My former colleagues in the civil service, assuming they are members of the Public and Commercial Union (PCS), will soon be receiving their ballot papers for the annual National Executive Committee (NEC) elections. “It is vitally important that you vote in this election,” says hard left general secretary Mark Serwotka. “A good turnout in our elections strengthens the union and helps our representatives stand up for members.” As a former PCS member, and activist in its predecessor union the CPSA, I know how hard it is to decide who to vote for. There are three candidates for president, four for the 11 deputy and vice president positions and well over 60 for the 30 seats on the NEC. Here’s my simple guide.
There are three different factions standing candidates. They are:
- Left Unity
- Broad Left Network
- Independent Left
In deciding where to cast your votes, I am sure you want to know where these groups stand politically. It’s very simple.
Left Unity candidates are from the hard left.
Broad Left Network candidates are from the hard left
Independent Left candidates are from – yes, you’ve guess it – the hard left
So, that’s your choice. Vote hard left, hard left or hard left.
If you are, say, from the mainstream Labour left, the centre ground, including Greens and Lib Dems and from the right, including the Conservative Party, I’m afraid there is no group that reflects your politics. All three factions make Jeremy Corbyn’s politics look like Ukip.
There are two ‘independent’ candidates. The first is someone called Tim Megone who describes himself as the Faceless Prophet of the Tooting and Mitcham hordes and whose election address is all but impenetrable and the second is Castro Siaw who hasn’t bothered to submit an election address at all.
In the closing address of Serwotka’s ramble on the election addresses booklet goes like this: “I urge you to exercise your rights as a member by voting. It’s your union – voting will strengthen the union as we face the challenges of the year ahead.” Whilst it is not my business to tell you to not bother to vote, I will attempt to explain the reality.
PCS NEC elections rarely attract as much as a 10% turn out among members. Apathy is one reason, actually quite a big reason, but it’s more nuanced than that. People see a long list of names, all bar two of which belong to ‘slates’, in this case hard left slates. Members who plough through the election addresses will read shopping lists of demands and the need to ‘fight’, whatever that means. If at least one member manages to vote without spoiling her or his ballot paper, the hard left will have won the election. The result is not in doubt. But Serwotka makes one interesting point, after all a broken clock is right at least twice a day, far more often than Serwotka: “A good turnout in our elections strengthens the union and helps our representatives stand up for members.” Let’s look at the evidence:
The hard left have been in control of the union for decades, coming up to three of them. Apart from when Labour was in government, a government incidentally hated by Serwotka and the PCS comrades, civil servants bore the brunt of attacks on their jobs, their pay and their pensions. The union’s defence was pitiful. A few one or two day strikes here and there, which succeeded only losing members’ money, and there was nothing to show for them. Meanwhile, the comrades won the national elections and the opposition from mainstream Labour and other non hard left activists faded away, basically gave up as I did in the early 1990s. Now the comrades control not just the national union but almost all of its local branches. The comrades have put their place men and women on the payroll of the union, regardless of ability, and it is now next to impossible for anyone to challenge them. Instead, what members are left with is a national union in hock to the 57 varieties of Trotskyism, the only reason they remain members is because union membership is an insurance policy. There’s literally no other reason to stay.
If I was a voter in these elections, I’d spoil my ballot paper and return it in the pre-paid envelope. Your vote will not matter a jot to the union because the hard left, the comrades, will win and PCS will remain, as it has done for a long time, as a laughing stock in the trade union movement. So, don’t vote: it only encourages them. Let spoiled ballot paper be the winner.
