Left-wing union members abused by Labour have ‘been abandoned by Unite’ says leading member of group, after union refuses to support them against party
Furious Unite activists have condemned what they consider their abandonment by Sharon Graham and Unite after they were abused and smeared by Keir Starmer’s Labour party. One of them, writer Graham Durham, has summarised the events leading up to the alleged betrayal, which he believes is attributable to Sharon Graham – and damningly concluded that, under her, Unite will become the anti-union PM’s ‘poodle’.
In a Facebook post, Durham wrote:
I am one of many Unite the Union activists and shop stewards who were expelled from the Labour Party during 2019-2022. Our ‘ crime’ had no element of the false charges of antisemitism aimed at others ..instead we were expelled for attending Zoom meetings (usually during the Covid lockdown) of informal groups supporting others expelled. Famously these groups were retrospectively declared to be political groups contrary to the Party ‘values’.
Yes ..we were expelled for attending meetings of groups we couldn’t and didn’t know at the time were to be proscribed by the Labour NEC. Often we simply attended to show support for friends and comrades unfairly treated.
The Unite Executive Committee supported us and demanded a statement opposing our treatment from General Secretary Sharon Graham. No such statement was ever issued.
Instead a review of this appalling treatment of Unite members was commissioned from the Head of Unite Legal Service. Interviews with all victims occurred and in February this year the Head of Unite Political Service met senior Party officials . In short the Party officials including their Head of Legal Services said the Party had done nothing wrong.
Yesterday all Unite members were abandoned by Unite . In a letter Stephen Pinder, Head of Legal Services said the Party processes were clearly wrong and resulted in injustice but Unite were not prepared to support any legal challenge . Stephen said senior colleagues had been consulted on this . We assume Sharon Graham, who we have repeatedly asked about this issue, has made this decision to abandon her abused members.
Coincidentally Sharon Graham has just announced that Unite is paying millions to Starmer’s Labour Party (despite the utterly feeble and partial trade union rights Starmer has promised to restore).
If Unite will sacrifice some of its abused leading activists to keep Starmer happy , there is clearly going to be no challenge to Starmer’s right wing policies and pro NATO stance from Unite. Our great union is to be Starmer’s poodle.
Skwawkbox sent Mr Durham’s comment to Unite with a request for comment by 3pm Wednesday. At the time of writing, eight hours later, no reply had been received.
Sharon Graham’s tenure as Unite boss has also been marked by a string of other serious allegations, which neither she nor the union has ever denied – of abuse, cover-up and failure to protect women:
- that she attempted to have evidence destroyed in bullying and misogyny complaints about her husband, whom she now employs in her office despite a final warning from the union for his behaviour
- after her supporters failed in their bid to take control of the Unite executive despite ‘dark money’ spending on advertising, ineligible and racist members being allowed to stand and the alleged use of paid organisers in and following the exec election campaign, her faction has resorted to Starmerite tactics to try to discredit the executive members
- that her chief of staff threatened a (now-retired) senior officer with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians against Israel’s genocide
In addition, she has been exposed behind the union’s decision to ban showings in Unite’s buildings of a film exposing racism, smears, rigging and abuse by the Labour right and has appeared to grow increasingly cosy with red-Tory Labour ‘leader’ Keir Starmer, despite Starmer’s lies, his contempt for democracy, his u-turns on promises to Unite members and his regime’s repeated blocking of Unite-backed parliamentary candidates.
And the right-wing Welsh First Minister that her representatives allegedly abused Unite’s rules to nominate, after the union’s executive was set to ban his rival, resigned yesterday in chaos.
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