As Skwawkbox predicted, BFAWU – a founding union of the party – splits from Labour over abuse of union president Ian Hodson
The Bakers’ union BFAWU has just voted to disaffiliate from the Labour party, at a special conference convened for the vote after the party targeted the union’s president Ian Hodson for expulsion over previous support for groups since ‘proscribed’ by Labour’s right-dominated machine.
Members have been furious with Starmer’s lurch to the right for months, with only nine percent saying they thought being affiliated to Labour served their interests, when the union’s executive polled members early this year.
The union was one of the founders of the party and has been an affiliate for 119 years – and while the so-called ‘mainstream’ media will try to dismiss the significance of the vote, it is a massive and damning verdict on Keir Starmer’s leadership and the conduct of the Labour right. Many expect the Fire Brigades Union to follow in the near future.
Labour’s loss of support among unions arising from Starmer’s and David Evans’s mismanagement has helped take the party to the verge of bankruptcy.
BFAWU insides said the vote was ‘overwhelming’.
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Well in!
Let’s hope the BFAWU are only the first domino of plenty more… I hope they’re left with just unison & the pcs – and maybe the gmb.
Bollocks to stammerite labour. Don’t even give them your attention.
I wasn’t aware the PCS were affiliated to the party.
BackofBeyond, neither was I. I still believe the PCS isn’t affiliated to the Labour Party since its sector is the Civil Service.
Toffe, perhaps no even Unison if the internal elections coming up return a majority left delegates, fingers crossed.
Maria
Checked the unions affiliated to the party. The PCS is not on the list. The reason why I asked in the first place was that I’m a member and up until about three years ago I was a PCS rep.
Fairy nuff… Happy to be corrected!
I thought I read somewhere a while back the pcs weren’t affiliated but must’ve subconsciously convinced meself they were
They should still be punted from the TUC.
I wonder how much that will cost Labour, since that’s what the the Starmerites will care about, second of course, to destroying the left in the party, that is, and at any cost. The party is up for sale, wide open for rich donors but it seems there arn’t many takers? Maybe those donors can see, they don’t need to throw money away when they already have their man in charge, what more could they ask?
Carlene, wealthy donors treat donations to a political Party like they treat any other investment, it is a question as to whatever they can see a good return from their investment or no.
Starmer’s is trying to make the Party an attractive investment for the very wealthy when he spoke against raising the level of corporation taxes, against nationalisation or the £10 per hour by 2024.
However, it would take a very high risk taker to believe that Labour could win the next GE with Starmer as leader. Thus, why to invest when their isn’t any possibility of a decent return?
Further more now that threshold to stand for leader of the Party even in the event of a vacancy, will reassure the very wealthy that their isn’t any need to invest in Starmer Labour since their isn’t a chance for a left MP from the bank benches ever getting the necessary 20% when Labour loses the next GE.
Thus, rather better to use their money to lobby the Tories and carry favour with them, since it would be a Conservative government that would be in charge of allocating lucrative contracts. Labour right now is a very bad investment.
The BAFU is quite a small trade union it has <20,000 members (17,007 in 2019)
size is important to you then?
charming64 – In this context yes it is.
size is important to you then?
– In this context yes it is.
For the Many, not the Few, eh stevieh?
qwertboi – Could you elaborate, I’ve no idea what you are blathering on about.
steveh “… I’ve no idea what you are blathering on about.”
Even if BAFU’S membership is comparatively small, its larger than the total number of billionaires in the world whose social, economic and political interests Sir Keir seems to serve.
A vile party leader is Sir Keir Rodney Starmer.
SteveH
So the BAFU membership has increased by what %
Doug – How would I know, I don;t even know whether their membership has gone up or down. I was simply being honest and making it clear that the latest published figures I had were from 2019. Do you have a link to some more recent information that shows that my estimate of <20,000 is incorrect..
They are glad how they’ve been used. The destruction of the left and eventual death of a party that believed that it was for the working class. Imperialism in one party. Go on keep subbing.
Way to go! Well done BFAWU!
Ideally I would like for all the Trade Unions affiliated to the Labour Party to take a vote of all its members as to whatever they wish for their respective Trade Unions to carry on funding the Labour Party or no.
My guess is that given the choice most rank and file Trade Union members would overwhelmingly vote in favour of their Trade Unions desaffiliating from the Labour Party now that Starmer is leader.
·£10 per hour pay by 2024? What a joke!!
Maria – Given the trade unions members long standing apathy about voting “my guess is that given the choice most rank and file Trade Union members would overwhelmingly” not bother to vote.
How can the party keep threatening to expel members, especially the leader of the Bakers Union with no repercussions!
Whether the party hierarchy will be disappointed by this disaffiliation I’m unsure, but financially there will be disappointment.
I can imagine how Starmer and his crew must have been celebrating their successes in gerrymandering the votes.
Even though Starmer is expected to ignore the votes to back GND, Palestine etc all’s not going as well as he expected.
Unsurprisingly LOTO spokespersons are now briefing against Andy McDonald to a compliant MSM.
Yes, here’s a clip from an article on the ITV News website:
The row threatens to overshadow the message the wider shadow cabinet wishes to present, with suggestions Mr McDonald was seeking to sabotage Sir Keir’s conference.
Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, said: “We’re not quite sure why he resigned, but these things happen in politics and we’re all very angry and frustrated that the headlines are being dominated by one person when we should be talking about the big issues of the future.”
He said the resignation “might be a planned sabotage of conference, rather than it being about any principle”.
https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2021-09-27/middlesborough-mp-andy-mcdonald-resigns-from-shadow-cabinet
NB I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Starmer and Co deliberately put him in an impossible position precisely so that he WOULD resign. And substitute ‘we should be talking about the big issues of the future’ with ‘we should be talking about purging more left-wingers’!
Why are the remainder sticking like shit to a blanket?
Because they are shit Wirral, same as Starmer’s Labour Party. It’s a big cesspit.
It is fantastic to read the BFAWU has voted to disaffiliate, it’s at times like this I wish I could bake!
Just like Maria, I wish all Trade Unions would do likewise.
Not for decades had I watched the conference until JC was the leader but watching tv today it was the most depressing, hopeless, not to say pitiful display of failed expectations. The ‘smart’ organisers no doubt will now be looking to coordinate floor participation with the decocratic party void of politics and worrisome suggestions. Ra ra ra, fake some fun, if joy’s still there throw her out.
Right Ian, offer to affiliate to and sponsor a New Left Wing Democratic Party and many of us will be happy to join it.
The BAFAWU could make history!
It is now as clear as day follows night that we need a new party to take the place of the Labour Party. Those who say that it has not a cat’s chance in hell of winning the next GE with Starmer, or for that matter, Reeves, Nick Whatisname-Symonds (any relation to Johnson’s latest wife, by any chance……..not a lot of difference in the politics), Streeting, Rayner, Creasy, or any of the other right-wing chaff in the driving seat, are a thousand times right.
The Left really need to smell the coffee and get the hell out of a sinking ship that is tanking and sinking fast. We need a far more ‘seaworthy’ vessel; one that is true to Corbyn’s egalitarian vision. This was a vision that could have inspired millions, had it not been sabotaged by the establishment in cohorts with the same right-wing self-seekers and opportunists surrounding Starmer.
..But watch them break ranks and attack him and each other with unbridled ferocity very soon…..
Redveg – I don’t expect there to be much action any time soon.
Realistically, do you?
When things start deconstructing and breaking apart, things happen unexpectedly fast.
qwertboi – I’ll believe it when I see it. Never mind, if all else fails there’s always Left Unity?
SteveH “I’ll believe it when I see it. Never mind, if all else fails there’s always Left Unity?”
That’s the point, “all that is solid melts into air…” and when it does, its effects are immmediate and irrevocable. Just as more people are being harmed by coronavirus ‘vaccines’ than by covid (99.8 survival rate), more people distrust Sir Keir Starmer for his lack of humanity and socialism than know he is a thoroughly disreputabble charlatan: the truth might not beat vicious lies in circling the earth, but it does affect people’s thinking immediately – as soon as it is admitted.
The next proper Labour government (may I live long enough to vote for it – L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim ) will be a Green Democratic Socialist Labour Government. Keir Starmer is making it so.
Absolutely I do, Steve H. If you don’t you are not living on planet Earth. Rayner for one is almost champing at the bit to challenge Starmer for the top job. But the other right-wing reprobates are also slavering because they smell the blood of someone who is well past his sell-by date. Each of them wants to punch, gouge and claw their way to occupy Starmer’s tattered thone before their rivals. Make no mistake about it, there is going to be a veritable massacre within the Labour ‘moderate’ ranks in the very near future. Such people care nothing for the low paid, the homeless, the future of the NHS or creating progressive policies for a fairer society; they are all about self-aggrandisement and self-publicity. It is high time the rest of us who are socialists left them to it. We have a world to win.
quertboi…keep speaking out against the herd who follow the leamings over the cliff with a jab too far and democracy disappearing across the world with the draconian laws against ordinary people.Does anyone understand that the increase in deseases that were thought to be eradicated across the world are now multiplying and incubating and are far more dangerous than any flu virus.Do people care about the draconian laws against the people mainly working-class and the massive rise in poverty and deprivation amongst the working-class around the western world?…Complacency and “it couldnt happen here” is the new desease and this Labour alleged conference was little more than a very public display of the Working class struggle hijacked by the neo liberal alliance..I predicted the “Wake” of the Labour party and thats what we saw..!don’t RIP with Labour..start a new beginning with a real Opposition party.
Who is the leader of the Left? Seriously who could honestly claim that title?
Wobbly – Now there’s a question you don’t often see asked, or answered. 🤔
Depends what you mean by “left” – and that is a BIG question.
I don’t go for marxism – it does not seem to represent any
sort of model of human society.
For one thing I don’t know what “class:” is. The financial system
is such that many of the rich do not run any sort of business but
make their money from asset stripping real businesses, a prime
example being of course the late and great BHS. Some who run
businesses work their socks off for very little renumeration whereas
I work for the state (or used to) with a good salary and a challenging
and creative job. So who is upper class? I with my greater salary
have far more choices and therefore greater freedom than the
“business owner”.
I suppose I go for the Christian model – which IMHO has never
been tried. Leo XIIII wrote a manifesto in around 1870 which
laid down a few principles – and these have been refined with
additions as Society changed.
Now Corbyn – while not a cHristian to my mind follows the
Christian model in helping anyone in need. He even defended
Ian Paisley when he thought he was being unfairly treated and
he is well known for being an excellent Constituency MP ..
IMHO he was not ready to be a Leader when elected – but a lot
who worked with him said he had “grown into it” by the time
he stood down. One ion the problems was he and his Cabinet
were too London Centered and trusted the London MPs -maprime
example being Margaret Hodge.
There are a few Labour MPs with leadership qualities .. who are
on the Left though not necessarily VERY left .. and are honest ..
Sorry this has been so rambling – I am not a politician and know very
little about political science .. or any subjects except for Techy ,
STEM ones. I tend to try to analyse problems from first
principles and without doctrinaire assumptions
PS Not ALL MPs are self serving and dishonest – but are doing
their best.
Wobbly – we all are.
We should make policy from below.
Grassroots, bottom up, democratic, participatory.
And the Leaders carry it out.
Leaders should also offer theory and analysis but the power rests with the rank and file.
Compare and contrast.
With Right Wing Labour all the rule changes at Conference came top down to a gerrymandered Conference with at least one union delegation (Unison) going against a democratic mandate.
And top down, CLPs now can only have 12 motions discussed at Conference instead of 20!
Some Left resolutions got through – Palestine, £15 ph living wage but top down they will be ignored.
So come on BAFWU get the ball rolling (and it is bloody great that it is a small diverse working class union with low paid members that could show the way and make history) help set up a new Left Wing Democratic Socialist Party and many of us will join and the FBU may also affiliate?
Perhaps we need a Left Wing Democratic Socialist Co-ordinating Committee?
Then we can have socialist fighters in place for the GE 24 (or earlier) and possibly under new boundaries.
Hundreds of thousands flocked to the Corbyn’s rallies and they are still out there.
We can all (on the Left) still transform the world!
Yeah OK 🙄
Great idea! I’d certainly sign up for it! Anyone else? We can start the ball rolling for this here and now. Anyone else interested in an initial meeting to draw up a (rudimentary) manifesto and discuss further action?
Qwertboi – a great point.
And bang on the nail!
Yes Qwertboi we do get leaders emerging in a crisis – however
unfortunately they are not always the right sort .. eg – our
current PM
MMMmm, HolbyFanMw, but Boris Johnson (and corrupt crony capitalism and neoliberalism) is creating (not healing) this crisis. The RW do not only believe that a good crisis should not be wasted, they also create them solely for their own benefit (e.g. 9/11, ‘banking crisis’ coronavirus – 99.8 survival rate).
We’re played more than we’re helped!
An addition to my rambling answer – I agree with Wobbly on this ..
but the grass roots have to be informed. Some get their
information from the MSM – who have their own agenda
and some make an effort to check information where
they can ..
So a lot depends on Education they get from their schools –
and I must say mine was pretty good with “mock elections”
every time we had a General Election etc.
I also came from a very political family who discussed it a lot
of the time and had a lot to criticise about the political parties
although they did not belong to any.
I did not get a vote till I was 21 and even youngsters who came to
that age had to wait months to be able to vote. I was well into my 20s
before I could vote in a General Election and could not wait to do so ..
Yes I agree that Boris Johnson has made the crisis much much worse –
what I meant was that in a crisis we sometimes end up with the wrong
sort of person as PM.
I often dream that if the Lib Dems and one or two others had backed Corbyn
as temporary leader in 2019 we would have
(1) achieved a sensible Brexit with
a Single Market etc with the help of some clued-up*** Tories
for in that case there would’ve been no shambles of a Northern Ireland agreement.
(2) Either had a GE with possible minority govt with Corbyn in charge and a good
co-ordinated response to COVID OR continued with a minority Govt and same ..
.. and then I wake up
….
*** There are SOME clued-up Tories ..
If sliced white bread could speak
it would sound like dullard Keir
a suited, managerial geek
useless as Brighton’s burnt-out pier;
now the bakers have pulled their dough
we need to add our yeast
to a wholemeal movement we can grow
as Labour’s radical view’s deceased;
Starmer’s a stodgy, Tory oaf
time to prove our socialist loaf.
Love the positive optimism that prompted your encouraging comment Frank Dallas.
‘Dullard’ suits him better than Rodney as a middle name. “Sir Keir Dullard Starmer, by appointment to Trilateral Billionaires…..” yes!
Serious questions need to be asked about Unison, what & who it represents. Clap Hands?