Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference on:

by mark Tue Sep 16, 2008 09:42

Isn't that just the usual SWP front conference held most years in the Autumn and out of which nothing emerges except presumably a few more members for the SWP? The line up which is SWP heavy would seem to indicate this.

It's unfortunate the SWP chooses to try and disguise this event as something else as every year it disillusions a layer of unsuspecting activists who would probably avoid any future real event that might appear.

by JP - none Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:43

The conference does appear to be an swp run event, with many speakers being in the swp, but the conference is not an swp event- I got a leaflet and an email and it wasn't marked as an swp event.
I'm pretty sure that this is not a yearly event. can't find any evidence that it happened last year or even in 2006.

All that aside isn't it great that someone is hosting one. I'd be equally glad if the sp, labour youth, pbp, wsm, isn or anyone hosted one. I think activist above is correct that it is timely to have such an event. I'll be there and I think others should go.

by Loki Tue Sep 16, 2008 13:21

Its swp. Why are there no SP, WSM, ISN, WP, CP members sponsoring it?

If it was a true attempt to build workers unity then it wouldn't only be swp & associates sponsoring it.

Dont be taken in.

by Gordon McNeill - Sacked Belfast Airport Shop Stewards Tue Sep 16, 2008 13:30 belfastairportworkers at googlemail dot com

Open Letter To The organisers
I recently received information about the Grassroots union activists' Conference in Dublin. I welcome every initiative that will help us rebuild the shop stewards movement. However I was concerned to see that one of your keynote platform speakers is Jimmy Kelly, the Regional Secretary of my union, Unite. As you may be aware I, along with my two sacked colleagues, Chris Bowyer and Madan Gupta, have, for some time, been in dispute with the leadership of the T&GWU, now Unite.
In 2002 our union leadership co-operated with our employer, airport security company, ICTS, in getting us sacked. A year later our General Secretary, Tony Woodley, tried to get us to sign up to a rotten deal that he had negotiated with ICTS. This deal included the permanent victimisation of the shop stewards in return for a pittance of compensation.

When we rejected these terms we were left to fight on our own and, this year, won a significant legal victory when we proved that ICTS sacked us because of our trade union and socialist beliefs.

Twelve months ago Unite General Secretary, Tony Woodley, along with Irish Regional Secretary, Jimmy Kelly, promised that Unite would meet our legal costs and pay us compensation.

It took repeated protests over ten months, including two hunger and thirst strikes, to force them to fulfill their commitment on the legal costs. They have failed, however, to honour their promise on compensation.

Instead they have paid my two colleagues £40,000 each in return for an agreement that they will never again speak about the role played by any official of the T&GWU or Unite in this dispute.

I have made sure that this shameful attempt to bribe us into submission is publicly exposed. If we are to build a strong grassroots trade union organisation we need to be able to hold full time officials of the unions to account for their actions. To be able to do so members must be fully informed about what they are doing.

Jimmy Kelly's insistence on a gagging clause that would prevent Unite members from knowing the truth about what full time officials did in our dispute runs contrary to this basic right of members to know what their paid officials are doing.

It is not possible to advocate and promote a strong shop stewards and grass roots movement while, at the same time, offering money to shop stewards in order to suppress the truth about the treacherous role played by union officials in the past.

Nor is it possible to promote grass roots activism while using the courts and police to prevent union members from protesting and from publicising their case. In April, while I, and my two colleagues, were protesting at Transport House in Belfast demanding that the Unite leadership fulfill the promises they had made to us, Jimmy Kelly went to the courts to get an injunction barring us from protesting at the building.

I have refused to surrender my democratic right to protest and, last month, returned to the front of Transport House demanding that Jimmy Kelly and Tony Woodley remove the gagging clause and lift the injunction.

Jimmy Kelly then had me served with a summons for breaking his injunction. If found guilty I would have faced a jail sentence as well a hefty fine. Fearing the reaction from union members if I was jailed, the union instead asked the court to remind me that I would be jailed if I continued to break the injunction and then tried to saddle me with the costs of the case hoping that my legal bills would force me into a settlement.

The court refused to award costs against me and clarified the injunction to allow me to protest at the spot outside Transport House where Jimmy Kelly had the injunction served on me.

There is no place at a conference to promote shop steward and rank and file trade union involvement for a union official who denies shop stewards the democratic right to protest or who tries to use fines and legal costs to attempt to bully shop stewards into submission.

For these reasons, and in a gesture of solidarity with our struggle against a union leadership who have bullied and betrayed us, I am asking that you withdraw the invitation to Jimmy Kelly to speak at your event.

If you take this step I wish you every success in your venture,

Yours comradely,

Gordon McNeil

by Unite Member Tue Sep 16, 2008 18:39

Does anyone know if the organisers are going to withdraw Jimmy Kelly's invitation?

by Lev Wed Sep 17, 2008 13:25

Open Letter to the organisers and “sponsors” of the
Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference

17 September 2008

Dear Comrades,

We are contacting you to register our dismay that as trade union activists and members of the Socialist Party we have not been contacted about the one day conference entitled “Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference on: Re-building trade union activism”.

An email about this conference was passed on to one of our members by a fellow union activist. There has been no communication from the organisers of the conference to any of us. The organisers didn’t seek our assistance in the organising of what is meant to be a trade union activist’s conference nor did they even invite us to attend.

We are signing this open letter as trade unionists who support the idea of a shop stewards movement and the building of major broad left oppositions within each trade union to challenge the right-wing bureaucracy which currently controls our movement.

We do not question the motivation of the genuine trade union activists who have publicly supported the convening of this meeting. However we do not believe it is a simple coincidence or an oversight that the organisers of this event have not contacted any trade union activists who are also members of the Socialist Party. The exclusion of Socialist Party members can only but raise a major question mark over the claim by the organisers that they “would like to invite fellow Shop Stewards and Union activists to a national gathering to discuss a new way forward for Our Unions.” An addendum could be added to their invitation – as long as you are not a member of the Socialist Party.

As trade unionists we were also astonished when we discovered that one of the main platform speakers at this event is Jimmy Kelly, the Irish Regional Secretary of UNITE.

At the end of August Jimmy Kelly presented the sacked Belfast Airport Worker and Socialist Party member Gordon McNeill with a summons to appear in the Belfast High Court. Jimmy Kelly instigated proceedings in the High Court that if successful would have resulted in the jailing and or fining by the Court of Gordon McNeill for the “heinous” crime of protesting outside a trade union building.

It is an insult to the very idea that this conference is claiming to promote – building a rank and file shop stewards movement – that Jimmy Kelly should appear as a platform speaker.

Gordon McNeill personifies the very spirit of what is needed within the trade union movement. Gordon fought courageously for six years alongside his two colleagues and eventually won a major victory for all trade unionists in Northern Ireland and Britain.

Yet Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Boywer also had to battle against the leadership of their own union Unite/TGWU. He could have supported the struggle of the Sacked Belfast Airport Workers, but instead Jimmy Kelly has put obstacle after obstacle in their path, including trying to get Gordon McNeill arrested by the PSNI, and trying to get him jailed by the High Court.

A High Court injunction attempting to deny Gordon McNeill his democratic right to protest is still in place and Jimmy Kelly and Tony Woodley have “offered” Gordon £40,000 “compensation” if he signs a legal document stating that he will never again speak about the role of the UNITE/TGWU officials in this long running dispute. We do not believe that this is the type of “trade unionist” who should be speaking at a conference, which aims to promote the development of rank and file trade union activism.

Therefore we are requesting that the invitation to Jimmy Kelly to speak at this event should be withdrawn and we would call on the genuine trade union activists who are sponsoring this event to contact the organisers to echo this request.

Yours fraternally,

Terry Kelleher, CPSU Executive Committee
Denis Keane, CPSU Executive Committee
Ray McLoughlin, TEEU National Executive
Frank Gallagher, Secretary Drogheda Council of Trade Unions and Unite
Councillor Clare Daly, SIPTU Aer Lingus Shop Steward
Councillor Mick Barry, IWU Secretary Home Helps, Cork
Councillor Ruth Coppinger, ASTI
Councillor Mick Murphy, SIPTU
Joe Higgins, Unite
Eamonn McNally, CWU, Chair Dublin Postal Delivery Branch
Dave Meehan, CPSU An Post Branch Assistant Secretary
Fionn Ryder CPSU An Post Branch Committee
John McCamley SIPTU Dublin Bus Shop Steward
Dave Keating Unite ESB Shop Steward
Mark Hoskins PSEU Social and Family Affairs Branch Committee
Kate Rehilan, INTO Branch rep
Denis Manley, TUI Dublin Colleges Branch Committee
Helen Redwood, Unite
Stephen Boyd Unite
Finghin Kelly Unite
Tadhg Kenehan IMPACT Branch Executive Dublin City Council
Michael O’Brien IMPACT Branch Executive Statutory boards & voluntary
Agencies
Helen Metcalfe, IMPACT Branch Executive Fingal County Council
Anthony Hetherington IMPACT
Yann Morvan, SIPTU
Gavin Byrne, BATU
Feargal de Buiteleir, BATU
(All above in a personal capacity)

by PJ - Mmmm Wed Sep 17, 2008 14:46

What have all the above have in common?
Answers on a postcard to Socialist Party HQ, Dublin 2

by 7.11.1917 Wed Sep 17, 2008 15:08

The SP and SWP have questions to answer -
Are the SP asking people not to go to this conference if Jimmy Kelly is speaking?
Are the SWP going to remove Jimmy Kelly as a speaker?

by Stephen Boyd - Socialist Party Wed Sep 17, 2008 15:35

PJ - Mmmm -
If your question relates to the list of names at the bottom of the open letter and by asking the question what do they all have in common i.e. they are all members of the Socialist Party you are trying to imply that the Socialist Party was trying to "pretend" otherwise, then you should re-read the open letter.

The letter states clearly in the opening paragraph that the signatories are members of the Socialist Party -

"We are contacting you to register our dismay that as trade union activists and members of the Socialist Party we have not been contacted about the one day conference entitled "Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference on: Re-building trade union activism"."

by E swp - SWP Wed Sep 17, 2008 20:21

There is no attempt to exclude any SP members from this, hope to see you all there on sat. Indeed I informed one of the signatures of the conference myself weeks ago. Together I am sure we can build a effective campaign against the biggest attack on Irish workers in 20 years. As you are all aware our union leaders will be trying to enforce a savage pay cut on workers and start the process of making our class pay for the recession.
If we cannot unite to build a campaign we will earn only contempt from our class. Personally I would sup with the devil if he called for a no vote on this issue! I suggest you and the SP put aside your hostility to Jimmy Kelly and recognise the main enemy of workers at this moment is govt employers and those who will try to get this savage deal throught; Begg, McCloone and OConnor...any official who wants to stop this deal should be welcomed on sat

by Stephen Boyd - Socialist Party Thu Sep 18, 2008 13:00

"There is no attempt to exclude any SP members...". I would hope that there will be no attempt to exclude members of the Socialist Party from your conference on Saturday. An attempt to keep us out of the meetings really would be a new low even for the SWP. Whereas you claim “there is no attempt to exclude any SP members”, there was no attempt at all made to include members of the Socialist Party or to even invite members of the Socialist Party to this conference. An anonymous comment from you that you "informed one of the signatures of the conference" really isn't adequate!

"Personally I would sup with the devil if he called for a no vote on this issue!" This is quite an incredible statement and does expose the political shallowness of the SWP.

The ISME (Irish Small and Medium Enterprise) business organisation have voiced their opposition to the new “social partnership” deal. If they call for a no vote will you “sup” with them? The CIF, (Construction Industry Federation) have also voiced major concerns, as they wanted a 12 month “pay pause” in the private sector and for them the paltry 6% is too high for their millionaire and billionaire members. If the CIF call for rejection of the deal with you sup with them?

After the last deal Towards 2016, one of your leading members, Dr Kieran Allen SIPTU shop steward, publicly stated that the leadership of ICTU should go back and negotiate a better social partnership deal. Unlike yourselves the Socialist Party is opposed to “social partnership” as a matter of principle. In this we stand in the historic legacy of the Marxist movement in opposition to coalitions with the parties and forces of capitalism.

You also state “any official who wants to stop this deal should be welcomed on Sat” - By “any official” I assume you mean Jimmy Kelly. Does Jimmy Kelly oppose this deal? I am unaware of any public statement from him on the new deal. Has he informed his comrades in the SWP of what he thinks of the deal? You seem confident that Jimmy Kelly will oppose the deal. I don’t share your confidence.

At the outset of the talks process Jimmy Kelly entered those talks on the basis that he would support a deal (with a capitalist government and big business) if a very minimal set of criteria were met. Jimmy Kelly laid out his conditions for entering and supporting “social partnership”.

As far as the Socialist Party is concerned there are no conditions under which it is acceptable to enter a “social partnership deal”. If Jimmy Kelly comes out and calls for a no vote then we would welcome this development.

No one should be surprised by your “sup with the devil” comment. The SWP have a history of making unprincipled political compromises for short term opportunistic reasons. The Respect debacle is still an open sore from which your British comrades have just extracted themselves after years of supping with right wing forces who eventually abandoned you and joined up with New Labour and even the Tories!

“I suggest you and the SP put aside your hostility to Jimmy Kelly....”. This comment is insulting. For the last six years the sacked shop stewards - Belfast Airport Workers - including two members of our party have fought a courageous battle against an anti-union employer and also against treacherous trade union leaders. Jimmy Kelly attempted to get the PSNI to arrest one of these workers and Socialist Party member Gordon McNeill. Only a matter of weeks ago he took Gordon to the Belfast High Court to try to stop him from exercising his democratic right to public protest. The outcome of that court case could have resulted in Gordon McNeill being jailed and or facing a heavy fine and costs. And you callously make no comment on this but instead dismiss it all as simply Socialist Party “hostility to Jimmy Kelly”!

When a trade union leader tries to get a worker, a trade union activist and an active socialist jailed we take it seriously and therefore we do not think that Jimmy Kelly should be welcomed on to the platform of your conference. Not only that, if Kelly is still a member of your party, then if you have any scruples you should propose within your own party that Kelly should be expelled for his recent actions.

by Outraged of Tunbridge Wells Thu Sep 18, 2008 23:26

Why am I not surprised to see that the SWP have organised a conference, and heavily filled its platforms with their own members, while not anywhere mentioning who is actually behind the event? This kind of endless, low level, dishonesty is really tiresome.

It´s all the more irritating when you see that one of the main speakers is not only an unelected top union official - and therefore about as far from "grassroots" as you can get - but is an unelected top trade union official who has recently been trying to get striking workers jailed.

If the SWP were remotely serious about building grassroots trade unionism, they wouldn´t be running this kind of front event, involving only themselves and their periphery.

by Crossfire Fri Sep 19, 2008 11:37

Dear comrade,
We were shocked to receive your open letter concerning theGrassroots Conference. Instead of a positive welcome for the initiative, there was a series of snide attacks on the bona fides of the organisers. The Grassroots Conference is the first in several years to try to bring together shop stewards to oppose the retreat our movement has suffered. It has been organised in conjunction with Jimmy Kelly, whose union has provided a hall and who has circulated its activists about the conference.

There is NO attempt to exclude SP members. Indeed one of the organisers, Owen McCormack, informed one of your leading shop stewards in SIPTU and a co-signature to your letter three weeks ago about this conference. So let us be clear: there is an open invitation to ALL trade unionists. YOU are the only people who wish to exclude anyone. Your letter suggests that Jimmy Kelly -one of the organisers of this conference - should be banned from speaking at the conference because of an internal union dispute in Belfast. We profoundly disagree. UNITE has played an extremely positive role in opposing the Lisbon Treaty and social partnership deals in the past. Quite frankly, we believe it is a form of sectarian madness to argue for the exclusion of the most left wing union leader in the country from a campaign against the rotten partnership deal. While we think you are mistaken, you have, of course, every right to hold such views. But as you don't want to work with Jimmy Kelly you can hardly claim to be 'excluded' from the prior organisation of this conference. Let us now move on to the more substantive issues

Many of us have had a number of fights with various officials over the years and have witnessed their treachery, connivance, and open collusion with management even (in relation to fellow Bus Workers Action group members) to the extent of trying to get us sacked, disciplined and red baited in the national media. However, should the opportunity arise in the future we would not refuse to share a platform with these same officials in order to fight privatisation or racism for example.

As for this conference, you will be aware that Irish workers now face the single greatest attack in over 20 years with so called"partnership". An effective pay cut of a savage nature is now onoffer. If we on the left and trade union activists in general cannot cometogether and overcome whatever differences exist in order to mount an effective campaign against these issues, then we are worthy only of the contempt of our class. If Jimmy Kelly or any other official is willing to call on workers to vote against this deal, then he should be welcomed tothis meeting, and that is the only criteria that should be used.

This does not mean we support the actions of any official who takes his members to court, though it is our understanding is that Jimmy Kelly did not initiate this problem. We might also add we are not altogether supportive of members who take their union to court either! Although we can understand the desire to do so sometimes! We hope you can put these differences aside and see who are main enemies are at the moment.. IBEC, Cowen's government and the wider the ruling class. We have already approached one of your political leadership to ask for an assurance that no disruption will be attempted at thisconference - and are still awaiting such an assurance. We did so because we have watched with utter dismay the appearance of posters around Belfast attacking Jimmy Kelly and UNITE followed by a response from UNITE activists putting up attacking what they claim are 'the anti-union antics of the Socialist Party.'

The dispute in UNITE raises difficult issues for socialists - namely should the subscriptions of union members which were gathered so that they could be represented against bosses and be used as a strike fund be used to compensate members who were sold out? Broadly, speaking as socialists we do not favour such an approach because if everyone who was sold out or suffered victimisation because of the activities of union leaders were compensated to the tune of £40,000, there would be little left to pursue present struggles. Whatever our misgivings, we understand, however, that UNITE has made a humanitarian gesture in this particular case.

The only responsible position that socialists can now adopt in this continuing dispute is to urge mediation and a lowering of temperatures. Clearly, this is not your view. But we would ask that you not try to disrupt this conference or try to detract its main focus from fighting the present rotten partnership deal. Finally, we would respectively suggest that the best way to settle accounts with those officials who are in the process of selling out Irish workers is not to exclude any official who is opposed to this deal. In the longer term we all want a rank and file movement that puts power in the hands of union members and away from ALL officials. This conference can be the start of that process.

Yours

Owen McCormack, NRBU member
Kieran Allen, SIPTU member.

-----Original Letter:

Open Letter to the organisers and "sponsors" of the
Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference

17 September 2008

Dear Comrades,

We are contacting you to register our dismay that as trade union activists and members of the Socialist Party we have not been contacted about the one day conference entitled "Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference on: Re-building trade union activism".

An email about this conference was passed on to one of our members by a fellow union activist. There has been no communication from the organisers of the conference to any of us. The organisers didn't seek our assistance in the organising of what is meant to be a trade union activist's conference nor did they even invite us to attend.

We are signing this open letter as trade unionists who support the idea of a shop stewards movement and the building of major broad left oppositions within each trade union to challenge the right-wing bureaucracy which currently controls our movement.

We do not question the motivation of the genuine trade union activists who have publicly supported the convening of this meeting. However we do not believe it is a simple coincidence or an oversight that the organisers of this event have not contacted any trade union activists who are also members of the Socialist Party. The exclusion of Socialist Party members can only but raise a major question mark over the claim by the organisers that they "would like to invite fellow Shop Stewards and Union activists to a national gathering to discuss a new way forward for Our Unions." An addendum could be added to their invitation - as long as you are not a member of the Socialist Party.

As trade unionists we were also astonished when we discovered that one of the main platform speakers at this event is Jimmy Kelly, the Irish Regional Secretary of UNITE.

At the end of August Jimmy Kelly presented the sacked Belfast Airport Worker and Socialist Party member Gordon McNeill with a summons to appear in the Belfast High Court. Jimmy Kelly instigated proceedings in the High Court that if successful would have resulted in the jailing and or fining by the Court of Gordon McNeill for the "heinous" crime of protesting outside a trade union building.

It is an insult to the very idea that this conference is claiming to promote - building a rank and file shop stewards movement - that Jimmy Kelly should appear as a platform speaker.

Gordon McNeill personifies the very spirit of what is needed within the trade union movement. Gordon fought courageously for six years alongside his two colleagues and eventually won a major victory for all trade unionists in Northern Ireland and Britain.

Yet Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Boywer also had to battle against the leadership of their own union Unite/TGWU. He could have supported the struggle of the Sacked Belfast Airport Workers, but instead Jimmy Kelly has put obstacle after obstacle in their path, including trying to get Gordon McNeill arrested by the PSNI, and trying to get him jailed by the High Court.

A High Court injunction attempting to deny Gordon McNeill his democratic right to protest is still in place and Jimmy Kelly and Tony Woodley have "offered" Gordon £40,000 "compensation" if he signs a legal document stating that he will never again speak about the role of the UNITE/TGWU officials in this long running dispute. We do not believe that this is the type of "trade unionist" who should be speaking at a conference, which aims to promote the development of rank and file trade union activism.

Therefore we are requesting that the invitation to Jimmy Kelly to speak at this event should be withdrawn and we would call on the genuine trade union activists who are sponsoring this event to contact the organisers to echo this request.

Yours fraternally,

Terry Kelleher, CPSU Executive Committee
Denis Keane, CPSU Executive Committee
Ray McLoughlin, TEEU National Executive
Frank Gallagher, Secretary Drogheda Council of Trade Unions and Unite
Councillor Clare Daly, SIPTU Aer Lingus Shop Steward
Councillor Mick Barry, IWU Secretary Home Helps, Cork
Councillor Ruth Coppinger, ASTI
Councillor Mick Murphy, SIPTU
Joe Higgins, Unite
Eamonn McNally, CWU, Chair Dublin Postal Delivery Branch
Dave Meehan, CPSU An Post Branch Assistant Secretary
Fionn Ryder CPSU An Post Branch Committee
John McCamley SIPTU Dublin Bus Shop Steward
Dave Keating Unite ESB Shop Steward
Mark Hoskins PSEU Social and Family Affairs Branch Committee
Kate Rehilan, INTO Branch rep
Denis Manley, TUI Dublin Colleges Branch Committee
Helen Redwood, Unite
Stephen Boyd Unite
Finghin Kelly Unite
Tadhg Kenehan IMPACT Branch Executive Dublin City Council
Michael O'Brien IMPACT Branch Executive Statutory boards & voluntary
Agencies
Helen Metcalfe, IMPACT Branch Executive Fingal County Council
Anthony Hetherington IMPACT
Yann Morvan, SIPTU
Gavin Byrne, BATU
Feargal de Buiteleir, BATU
(All above in a personal capacity)

by Outraged of Tunbridge Wells Fri Sep 19, 2008 17:48

The response from Kieran Allen and one of his sidekicks is as dishonest as their behaviour in setting up this conference. Even down to having the cheek to provide their union affiliations while, as usual, not mentioning their rather more relevant affiliation to the SWP. Really, who do they think that they are fooling?

There´s nothing wrong with the SWP holding a public meeting, or even holding a public meeting with a handful of carefully chosen other punters. What´s wrong is the deliberate attempt to mislead trade union activists into thinking that this is not an SWP meeting, that it´s some kind of "grassroots" movement. It is not - it has been organised by the SWP, with the names of a few others attached, in a way that has rigorously excluded trade union activists affiliated to any other organisation on the left. That most obviously means the Socialist Party, who have probably the greatest concentration of left wing union activists, but it also means groups such as the WSM, ISN and even the CP and Workers Party.

As I just said, the SWP are perfectly entitled to organise a narrow, factional meeting if they so choose. But they can´t then expect anyone else to treat it as something other than a narrow, factional meeting. If the SWP really wanted to include other forces on the left, they would have sought to include them at an early stage, to involve them in the planning, in the putting together of platforms, in the postering and leafletting and so on. Short of that, they would have sent invitations directly to prominent left wing union activists who belong to other groups. Claiming that some SWP member mentioned the existence of this meeting a couple of weeks ago to some SP member is clearly a laughable evasion.

Our two SWP correspondents then go on to deliberately misrepresent the vile actions of the UNITE bureaucrats in their ongoing dispute with the former airport shopstewards in Belfast. This is not something that anyone familiar with the details of the row will accept. UNITE bureaucrats, long after the initial sellout, have fought these men tooth and nail even going so far as to call the police on them and try to have them jailed. This is not just some unfortunate little argument within a union - it has been a brave and prolonged struggle by real grassroots trade union activists against an entrenched union bureaucracy. Presenting the chief unelected official in UNITE in Ireland as the face of grassroots trade unionism in this country is a calculated slap in the face to men like Gordon McNeill. It also shows a somewhat faulty understanding of the terms "grassroots" and "rank and file" as slung about in the two SWP member´s letter.

by Member of Unite Fri Sep 19, 2008 18:17

As a member of Unite I am ashamed of the way that leaders of my union from its days as TGWU until now have treated the Belfast Airport Workers. A TGWU official colluded with ICTS management to get these men sacked. Officials and union solicitors and even Tony Woodley told the men they could not win the court cases against the company. They told them to settle for a pittance. They abandoned these men to fight alone. They refused to have an open discussion on what happened with this dispute within the union. They have tried to cover up the crimes of the official who colluded with management and used our union subs to give him a big cheque when he left. They have used our union subs to pay massive legal bills to try to stop the airport workers from protesting. They pay themselves huge salaries and expenses. Don't talk to me about how the unions money is being used. Typical SWP siding with union bureaucrats against activists.

by socialist Sat Sep 20, 2008 02:12

I thought the SWP were against having their members accept unelected positions within the union bureaucracy? Wasn't that always the party policy? The bureaucrats are a huge part of the problem - it's like taking a job as a manager and remaining an SWP member. Are SWP members also accepting managerial positions these days? Wasn't leading member Nigel Harris given the boot in England a long time ago for doing precisely this?

Apart altogether from the Belfast dispute (don't know the details) why is top union bureaucrat like Jimmy Kelly still accepted as a member of the SWP?