The battle for PCS between the left factions begins

Nominations opened for the internal PCS elections as the AGM season gets under way. There are to be three far-left candidates vying for the post of Assistant General Secretary which was the result of the unions vainglorious General Secretary Mark Serwotka wanting to get rid of the useless Chris Baugh.

The rift it caused inside the unions far from united Left Unity group caused a split in the Socialist Party with most of their cadres lining up against the inept Baugh. However since Janice Godrich cannot tun, Baugh narrowly won a re-run election against another ex-SP hack and PCS timer the far from Stella Dennis.

Meanwhile seeking the 15 branch nominations required (to keep out any independent opposition) are Lynn Henderson, Serwotka's nominee (PCS full timer and President of the Scottish TUC) and John Mahoney of the Independent Left (a coalition of all those not in Left Unity.

The Socialist Party are taking a bombastic line knowing their boy lacks support and may not win:

Chris should now be the agreed AGS candidate on the Democracy Alliance (Left Unity and PCS Democrats) slate. However, a statement from LU secretary Gordon Rowntree says the PCS Democrats will not accept Chris Baugh, so he will not be the Democracy Alliance candidate.

Chris will be put forward separately as the LU candidate despite LU conference instruction to agree a full joint slate with the Democrats. Even this was only grudgingly conceded by Rowntree.

PCS Democrats' base of support among the union's membership is far smaller than Left Unity's.

Disgracefully, Rowntree seeks to justify the position of Socialist View and the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP), who hold a majority on LU's national committee, by stating that some LU members, including apparently the SWP, have said they are "not willing to support Chris as AGS".

Whether any individual LU members support Chris or not, he is the elected LU candidate for AGS. LU rules require them to recommend and campaign for all LU agreed candidates

It seems their former allies in the PCS Democrats have finally exposed themselves for the opportunist satraps they are! These supposedly more "moderate" types always used to claim they could "control" the excesses of the far-left which never happened.

Meanwhile the Alliance for Workers Liberty tell us that:

The civil service union PCS has just completed a membership consultation on the 2019 civil service pay claim and campaign plan. A February meeting of the union’s National Executive (NEC) will “press the button” for a new civil service pay ballot.

The pre-conference strike ballot has become a tradition for the far left as they try hard to present themselves as always doing something even though every year it's become farcical. The ballot also shows how few members are left in the union with just around 120,000 to be balloted.

The union failed to reach the new threshold for a strike and were unable to proceed last year. The likelihood of this failing has led to the Independent Left arguing for a "disaggregated"  ballot meaning the different departments should be voting separately to see if some at least could be dragged out on strike.

The decline of the PCS should be seen as an example of how the far-left wreck everything they get their hands on. These are the same people backing Corbyn, supporting Maduro in Venezuela against his own people and worse.

The least bad of the candidates for AGS is John Moloney. A member of the AWL they at least reject the anti-Semitism of the left whilst the others see it at best as an inconvenience. He might be the only one who will "take an average workers wage" (which Baugh never did despite it being Socialist Party policy). 

The in-fighting between the others could just see John upset the apple-cart......and annoy the PCS Grandees!