Unity for UCU 2013 conference

Unity!

‘The Union Forever’: only if we make it so!

The future for UCU

by Martin Levy “The Union forever, defending our rights,” sings Billy Bragg. Is there a delegate at this Annual Congress who doesn’t feel that way about UCU, who doesn’t want it to go from strength to strength?

Certainly this union has achieved much since it was founded, building on the foundations of NATFHE and AUT, but going much higher – speaking with one coherent voice on post-secondary education; standing up to ruthless employers; challenging government austerity policies; driving forward the equality agenda; battling over pay, pensions and conditions; fighting casualisation; supporting individual members; and strengthening solidarity, both across the union and with the wider labour and progressive movement. The

whole is definitively more than the sum of its parts!

But laurels are meant for wearing, not resting upon – and in these days you have to run simply to stand still.

Workers across Britain are taking a battering – over jobs, pay, pensions, benefits and democratic rights – and the trade union movement is not immune from that. Membership in Britain fell below 6 million for the first time in 2012, and the process is accelerating. It is not for nothing that the government is attacking the public sector – not only do they want to provide new opportunities for profiteers, they are seeking to break the strength of organised labour where it still has significant density.

continued overleaf

Communists at UCU congress 2013

Sector conferences Pay and conditions Build fighting confidence for effective action The formation of the ConDem government in 2010 has facilitated an increasingly intense ideological offensive in the education arena.

Working from the platform established by New Labour, this radical right-wing government is intent on further fragmenting the education service and opening up the system to profit-making private companies.

The vast majority of HE and FE employers have swallowed the dominant political narrative in its entirety and have been slavishly doing their part – through a neverending round of restructurings, suppression of wages and attacks on hard-won conditions of employment. Casualised contracts are becoming more commonplace, inequality is endemic, and workloads are rising to unachievable levels. It is no wonder that many on the left, and in the centre as well, want the union to take action to defend our education service and to protect members’ working lives and living standards. continued on back page

The future for UCU

continued from front page In these circumstances UCU cannot hope to be a haven of prosperity while others are suffering. And, indeed, such a haven we are not. Despite strenuous efforts by activists, branches, regions and head office, our membership too is falling. The only surprise is that it is not dropping more rapidly. Out of a total figure of approximately 115,000, the annual attrition rate has increased to around 15,000. Since we have never recruited more than 13,000 in any year, we are experiencing net losses, year on year.

Of course, we can’t simply accept that as a done deal and just wring our hands about it. We have to redouble our recruitment efforts. But nor can we ignore the problem, or base our strategy on voluntaristic recruitment targets and putting up subscriptions to plug the gap.

This is gambling with the union’s future – and the odds are pretty pretty long.

The union will not be forever unless we

make it so by tackling the problem now.

As Charles Dickens has Mr Micawber say: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

Real misery faces us unless we deal promptly with this financial crisis. Every delay increases the risk of the certification officer being brought in, property sold off at knock-down prices and swathes of staff sacked – if the union survives at all.

What price our democratic structures then? The NEC has come up with very reasonable cost-saving proposals, like reducing committee sizes and frequency of meetings, as well as temporarily reducing the length of Annual Congress.

All of these are worthy of support. But savings of the required magnitude will only be achieved by reducing the staffing bill, since that dominates

expenditure overall. It is therefore essential that the 2013-14 Budget and 2014-15 Indicative Budgets are passed without qualification, and that UCU works with our staff union to secure the necessary reductions on a voluntary basis.

That will mean some restructuring to maintain the maximum effectiveness, but arguably that should already have been done a few years ago, before the problem got so acute.

Lessons need to be learned: this time, lay officers of the union must be put centre stage in any restructuring proposals.

With pessimism of the intellect, but optimism of the will – as Antonio Gramsci said – we shall help UCU to overcome this crisis and in the process build a stronger union.

Martin Levy works at Northumbria University Branch and is an NEC member of UCU H

The People's Assembly Against Austerity on June 22 can play an invaluable role in building and uniting the resistance and winning people to an alternative.

A Call to the Labour Movement The Tory-LibDem government is attacking the living standards and democratic rights of workers and their families on a scale not seen in Britain since the 1930s.

It is an integrated, ruling class offensive to protect and expand big business profits.

Resistance to this attack on incomes, jobs, public services and trade unionism has been sporadic, fragmented and defensive.

Industrial responses alone will not defeat such an all- round political offensive. Unity of action and purpose is desperately required in and around the labour movement.

The Call to the Labour Movement by the Communist Party makes a series of practical proposals for action that can gve shape and direction to our resistance.

Unite against privatisation and austerity For unity to become a reality, trade unions, trades union councils, anti-cuts campaigners, socialists, Labour Party activists and progressives must work together on the broadest, most inclusive basis.

All who oppose the austerity and privatisation programme of this ToryLibDem government should be welcome in anti-cuts campaigning. The focus of opposition must be on the current government and its policies.

We need to build durable militant movements of ordinary people in local communities throughout Britain.

This will help ensure that a strategy of rolling, coordinated and generalised strike action by the trade unions puts the maximum pressure on the government.

Rally support for the People's Charter Policies for progressive taxation, economic planning, public ownership, public investment and an independent foreign policy for Britain can safeguard public services, jobs, living standards, our environment and peace.

Supported by the TUC, the TUC Women's and Trades Councils conferences, the Scottish and Welsh TUCs and many individual trade unions and local trades union councils, the People's Charter provides the basis for an alternative economic and political strategy that puts the millions before the millionaires.

Every labour movement organisation should affiliate to the People's Charter and help promote it.

Campaign for Trade Union Freedom Industrial action by trade unions to defend jobs, incomes and public services needs to be coordinated and generalised as widely as possible, with every effort made to secure popular support.

The Tory-LibDem government, employers and the courts are now opening a new front of class warfare against trade union rights and facilities.

Based on the trade union movement, the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom provides

Proposals for NEC Reform The proposal to reduce the size of the NEC should not be seen as arising from the need for UCU to reduce expenditure. The excessive size of the committee and its consequent inability to act effectively have been clear since the merger that created UCU. The NEC is simply too large to allow for proper discussion and decision-making.

The savings that would result from a reduction in the size of the NEC should be seen as an additional benefit, while the real target is to improve the democratic and representative structures of the union. The problem that we face is: how can we make the NEC smaller, without reducing the representation of the equality strands and of the employment special interest groups as a proportion of the new committee?

The Seven Proposals: None of the models is perfect, but most are just impossible. Let us consider each in turn starting with those from the Commission

the focus for a united response to this antitrade union drive in the interests of working people and their families.

Promote the Charter for Women As low-paid and public sector workers, lone parents, carers and service users, women are being hit particularly hard by austerity and privatisation measures. The Charter for Women, supported by the TUC Women’s Conference, many trade unions and the National Assembly of Women, proposes policies to win genuine equality at work, in the labour movement and in society as a whole.

Solidarity against EU austerity and privatisation The Tories, UKIP and sections of the big business media fully support EU- wide attacks on people's living standards and public services. But they want to protect the City of London casino and its US backers even from feeble EU regulation.

For the labour movement, the key demand must be to restore to parliament in Britain the power to protect jobs and industries, to take the utilities and transport back into public ownership and ensure that they are run in the public interest.

We also need to support workers across Europe who are fighting for these powers, against the EU and its Constitutional Treaty commitment to 'an open market economy with free competition' (Article 98).

Example A: While this model would produce a smaller NEC, it relies upon election from single member constituencies.

Where only one is elected, it is difficult to ensure the adequate representation of women and other under-represented groups in the elected body.

Example B: No regional elections for HE in England. This is against the customs of ex- NATFHE members. Most equality strands would be represented by only one person, as would most of the employment special interest groups. There is no allocated seat for Academic Related staff. This would cut the size of the NEC but there may be problems with representation.

Example C: The size of the NEC would not be cut much but the balance between those elected from regional, national and UK-wide constituencies appears reasonable and the equality and special interest groups have adequate representation in this model.

Example D: This would reduce the NEC by only one member. Very few members would be elected on a UK-wide basis.

Example E: Leaves the NEC as it is.

The NEC sub-committee produced two possible models: NEC1: May seem desirable to some but is unlikely to succeed as it ignores regions.

NEC2: Too many single member constituencies to allow for reasonable representation of either equality or employment interest groups, although it has a number of ‘bolt-on’ additional women’s seats.

Where multi-member constituencies appear in this plan, they are too large to be useful. However, this could be the basis for a reform of the NEC but it would require a good deal of thought and work.

We should support motion 33, in order to give Congress a choice but it would not be a serious blow if 33 were to fall and 34 were to pass. Overall, Option C appears to be the best that we can expect to succeed at Congress and we would be foolish to expend much political capital fighting for losing positions. H

Oppose militarism and war Britain's involvement in an endless series of wars to protect British and US big business interests is not protecting democracy or human rights here or abroad. Military spending should be reduced to average European levels and diverted into civilian production.

Britain's nuclear weapons should be scrapped and the subservient military alliance with the US ended.

Communists in the UCU support, and actively participate in, UCU Independent Broad Left (IBL) and its bulletin Broadcast.

Bring down the unelected ToryLibDem coalition This regime was cobbled together at the behest of Tory paymasters in the City of London. Nobody voted for a coalition. Most people voted for parties (including the LibDems) that claimed to oppose the current austerity and privatisation policies.

Putting an end to this government before it does even more damage to our society is a democratic duty.

The only realistic alternative to the ToryLibDems is a Labour government, which underlines the immediate need to fight for Labour policies that serve the mass of the people.

We urge all who broadly support this Call to the Labour Movement to win support for its positions throughout the labour and progressive movements. Use it to unite and ignite opposition to the Tory- LibDem government around the positive alternative.

Executive Committee Communist Party May 1, 2013 H

But IBL is by definition independent of any political party, while this edition of Unity! reflects the perspective of communists in UCU.

The EU is not the education workers’ friend COMMUNIST REVIEW Number 67 Spring 2013 £2.50

H Mau Mau – the revolutionary force from Kenya by Shiraz Durrani H Recovering and reaffirming liberation politics by Jeremy Cronin H Contradictory rulings from two European’ courts by Keith Barlow H ‘Educating the Educators’ by Kevin Donnelly Available at UCU Congress or order online through ‘Shop’ at www.communist-party.org.uk

H

Today and every day Keep up to date with the working class movement http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk

by David Goode Down the years, the European Union has spearheaded the global drive for deregulation and privatisation, introducing measures that day-in and day-out translate into all the evils of austerity: massive job losses; more and more precarious employment; poverty wages; stress-filled and unsafe workplaces; declining services in transport, energy, communications, health, local government, and – crucially for us in UCU – education, which is now under daily attack from predatory businesses looking to privatise and commodify the public good we hold dear.

Clearly then, Motion 49, ‘Equality and Europe’, from the National Executive Committee, should have no place on our agenda, with its claim that workers are better off as a result of EU membership and its call to “campaign vigorously on the benefit of remaining in EU membership”. This motion came from the Equality Committee and went through the NEC without any discussion and under severe pressure of business.

The labour movement should be leading the fight against the corrupt, big business EU - not leaving it to UKIP charlatans, who ride the EU gravy train and whose main interest is to defend the corrupt, big business City of London.

The real campaign What we should be campaigning vigorously for is not solidarity with big business, but solidarity with the workers of Britain, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal, and elsewhere, and this can only mean opposing the anti-democratic and neoliberal treaties of the EU, not defending them nor – even more perversely – being

pathetically, even evangelically, grateful for them.

Britain’s trade unions should be exposing the anti-working class policies and institutions of the European Union, not confusing the European Court and Convention on Human Rights with the anti-labour EU Court of Justice, nor brandishing the feeble Working Time Directive as a fig-leaf for the EU of austerity, privatisation, mass impoverishment, and despair.

We should be campaigning for the policies in the People’s Charter - public ownership, economic sustainability, progressive taxation and peace - against the Tory-led regime, UKIP, the EU, the US and Nato.This will show people that there is a real alternative to the common big business agenda of the Euro-separatists, the Eurosceptics and the Euro-fanatics.

Amendment 49A.1 There is a strong case for voting against motion 49 outright. However, Eastern & Home Counties Regional Committee has tabled a simple amendment, to delete the phrase “on the benefit of remaining in European Union membership”.

At the very least, delegates are urged to support this amendment, which draws a clear line between “the benefit of remaining in EU membership” and “to safeguard our already diminishing equality and employment rights”, two matters which are mutually exclusive.

If the amendment is rejected, then please reject the motion outright. If the amendment passes, then vote on the amended motion as you see fit.

David Goode works at Cambridge University and is an NEC member of UCUH

direct action activism of movements such as Occupy! and UK Uncut is both being revitalised by the prospect of the Assembly, and in turn is bringing new life to organisations that have been around a lot longer, and maybe have become a bit stuck in their ways.

Against austerity

by Bill Greenshields Trade unions in the forefront of resistance to government policies, and others which are moving to that position, have united with anti-cuts groups, the Coalition of Resistance, the People’s Charter and others to organise the People’s Assembly Against Austerity.

Enthusiasm for the June 22 Assembly is reflected in the fact that many towns and cities are seeing huge preparatory conferences and rallies occurring in the run up.

The intention of the huge event in Westminster is to bring together those forces that can build a movement of opposition broad and powerful enough to mobilise millions of people against the Tory-LibDem government, to demonstrate that there is no necessity for any ‘austerity’, unemployment or privatisation, and to promote ‘the alternative’ – substantially described in the People’s Charter.

Such a positive movement – with organised workers of the trade union movement at its heart, and reaching down deep into local communities - is vital if public support is to be won and organised for sustained resistance to austerity and privatisation, and to help create the conditions for successful widespread

industrial action for working class and popular interests against those of big business and the City of London.

Will all those taking part agree on every dot and comma about the way forward, the objectives, tactics and strategy? Of course not. If they do, they won’t represent the full variety and complexity of views within the working class and peoples of Britain.

But the aim of the Assembly will be to build and maintain a radical consensus and unity through a real struggle of ideas – and any individuals or little political sects wishing to continue the old schisms and small-group battles that have dogged us in the past will not be very welcome! Only by enthusiastically seizing the opportunity of working in unity to develop a broad, democratic movement will we maximise the chance of success. Those who can’t accept this will be seen, rightly, as doing the ConDem’s work for them.

The People's Assembly now in mid-May has 2000+ delegates registered from all over Britain, and with Frances O’Grady lined up to speak for the TUC, all the major unions, and many trades councils are in the process of registering large numbers of delegates.

Community organisations and campaigning groups are already well represented, many encouraged by fast growing local campaigns; particularly against the bedroom tax and its resultant evictions, and in the defence of their hospitals and the NHS as a whole. And the

Every day brings more numbers, and organisers have the welcome problem of finding physical and political space for everyone to participate as fully as possible.

It is up to all of us whether the Assembly will help generate the kind of movement required, one which reaches every town, city and community, drawing in people who currently don’t think of themselves as 'activists’ or even as 'political'. In particular, it has to be a movement that finds a place not only for organised workers, but for those in precarious work, for those in selfemployment, for small business people, for the unemployed, pensioners, students, carers and for people of every ethnic origin and sexual orientation – in fact, for everyone under the cosh of big business and its Tory and LibDem puppets.

What a different political scene will develop as local People’s Assemblies emerge across Britain, and as we look forward to further national meetings and events, with a growing confidence both strengthening our movement and also dividing and undermining the strength of those who work against us.

Around this growing movement is increasingly heard the sentiment that we are now ‘out to win, not simply protest’, and we all know that will mean a direct challenge to the unelected and illegitimate ConDem Coalition’s right to continue in office. June’s Assembly will produce the maximum possible agreement on how to integrate unions’ bolder, united and increasingly generalised action with stronger, broad-based local community movements of resistance in a strategy to defeat the Tory-led regime, and to fight - both in and outside parliament - for a real ‘people’s alternative’.

Bill Greenshields is chair of the Communist Party and trade union officer for the People’s Charter H Communists at UCU Congress 2013 urge full support for Composite Motion 12, ‘Support for People’s Assembly’

continued from front page In HE the pay offer represents another real-terms pay cut. There is no doubt that the employers can afford more and can do more than describe the phenomenon of inequality; they could actually work with the union to tackle it. In FE, the pay offer is insulting and, again, the employers want to attack pay progression through the scales. In each sector, the paucity of the gains, and diverging agenda on the employers’ side, means that there is considerable strain on national bargaining machinery.

Industrial action ballots play a critical role in mobilising members to tackle the employers.

UCU has shown a willingness to organise national disputes in such a way as to enable members to take part in wider struggles against the government. At last September’s TUC, the UCU delegation voted for the successful resolution, which asked the trade union movement to take coordinated action where possible and to consider the practicalities of a general strike. It is right that UCU continues to play a part in any attempts by the movement as a whole.

But we should not get carried away by heady rhetoric, such as we are likely to hear over the next few days. Delegates should exercise caution before backing calls for industrial action ballots where they are not certain they can deliver on the ground.

Members are demonstrably willing to take action against direct threats from their own employer but less convinced over national disputes. This is not a call for passivity but for sober judgement and solid preparation. We cannot afford to lose national industrial action ballots, and so must work patiently to build the fighting confidence necessary to launch a plausible counter-attack against the employers. H

progressive sites

Education for the people

by Susan Michie

As UCU Congress meets, there has been no let-up in the Coalition’s multifaceted attack on colleges, universities and – of course – schools. UCU’s campaigns against privatisation and for more public funding are necessary and good, but they are not enough.

We can’t be content simply to defend the status quo ante – the ruling class’s attack is too all-encompassing and too far-reaching. We have to understand what is happening to education and why. We also have to begin to rebuild our ideas of what education is for and what it can do.

The Communist Party’s Education Commission has published a new pamphlet, intended to be a contribution to this debate within the education unions and the wider labour movement.

Education for the People (£2 from the Communist Party) looks at the development of capitalism and the class relations that made possible both the periods of progressive advance in the 20th century, and the great neoliberal counterattack that has culminated in the disastrous Coalition government.

The pamphlet argues that saving education can’t mean just arguing for more money or a return to the old days.

Instead, we have to see and reconstruct education as an integral part of an alternative economic and political strategy. That means giving people the skills and research infrastructure to support a new industrial base, but it also means equipping our people to be active, questioning and committed democratic citizens.

Crucially, Education for the People identifies what would be needed to

renew the progressive advance. The pamphlet argues that new local and national alliances must be built, led by the labour movement but mobilising broader communities of working people.

These alliances should target the big businesses that want to profiteer from education. We must pose an alternative model of a democratised education system built on common-sense ideas still current in our society – the ideas of education as a democratic right and a democratic tool, articulated within a democratic system. This is a critical time in which we must start to build the widest possible unity around an alternative vision of education. The Communist Party offers Education for the People as a contribution to building this alternative. Copies will be available at UCU Congress.

Susan Michie works at UCL and is an NEC member of UCU H

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