Unite policy conference contains covert attack on international solidarity

Graham-backers slammed for motion activists believe is designed to provide cover for general secretary’s refusal to show solidarity with Palestinians, workers

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, has been repeatedly 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. She 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.

Graham has also been accused by workers and their union reps of using union-busting tactics to try to break industrial by union staff working in the department run she created and which is run by her husband – despite him being on a final warning for bullying and threatening behaviour – who allege that he and managers working under him have bullied and abused staff. At least three and by some reports four of the five women working in the department have quit and the tactics used by Graham and her team include having allies join the GMB union that represents staff working for Unite to try to vote down the strike action – an allegation that the union’s sector committee has demanded be investigated.

She has also been accused of using anti-union legislation to stop union officers organising collectively and in a stunning development exclusively revealed by Skwawkbox, lawyers acting for Unite and Graham also confirmed Skwawkbox’s reporting that the union had destroyed evidence gathered by staff, particularly women, who had recorded the behaviour her husband, Jack Clarke, in their complaint that he was behaving abusively and misogynistically. The industrial action continues and threatens to spread to the whole HQ staff after more than 9/10 workers there voted in favour of strike action over the issue.

And now, union activists are outraged at the inclusion of a motion for Unite’s policy conference in July that they say represents a direct, if weasel-worded, attack on the union’s international solidarity with workers and the oppressed.

Gary Ostrolenk, a Jewish Unite and anti-genocide activist, discovered the motion in the ‘preliminary agenda’ for the policy conference. He commented on the ‘dishonest’, ‘shameful’ and ‘anti-working class’ proposal (emphases are his) and called for anyone who supported Graham for the job in 2021 to condemn her actions:

Buried deep within the 152 page ‘Preliminary Agenda’ for Unite’s Policy Conference in July is a proposal to end any form of genuine international solidarity in our union.

Motion 90 is dishonestly called “International solidarity and collective bargaining” (page 79 of the Preliminary Agenda). It calls for an end to any affiliations, relationships and actions that don’t directly benefit the jobs, pay and conditions of UK Unite members. Submitted by the Bromley Council branch, it has the fingerprints of our General Secretary and NEC Chair all over it.

This motion straight-forwardly REJECTS any form of INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY BETWEEN WORKERS. Even if solidarity directly saves the lives (let alone jobs) of trade unionists in another country, it is to be ruled out. Trade unionists in countries such as Palestine. This is a RACIST AND IMPERIALIST proposal, in the worst traditions of right-wing British labour bureaucracy.

Solidarity between workers is the founding principle of our movement, and by definition is something that we show for the benefit of those with whom we stand in solidarity, not for our own direct benefit. (Of course, we are all stronger when we all stand together, but that is not what the motion has in mind.) This proposal is profoundly ANTI-WORKING CLASS.
THIS IS A SHAMEFUL PROPOSAL, using slippery and deceitful language to quietly outlaw expressions of international workers’ solidarity within our union. IT MUST BE DEFEATED.

Please make sure that your branch and your delegates are aware of the motion and its significance, and urge your delegates to vote against it.

And to think that significant sections of the left backed Sharon Graham. Anyone who did so has all the more responsibility to come out now and unequivocally condemn her leadership.

Motion 90 starts off as if it is an affirmation of the principles of international solidarity among the working-class:

90. International solidarity and collective bargaining

This Conference believes that the development of genuine, meaningful international
solidarity is a key element of any trade union industrial strategy.

To be effective against global corporations working class unity must extend its reach far
outside the borders of individual states. Whether that is building international combines with real collective bargaining strategies, governed by workplace representatives working for the same employers and in the same sectors. Or, by looking to safeguard jobs, pay and
conditions by taking disputes international and delivering campaigns to apply pressure on
the real decision makers. International solidarity is critical.

But then comes the ‘but’ – or in this case a ‘however’ – that completely flips the significance of the motion on its head (emphases added) to exclude anything that is not directly and transactionally related to UK jobs:

However, this Conference believes that the principle of international trade union work is undermined when money is spent on trips and other matters not directly related to collective bargaining or building rank and file power. This has to stop.

To build our international work we must engage our own members, who will rightly demand the work.

Therefore, this Conference supports:

• A thorough review of our international expenditure and affiliations to take place during the next six months.
• For that review to focus on value for money and whether we are seeing any meaningful impact on job security and collective bargaining as a result of our expenditure.
• To not agree any further increases to subscriptions to existing international affiliations before the review is completed.
• To not agree any further international affiliations before the review is completed.
• For every instance of international travel to be subject to written justification, with clear reasoning provided as to how that expenditure will directly support our members jobs, pay and conditions.
• Bar exceptional circumstances, to stop all international expenditure that is failing to directly contribute to the defence or improvement of members jobs, pay and conditions, until the end of the review.
  
  Bromley Council Branch (LE/531)

Fellow union activist Damian McCarthy responded to Ostrolenk’s comments about the motion:

As an aside we’re pretty sure this is backed by Sharon’s clique. We need to call our SWP [Socialist Workers Party] and SP [Socialist Party] who still back Sharon … despite this disgusting motion.

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