS, has voted for Chris Baugh to be its candidate for assistant general secretary (AGS).

Socialist Party member Chris Baugh is the union's current AGS who was first elected in 2004. He will stand for a fourth term in the 2019 PCS election.

This was of course a second internal election as readers will recall Baugh lost the first time round as Janice Godrich won the nomination as expected. However the onset of illness meant she could not continue so a second election was held in which Janice's Socialist View group (a breakaway from the Socialist Party) stood Stella Dennis another ex-Militant full-timer ensconced in the ranks of PCS full-timers.

Baugh won the election 181 to Stella's 165. Hardly a ringing endorsement for someone standing for his fourth term in office. Socialist View have so far not commented on the result which will be a problem for them. All these people publicly broke with the Socialist Party to support the now unavailable Janice Godrich who was Mark Serwotka's choice for his sidekick.

The complication for them had Stella won would be that Serwotka has found himself a new political beau in the form of another full-timer Lynne Henderson. So with nominations now open how Baugh's opponent's will act will be interesting to see. Will they nominate and campaign for Baugh and go against Serwotka?

There is much to play for here and it's clear there will now be a three-way fight for the post of Assistant General Secretary between three far-left candidates. The third being John Maloney of the Independent Left and currently seeking support amongst Momentum members having been interviewed in The Clarion magazine. 

The interview also appears (albieit abridged) in the latest issue of the Solidarity newspaper published by the Alliance for Workers Liberty. He correctly identifies a problem:

The broad left bloc has won elections. They′re a very effective electoral machine. But all that′s meant is that good activists have become full-time officials. The would-be left in the union has become a conveyor belt for fulltime officials. 

People have become very well-paid in cushy jobs. Left Unity [the dominant left-wing bloc in the union, historically led by the Socialist Party] has solved the pay problems of people who were activists in the past by getting them jobs as full-time officials. It′s become a career mechanism.

Of course I would (and did) go further than that when in PCS. The "activist" caste in the union used PCS as a platform for all their outside political interests and the union declined in members and influence because of it.

What members will think of all this, even if they know or care is likely to result in a low turnout which could in itself still see the self interested Baugh beaten.