10% of Unite union’s policy conference motions demand action on Palestine – but crucial one missing

Union members want solidarity and action from leadership over Gaza genocide and Israel’s apartheid – and respect for democracy

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, has been slammed by members, branches and officers for refusing to implement Unite’s democratic policies supporting Palestine and demanding an end to the Gaza genocide – and for her opposition to protest and direct action against UK arms manufacturers supplying Israel.

Rather than come out emphatically in solidarity with the people of Gaza facing Israel’s genocide, Graham has been alleged by Unite insiders to have:

• banned Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests
• banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam
• placed an official under investigation who refused to cancel a Palestine solidarity fringe event at Labour’s 2023 annual conference
• told her chief of staff to threaten a soon-to-retire official with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians

Her supporters also prevented debate and votes on Gaza at a meeting of the union’s elected executive – and last month Unite members publicly accused Graham of a ‘systematic’ attack on union democracy to prevent debate over, and solidarity with, the people of Gaza. Graham has also stopped the union’s affiliation with Stop the War out of the same commitment to the arms industry and because of the organisation’s anti-genocide position and protests. But Unite members and their branches are pushing back.

Last Thursday, the union’s branch Secretaries were sent a ‘preliminary agenda’ for Unite’s policy conference, which takes place in July – the union’s delegate-based democratic process for agreeing policies. The agenda lists 176 motions that have been submitted to conference by branches and by union committees around the country – and ten percent of them (pp51-66) are motions, from across Unite’s regions and industrial sectors and from four national committees, calling for solidarity with Palestine.

The Passenger Transport, the Food Drink and Agriculture, the Docks, Rail, the Ferries and Waterways; and the Community, Youth and Not for Profit national committees have all submitted motions, as have four regional committees: Aerospace and Shipbuilding in Scotland and in London and Eastern; Retired Members in Scotland; and Young Members in the West Midlands.

There are similar motions from nine branches, including in Chemicals & Manufacturing, the NHS, taxi drivers and Housing.

Union insiders say that a few of the motions look like attempts from Graham’s supporters to give cover to her lack of appropriate action, but most go much further, demanding that the leadership implement existing policy to support BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions against the apartheid occupation), pursue a two-way embargo on arms sales to and from Israel, mobilise members against genocide and be visibly present at national rallies.

The motions are a clear demonstration of Unite members’ disgust at Israel’s genocide in Gaza and an expression of anger at Graham and her cohort for their alleged suppression of international workers’ solidarity with the Palestinian people. But at least one motion appears to be missing from the list of those submitted for the conference.

Gary Ostrolenk, a Jewish Unite member says that his branch’s motion is missing from the union’s list of branch submissions:

My own branch (Greater Manchester Retired) submitted Unite4Palestine’s model motion. The motion succinctly framed the need for our national leadership to implement existing democratically-decided policies on Palestine.

My branch secretary has been given no explanation for its absence, and there is nothing in the “Preliminary Agenda” to suggest why motions might have been excluded. It doesn’t look like there’s been an initial “compositing” of motions, because there are some similar motions based on the PSC model that haven’t been merged. Any decision to exclude or composite our motion would have been taken by officials without any transparency and accountability. Of course, it may turn out to have been just an oversight … we shall see.

Unite branches and committees have until 25th April – just two weeks after the motions were shared when most meet only monthly – to submit any amendments they want included. Read the full ‘Preliminary Agenda’ here.

Israel has slaughtered at least 200,000 Palestinians in Gaza, overwhelmingly civilians and mostly women and children. It is bombing Gaza repeatedly every day, targeting schools, hospitals and water desalination plants, and has imposed a starvation blockade on food, medicines and other essentials for life since early March.

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