Before Argent and before I started buying records there was a band called The Zombies which featured none other than Rod Argent himself albeit with a very different kind of haircut! I do recall hearing their songs on the wireless, probably the BBC Light Service as Radio One didn't launch until 1967.
I was reminded of them by a review of their recent live performance in Cardiff published on Buzz:The Wales What's On Guide. I didn't even realise they were still touring, albeit with just two of the original band members.
Here's two songs from the Zombies. One from the sixties and a live performance from more modern times. Do enjoy.
Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Monday, 27 August 2018
The Green Party's "Saville" Moment
The Green Party entered troubled waters after it emerged that one of their council candidates and "front runner" for deputy leadership after it turned out the individual in a question, Aimee Challenor had appointed her father who had been charged with serious sexual crimes back in 2015 as her agent.
Trans activist Challenor is the Green Party's "Equality Officer" and has refused to step down from the forthcoming election despite her agent & father who shared a home was sentenced to 22 years after being found guilty of raping and torturing a 10 year old child in their home.
According to the Sunday Times Aimee Challenor would "not make a statement" but an an anonymous Green Party spokesman said their candidate had "been unaware of the crimes".
Since David Challenor acted as agent despite facing these charges during the election. Aimee even changed the name of her agent on election material to Baloo Chalenoor which is illegal under British Electoral Law which rather undermines her claims of ignorance.
The Green Party said that they "knew nothing untill the case was concluded.
There is currently nothing on the Coventry Green Party's website or public Facebook page about this issue. However the Coventry Telegraph has already reported:
A man who held a young girl captive in his ‘torture den’ and sexually abused her has been jailed for 22 years.
Pervert David Challenor subjected the 10-year-old girl to horrific sexual abuse and even gave her electric shocks.
He also took photographs of the youngster being tortured and abused to help him relive the sick ordeal he had put her through.
When he was arrested, Challenor accused the girl of being a liar and a fantasist – but the police found the gruesome attic kitted out just as she had described, a jury has heard.
Despite that, he pleaded not guilty to charges including false imprisonment, rape, gross indecency, sexual assault, indecent assault and assault causing her actual bodily harm.
The report disturbingly continues:
Many questions remain to be answered, particularly why she changed the name of her agent to a cartoon character from The Jungle Book. Ballo was a bear. Disturbing.
ACT NOW! Iran: Free Mohammed Habibi
A LabourStart Campaign
From Eric Lee
Iranian teacher trade unionist Mohammed Habibi was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison on 4 August 2018.
The sentence by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Court also included prohibition of social and political activities for two years, a travel ban of two years, and 74 lashes.
That's right: 74 lashes.
What was his crime?
Mohammed Habibi is a member of the Iranian Teachers' Trade Association of Tehran.
And he's just one of many independent trade union members harassed by Iran's public authorities for pursuing their legitimate activities.
He was arrested in May during a peaceful protest and has since been held in detention under unbearably harsh conditions.
Family members who visited him in prison reported that he had been severely mistreated. Public authorities continue to deny him the urgent medical support he needs.
The Education International, which represents over thirty million educators and support professionals has launched a campaign on LabourStart demanding that Iran free Mohammed Habibi.
Please take a moment to show your support:
From Eric Lee
Iranian teacher trade unionist Mohammed Habibi was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison on 4 August 2018.
The sentence by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Court also included prohibition of social and political activities for two years, a travel ban of two years, and 74 lashes.
That's right: 74 lashes.
What was his crime?
Mohammed Habibi is a member of the Iranian Teachers' Trade Association of Tehran.
And he's just one of many independent trade union members harassed by Iran's public authorities for pursuing their legitimate activities.
He was arrested in May during a peaceful protest and has since been held in detention under unbearably harsh conditions.
Family members who visited him in prison reported that he had been severely mistreated. Public authorities continue to deny him the urgent medical support he needs.
The Education International, which represents over thirty million educators and support professionals has launched a campaign on LabourStart demanding that Iran free Mohammed Habibi.
Please take a moment to show your support:
Sunday, 26 August 2018
The Far Left, Antisemitism, and Jeremy Corbyn
A Guide for the Perplexed
A Guest Post by Michael Ezra
1. In 1844 Karl Marx tied up Jews with capitalism: "What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money....Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist...The chimerical nationality of the Jew is the nationality of the merchant, of the man of money in general." For Marx, in order for there to be human progress, capitalism, and with it, "the empirical essence of Judaism," had to be abolished. [1] Despite some of Marx's most ardent supporters' attempts to excuse Marx's words by placing them “in context" or otherwise, this reeks of a standard antisemitic trope through the years.
2. Marxists see everything in terms of power relations. As Marx and Engels explained in the Communist Manifesto, political power is "merely the organised power of one class for oppressing another." The ruling class, which is the capitalist class, oppress the proletariat or the working class. Marx and Engels demanded the "forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions." [2] Force is required, for as Engels explained, "in history nothing is achieved without violence and implacable ruthlessness." [3]
3. Jews and/or Judaism are thus tied up with money, with power, and with oppression. Through such an analysis, violence and demonisation of Jews are justified by some leftists. Consider Ulrike Meinhoff of the Marxist Red Army Faction. For her, hatred of Jews was actually the hatred of capitalism. As a witness at the trial of Horst Mahler in 1972, she posed the question “How was Auschwitz possible, what was anti-Semitism?” Her stated opinion: “Auschwitz means that six million Jews were murdered and carted on to the rubbish dumps of Europe for being that which was maintained of them—Money-Jews.” Also, for her, the murder of the Israeli Olympic team at 1972 Munich Olympics was not only justified but something that could be praised.[4]
4. Sections of the contemporary left insist they are only attacking Zionists, they are not attacking Jews. This might be more believable if they did not use the very same themes by tying up Zionists with money and political power. As examples, one can note a 1979 comment by an activist in the National Union of Mineworkers that it was "Zionist money power" that lay behind imperialism and the oppression of the Palestinian people. [5] In a 1983 editorial of their newspaper, the Workers Revolutionary Party spoke of a "powerful Zionist connection" that stretched from such places as the top of the BBC, through to Margaret Thatcher's government and right into Ronald Reagan's White House. [6] Whether it be Jews or "only Zionists," the attacks are the same: they can be despised and justifiably attacked for political power, money, and oppression.
5. Alternatively to talking about Zionists controlling the press and influencing Western governments with money, some Marxists take the opposite approach when it comes to Israel. By this alternative, it is Western Imperialism that holds the true responsibility for the oppression of the Palestinians, but with Israel as a tool of Western Imperialism. By this reading, Israel is a country placed in the region to ensure Western imperialism's economic interests in the Middle East, notably oil, are safe. [7] But yet again, even with this alternative, political power, money, and oppression lie at the root at justifying, supporting, or excusing attacks on Zionists.
6. Since the left wish to overthrow imperialism, capitalism and eradicate oppression, and as the left defines itself as "anti-racist," attacks on Jews for having money and power might not even fit in with some on the left's view of what is antisemitic in the first place. Consider Matti Bunzl's definition of traditional antisemitism. It is that which is "designed to effect the exclusion of Jews from the national body.... [whereby] Jews were construed as intrinsic outsiders to Europe's nation-states, interlopers in a fantasy of ethnic purity." [8] This definition ignores the conspiratorial nature of much antisemitism from accusations of Christ killers, through to using money and power to control the press and government. The notorious antisemitic Russian fake document, "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" and the Dreyfus Affair in France, both of which had a Jewish conspiracy at their heart, were conveniently ignored by Professor Bunzl in his analysis.
7. From the 1970s, postmodernist leftists have attempted to redefine racism from simply having prejudice to having "prejudice plus power." They have done so with some success. Judith Katz put it in her 1978 training manual for anti-racism that "It is important to push for the understanding that racism is 'prejudice plus power' and therefore third world people cannot be racist against whites in the United States. Third world people can be prejudiced against whites but clearly do not have the power as a group to enforce that prejudice." [9] By this way of thinking, if Jews/Zionists are deemed to have power and are the oppressors and Muslims/Arabs are deemed to not have power and are the oppressed, and if antisemitism is a form of racism, Muslim antisemitism is a contradiction: it cannot really exist. This is why, in a number of articles published in the wake of the Islamist murders at the Charlie Hebdo office and the subsequent murders at the kosher supermarket in Paris in 2015, the Socialist Workers Party never mentioned the specific antisemitism at play in the choice of the supermarket where murders were committed, although they were quick to point out the rise in Islamophobia.[10]
8. One might wonder what these old texts from Marx and Engels, and extremist views of the Red Army Faction, the Workers Revolutionary Party and the Socialist Workers Party has to do with Jeremy Corbyn. The answer is that it is a similar strain of thought. And it for such reasons why Corbyn, among many other acts, attended a wreath-laying ceremony in 2014 for the members of the Black September group who had murdered the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. [11] These were, of course, the very same murderers whose actions Ulrike Meinhoff of the Red Army Faction had praised.
2. Marxists see everything in terms of power relations. As Marx and Engels explained in the Communist Manifesto, political power is "merely the organised power of one class for oppressing another." The ruling class, which is the capitalist class, oppress the proletariat or the working class. Marx and Engels demanded the "forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions." [2] Force is required, for as Engels explained, "in history nothing is achieved without violence and implacable ruthlessness." [3]
3. Jews and/or Judaism are thus tied up with money, with power, and with oppression. Through such an analysis, violence and demonisation of Jews are justified by some leftists. Consider Ulrike Meinhoff of the Marxist Red Army Faction. For her, hatred of Jews was actually the hatred of capitalism. As a witness at the trial of Horst Mahler in 1972, she posed the question “How was Auschwitz possible, what was anti-Semitism?” Her stated opinion: “Auschwitz means that six million Jews were murdered and carted on to the rubbish dumps of Europe for being that which was maintained of them—Money-Jews.” Also, for her, the murder of the Israeli Olympic team at 1972 Munich Olympics was not only justified but something that could be praised.[4]
4. Sections of the contemporary left insist they are only attacking Zionists, they are not attacking Jews. This might be more believable if they did not use the very same themes by tying up Zionists with money and political power. As examples, one can note a 1979 comment by an activist in the National Union of Mineworkers that it was "Zionist money power" that lay behind imperialism and the oppression of the Palestinian people. [5] In a 1983 editorial of their newspaper, the Workers Revolutionary Party spoke of a "powerful Zionist connection" that stretched from such places as the top of the BBC, through to Margaret Thatcher's government and right into Ronald Reagan's White House. [6] Whether it be Jews or "only Zionists," the attacks are the same: they can be despised and justifiably attacked for political power, money, and oppression.
5. Alternatively to talking about Zionists controlling the press and influencing Western governments with money, some Marxists take the opposite approach when it comes to Israel. By this alternative, it is Western Imperialism that holds the true responsibility for the oppression of the Palestinians, but with Israel as a tool of Western Imperialism. By this reading, Israel is a country placed in the region to ensure Western imperialism's economic interests in the Middle East, notably oil, are safe. [7] But yet again, even with this alternative, political power, money, and oppression lie at the root at justifying, supporting, or excusing attacks on Zionists.
6. Since the left wish to overthrow imperialism, capitalism and eradicate oppression, and as the left defines itself as "anti-racist," attacks on Jews for having money and power might not even fit in with some on the left's view of what is antisemitic in the first place. Consider Matti Bunzl's definition of traditional antisemitism. It is that which is "designed to effect the exclusion of Jews from the national body.... [whereby] Jews were construed as intrinsic outsiders to Europe's nation-states, interlopers in a fantasy of ethnic purity." [8] This definition ignores the conspiratorial nature of much antisemitism from accusations of Christ killers, through to using money and power to control the press and government. The notorious antisemitic Russian fake document, "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" and the Dreyfus Affair in France, both of which had a Jewish conspiracy at their heart, were conveniently ignored by Professor Bunzl in his analysis.
7. From the 1970s, postmodernist leftists have attempted to redefine racism from simply having prejudice to having "prejudice plus power." They have done so with some success. Judith Katz put it in her 1978 training manual for anti-racism that "It is important to push for the understanding that racism is 'prejudice plus power' and therefore third world people cannot be racist against whites in the United States. Third world people can be prejudiced against whites but clearly do not have the power as a group to enforce that prejudice." [9] By this way of thinking, if Jews/Zionists are deemed to have power and are the oppressors and Muslims/Arabs are deemed to not have power and are the oppressed, and if antisemitism is a form of racism, Muslim antisemitism is a contradiction: it cannot really exist. This is why, in a number of articles published in the wake of the Islamist murders at the Charlie Hebdo office and the subsequent murders at the kosher supermarket in Paris in 2015, the Socialist Workers Party never mentioned the specific antisemitism at play in the choice of the supermarket where murders were committed, although they were quick to point out the rise in Islamophobia.[10]
8. One might wonder what these old texts from Marx and Engels, and extremist views of the Red Army Faction, the Workers Revolutionary Party and the Socialist Workers Party has to do with Jeremy Corbyn. The answer is that it is a similar strain of thought. And it for such reasons why Corbyn, among many other acts, attended a wreath-laying ceremony in 2014 for the members of the Black September group who had murdered the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. [11] These were, of course, the very same murderers whose actions Ulrike Meinhoff of the Red Army Faction had praised.
_______________________________________________________________________________
References
[1] Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Question," 1844. Online athttps://www.marxists.org/arch…/…/works/1844/jewish-question/
[2] Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "The Manifesto of the Communist Party," 1848. https://www.marxists.org/…/18…/communist-manifesto/index.htm
[3]. Friedrich Engels, "Democratic Pan-Slavism," Neue Rheinische Zeitung, February 15, 1849. Online athttps://marxists.catbull.com/archi…/marx/works/1849/…/15.htm
[4] Jillian Becker, "The Red Army Faction: Another Final Battle on the Stage of History," TERRORISM: An International Journal, Vol. 5, Nos 1-2, 1981, pp.89-105. A version of this article is available free online athttp://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/cultn/cultn012.pdf
[5] "P.L.O. Petition Campaign: Miners demand recognition," The News Line, December 8, 1979, p.2. This reference was also used by Steve Cohen in his book, "That's Funny, You Don't Look Antisemitic." An online version can be seen here http://you-dont-look-anti-semitic.blogspot.com/…/zionism-an…
[6] "The Zionist Connection," The News Line, April 9, 1983, p.8. A version of this editorial is reproduced online at https://www.workersliberty.org/…/news-line-editorial-april-…
[7] An example of this argument is the thesis of John Rose's pamphlet, "Israel: The Hijack State: America's Watchdog in the Middle East," (London: Bookmarks Publishing Cooperative, 1986). A version of this pamphlet is available free online at https://www.marxists.org/…/document/mideast/hijack/index.htm
[8] Matti Bunzl, "Between anti‐Semitism and Islamophobia: Some thoughts on the new Europe," American Ethnologist
Vol. 32, No. 4 (Nov., 2005), pp. 499-508. Unfortunately, I cannot locate a freely accessible version of this article on line. (NB. I am grateful to David Hirsh for bringing this article to my attention).
[9] Judy H. Katz, "White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-racism Training," (University of Oklahoma Press, 1978), p.50. The relevant page can be seen freely online at https://books.google.co.uk/books…
[10] For examples, see Dave Sewell, "Muslims in Paris speak out—‘We are not sorry for being Muslim’" Socialist Worker, January 20, 2015 online at https://socialistworker.co.uk/…/Muslims+in+Paris+speak+out+… , "Statement of the International Socialist Tendency on the Paris shootings," Socialist Worker, January 22, 2015, online at
https://socialistworker.co.uk/…/Statement+of+the+Internatio… and Mark Brown, "Socialism, satire and Charlie Hebdo," International Socialism: A Quarterly Review of Socialist Theory, July 6, 2015. Online athttp://isj.org.uk/socialism-satire-and-charlie-hebdo/
[11] "Jeremy Corbyn 'wreath laying' attacked by Israeli PM," BBC, August 14, 2018, online at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-45170622
[1] Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Question," 1844. Online athttps://www.marxists.org/arch…/…/works/1844/jewish-question/
[2] Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "The Manifesto of the Communist Party," 1848. https://www.marxists.org/…/18…/communist-manifesto/index.htm
[3]. Friedrich Engels, "Democratic Pan-Slavism," Neue Rheinische Zeitung, February 15, 1849. Online athttps://marxists.catbull.com/archi…/marx/works/1849/…/15.htm
[4] Jillian Becker, "The Red Army Faction: Another Final Battle on the Stage of History," TERRORISM: An International Journal, Vol. 5, Nos 1-2, 1981, pp.89-105. A version of this article is available free online athttp://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/cultn/cultn012.pdf
[5] "P.L.O. Petition Campaign: Miners demand recognition," The News Line, December 8, 1979, p.2. This reference was also used by Steve Cohen in his book, "That's Funny, You Don't Look Antisemitic." An online version can be seen here http://you-dont-look-anti-semitic.blogspot.com/…/zionism-an…
[6] "The Zionist Connection," The News Line, April 9, 1983, p.8. A version of this editorial is reproduced online at https://www.workersliberty.org/…/news-line-editorial-april-…
[7] An example of this argument is the thesis of John Rose's pamphlet, "Israel: The Hijack State: America's Watchdog in the Middle East," (London: Bookmarks Publishing Cooperative, 1986). A version of this pamphlet is available free online at https://www.marxists.org/…/document/mideast/hijack/index.htm
[8] Matti Bunzl, "Between anti‐Semitism and Islamophobia: Some thoughts on the new Europe," American Ethnologist
Vol. 32, No. 4 (Nov., 2005), pp. 499-508. Unfortunately, I cannot locate a freely accessible version of this article on line. (NB. I am grateful to David Hirsh for bringing this article to my attention).
[9] Judy H. Katz, "White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-racism Training," (University of Oklahoma Press, 1978), p.50. The relevant page can be seen freely online at https://books.google.co.uk/books…
[10] For examples, see Dave Sewell, "Muslims in Paris speak out—‘We are not sorry for being Muslim’" Socialist Worker, January 20, 2015 online at https://socialistworker.co.uk/…/Muslims+in+Paris+speak+out+… , "Statement of the International Socialist Tendency on the Paris shootings," Socialist Worker, January 22, 2015, online at
https://socialistworker.co.uk/…/Statement+of+the+Internatio… and Mark Brown, "Socialism, satire and Charlie Hebdo," International Socialism: A Quarterly Review of Socialist Theory, July 6, 2015. Online athttp://isj.org.uk/socialism-satire-and-charlie-hebdo/
[11] "Jeremy Corbyn 'wreath laying' attacked by Israeli PM," BBC, August 14, 2018, online at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-45170622
Saturday, 25 August 2018
Bank Holiday Extra #1 - Peter Cook & Dudley Moore
Since it's a Bank Holiday weekend I thought I would post some "extras". I've already posted a serious post (see below) so here for your entertainment is one of Peter Cook and Dudley More's classic sketches: At the Doctors.
Sectariana on a Saturday
The latest addition to the family of Trotskyist groups is Socialist View which at the moment is entirely based around Janice Godrich and her attempt (with the backing of Mark Serwotka ) to unseat the current Assistant General Secretary (see previous posts). Their Facebook page seems to have disappeared for now (I originally thought I'd been blocked) so currently there is no public face for this tiny groupscule. I did manage to save their logo though!
Anger seems to be running high amongst members of the Socialist Party over the decision of Janice Godrich to stand against Chris Baugh in 2019 but Janice has been blocking long term allies and no doubt friends from posting their their views.
Former PCS activist and Socialist Party grandee Terry Adams (now living in the south of France) writes:
This post was blocked when I tried to respond to Janice Godrich's FB post declaring her intention to stand for AGS.
I am entering the discussion on Janice Godrich decision to oppose Chris Baugh for AGS in 2019.
I am hugely disappointed with Janice's decision.
Having worked for the union for over thirty years and helped in building the left, I am well aquainted with many of the comrades who have posted on this issue. It needs to be made clear that Janice and Mark Serwotka are seeking to dump Chris Baugh as AGS - this is shameful. Chris has an incredible record in the union as a left activist and as a senior full-time officer. He has been supported on three previous occasions as the Left Unity AGS candidate. He has done nothing to warrant or justify this attack on him - leaving aside the divisive and potentially damaging effect on the pay campaign and pay ballot. In the interests of unity I hope, Janice, you will reconsider.
I am entering the discussion on Janice Godrich decision to oppose Chris Baugh for AGS in 2019.
I am hugely disappointed with Janice's decision.
Having worked for the union for over thirty years and helped in building the left, I am well aquainted with many of the comrades who have posted on this issue. It needs to be made clear that Janice and Mark Serwotka are seeking to dump Chris Baugh as AGS - this is shameful. Chris has an incredible record in the union as a left activist and as a senior full-time officer. He has been supported on three previous occasions as the Left Unity AGS candidate. He has done nothing to warrant or justify this attack on him - leaving aside the divisive and potentially damaging effect on the pay campaign and pay ballot. In the interests of unity I hope, Janice, you will reconsider.
Retiree Dave Spagnol agrees:...
I feel the same as you, and I am really angry at being blocked by Janice, too.
Janice blocked me as soon as I went on Facebook. No love lost between us. She accused me of having a "mental illness because of my fascination with small groups". Other left-wing PCS members highly criticised her for those remarks. There's a certain irony in her comments since she belonged to one and has now formed her own really tiny groupscule Socialist View.
Meanwhile the Independent Left (in a lengthy peice read only by true believers) had to get their pound of flesh :
When it was first announced, ahead of the union’s annual conference in May, President Janice Godrich’s decision to stand for Assistant General Secretary against incumbent Chris Baugh raised eyebrows. The Socialist Party, of which both were members but which backed Chris as AGS, was incandescent.
Others at Conference had a mildly entertaining source of gossip as the dividing lines were drawn up. Many of us wondered at the decision to put all this in the public domain right as the union was set to debate a national strike ballot over pay which would be our biggest test in recent years.
Thankfully, the spat never took off beyond a few Facebook rows and some tension at Conference. Not only would it have diverted from the pay ballot, but it would have widened the divide between the PCS leadership and members. Less than 10% vote in national elections, and there’s little reason to expect a dramatic shift from that in the AGS vote. If they don’t care who is AGS, why would the dispute over who is LU’s candidate to be AGS or the SP’s candidate to be LU’s candidate to be AGS bother them?
That's about it for now. When the election comes I'm sure more will come out!
Friday, 24 August 2018
Socialist Party Splits in PCS. Socialist View formed
The crisis inside the Socialist Party of England (formerly Militant) inside their PCS union stronghold has now gone very public. Earlier this week the Socialist Party (Scotland) a tiny group of around 50 or so people published support for the re-election Chris Baugh as Assistant General Secretary despite Janice Godrich being resident (sometimes) in the wilds of Renfrewshire.
The article used comes from the usually unreadable Socialism Today, allegedly their "theoretical journal"
Hannah Sells and Rob Williams write:
...at this year's PCS conference, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, launched a campaign to support Janice Godrich, currently union president, for the position of assistant general secretary (AGS), in opposition to the incumbent, Socialist Party member Chris Baugh, who has held the position since 2004...
It has since become apparent that Janice had already agreed to this proposal and was determined to press ahead, regardless of the outcome of discussions in our party. As is our tradition, the Socialist Party had a comradely and democratic internal discussion, with both sides listened to and given equal time to put their views. An overwhelming majority agreed that Chris should stand. Unfortunately, a small number of Socialist Party members, including Janice, disregarded the party's decision.
Mark Serwotka initially attempted to argue that his opposition to Chris Baugh was personal. However, it is not credible to suggest that such a serious conflict could develop for purely, or even primarily, personal reasons. To date, Mark has refused to engage in a debate about his political criticisms of Chris, something he would correctly demand of any left standing against him for general secretary
Actually this would not be the first time the left in PCS has tried to remove Chris Baugh but after his "meltdown" at an LU conference he was allowed to continue. However this time the axe has fallen.
PCS has been in difficulty for some time. Their membership has dropped, in part due to job losses but a lot of members simply dropped membership and of course a whole section in the National Crime Agency walked out en-masse and formed their own union . (See Serwotka Suspends SOCA reps in PCS, Mass Resignations Of Reps In SOCA and now have a successful union in the form of NCOA.
Nevertheless internal conflicts threaten both the unity of the Socialist Party and PCS itself long dominated by the far left:
....the duties of the elected AGS, Chris Baugh, have been repeatedly undermined or removed - in effect, handed to unelected officers. Mark Serwotka justified this in discussions with Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary, and Rob Williams, the party's national industrial organiser. He then wrote to the Socialist Party confirming his determination to stand a candidate against Chris, alleging "repeated attempts to undermine my decisions and my authority as GS".
We have refuted this accusation verbally and in writing, but the response of a general secretary to conflict with the union's only other elected official should not be to remove his duties and diminish his role. It should be to bring the issues to the elected leadership of the union, the NEC, for discussion and decision on the way forward. This has never been done.
Instead, the handing of Chris's responsibilities to unelected officials has continued, without any discussion on the NEC.
The authors continue:
Why has that manifested itself in opposition to one individual, Chris Baugh? Firstly, as the only other elected full-time official, it has naturally occurred that those who have come into conflict with unelected full-time officials acting in Mark Serwotka's name look to Chris for assistance. Secondly, because of his membership of the Socialist Party.
Of course, there are numerous good left activists in PCS who are not members or supporters of the Socialist Party, many of whom support Chris for AGS. And, unfortunately, Janice Godrich agreed to be Mark Serwotka's preferred candidate to replace Chris despite being a member of the Socialist Party. Nonetheless, being part of a Marxist party - with a programme for the transformation of the union movement, and of society - has aided Chris and others in standing firm under considerable pressure.
In conclusion the comrades argue:
There will be at least three candidates for the AGS post. Janice is likely to be the bookies favourite and Baugh could even face coming third if the Independent Left field a decent enough candidate.
And finally the Socialist Party has finally admitted there has been a formal split and a new group called Socialist View has been formed around Janice. The SP website announces:
Socialist View' (SV) has been launched by those in PCS who are supporting the candidature of Janice Godrich for assistant general secretary against Socialist Party member Chris Baugh who is the incumbent and has been in office since 2004. We believe that this is a further divisive step in splitting the left in PCS, following the announcement of Janice's candidature at PCS conference in May, which for many delegates overshadowed the launch of the strike ballot on pay.
More on this to come no doubt.
And finally the Socialist Party has finally admitted there has been a formal split and a new group called Socialist View has been formed around Janice. The SP website announces:
Socialist View' (SV) has been launched by those in PCS who are supporting the candidature of Janice Godrich for assistant general secretary against Socialist Party member Chris Baugh who is the incumbent and has been in office since 2004. We believe that this is a further divisive step in splitting the left in PCS, following the announcement of Janice's candidature at PCS conference in May, which for many delegates overshadowed the launch of the strike ballot on pay.
More on this to come no doubt.
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