Unite the rank and file!

I spent the afternoon at a meeting of Unison United Left (http://unisonunitedleft.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-we-stand-for.html).

Now more than ever we need rank and file organisation.

Regular readers Sid and Doris Syndicalist will be familiar with my explanation of why we need to supplement the official structures of our movement with unofficial organisation on the model of the Clyde Workers Committee (http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/redclygrobyecwc.htm) - as well as organising to challenge for rank and file leadership of the official structures themselves as advocated in "The Miners Next Step" (http://libcom.org/history/syndicalism-south-wales-origins-miners%E2%80%99-next-step).

As one experienced comrade rightly said at today's meeting, no one believes that Unison United Left - as presently constituted - is the final word on how to organise rank and file Unison members. At least, however, we are trying.

There is no alternative organisation of the rank and file within UNISON - and activists from political parties which abstain from the United Left (such as the Socialist Party of England and Wales and the Communist Party of Britain) currently offer no such alternative.

(And of course the SP and CP are both engaged actively in the United Left in UNITE (http://www.unitedleft.org/) - so could surely manage to encourage their members to do likewise within UNISON?)

With a Tory Government launching unprecedented attacks upon jobs, pay and pensions - not to mention the very foundations of the Welfare State - it's time for all those who want a fighting and democratic UNISON to pull together.

One modest yet positive proposal from today's meeting is that we should make use of the United Left blog to share information about campaigns against the ConDem cuts - you can check the blog at http://www.unisonunitedleft.blogspot.com/ and send your campaign news to unisonunitedleft@gmail.com for inclusion on the blog.

If you are a Unison member who wants to be at the centre of struggle against this reactionary Government - join the United Left (http://sites.google.com/site/unisonactivist/uul-membership-form/UUL_Membership_Form_2010.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1).

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