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Supplement: Before, During and After the 1921 March Action in Germany

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Supplement: Before, During and After the 1921 March Action in Germany A paper of Marxist polemic and Marxist unity Supplement: Before, n Letters and debate n Pandemic hits third world during and after the 1921 n Spring Communist University March Action in Germany n Inequality keeps growing No 1346 May 6 2021 Towards a mass Communist Party £1/€1.10 Rent-seeking as mass murder weekly 2 May 6 2021 1346 worker LETTERS PCS they will always call in recently told that 125 branches about that. annual leave, sick pay, etc) for Letters may have been opposition speakers to ensure a had responded, but not which Another practice I did not like above-inflation pay rises is that shortened because of space. Some names balanced debate. However, the option most branches favoured at annual conferences was the fact they have taken major groups of may have been changed online conference arrangements nor what the comments were. the standing orders committee members out of the supposed PCS require branches to state, in One huge problem of (SOC) seemed to place the NEC’s national fight to secure annual advance, who is to speak on PCS merging with another motions on major issues at the pay bargaining with the treasury. PCS merger? a motion and whether they union will be that it might be top of all the relevant sections, My last activity before I retired The Public and Commercial are supporting or opposing it. affiliated to the Labour Party. so the NEC dominated all the in 2018 was to get the ministry of Services union is claiming that It can be seen that delegates Whilst the Provisional Central major debates. If the industrial, justice GEC to recommend that its forthcoming conference in will probably not know this Committee of the CPGB would political or international situation members reject their version of June will be the most democratic information in advance, so we be ecstatic about that, most changed between the submission selling T&C for a pay rise and across the trade union movement. cannot see if the debate is fair. of our members and activists of motions and the conference this resulted in members voting Branches can register as many This also precludes delegates would not. As I’ve previously itself, this resulted in branches against it by 93% - the highest delegates as they like, but only wishing to speak who want to reported in the Weekly Worker, sending in emergency motions. rejection vote of a pay deal I can one will be allowed to vote and respond to a point made in the I was one of the main delegates Amazingly, so did the NEC. recall in over 35 years of activity. they will use their card vote on debate if they haven’t registered making successful arguments And once again, thanks to the But then I am an independent every motion (the number of this in advance. The president at previous conferences against very obliging SOC, the NEC’s socialist not in a faction. votes each branch will have will will know, and can choose, who motions wanting to affiliate PCS emergency motions were also Given the latest employers’ be the number of members of that to call in (and will know which to the Labour Party and against placed at the top of the relevant ruse of ‘fire and rehire’ being branch). I have no quibble with factions most delegates are in) merging with the Unite union. sections, so would be debated applied to Asda workers, British branches having more delegates and who not to. There is no explanation as first. The NEC speaking first on Gas and now Go North West, than they would normally be Pre-2021 branches could to how we can do this (unless all major debates gives them a whose Unite members are on allowed to have - this means, send in as many motions as they individual members can opt dominating kudos and the crucial strike, it seems that unions in principle, far more members liked. But the online conference out of paying the Labour Party ‘right of reply’ to any branches actively recommending members might attend and observe this arrangements make clear that levy?). However, this still leaves arguing against their position. to sell their T&C for pay rises online conference. I never forgot there are four subject groupings PCS affiliated to Starmer’s New So the NEC gets both the first gives the green light to employers my first conference (in 1981, I and branches can only send one Labour party and, far from (as and last word in the debates and to go for ‘fire and rehire’. That think), so enthralled was I by motion under each category. As the CPGB continually argues) can bring in Mark Serwotka, who affects all workers, whether in the cut and thrust of the debates, the duration of the conference meaning PCS can pull the Labour has huge support from activists a union or not, and whether in a and the politics - I never missed will be the same as at physical Party to the left, that would in (being our general secretary for job or not, so we have to win this a subsequent conference for the conferences, it is not explained reality mean we would be told the last 20 years, having easily fight. next 35 years until I retired. why there is this limitation. by the larger unions to shut up won four elections), as their We are now seeing people In theory, yes, more members It is not needed. My former and stop rocking the gravy train main speaker. Mark rarely loses taking to the streets on a number can attend an online conference branch typically puts in 20 (sorry, boat). a debate at conference and in his of issues. The Weekly Worker watched from their homes, motions to conference and now Although the union we might opening address always sets out often sneers at street protests, than would/could attend down could only send in four. That is merge with has never been the priorities for PCS as he sees but they at least show people are in Brighton, but you still have less democracy, not more - our named, many activists expect it them (they are related to the NEC willing to stand up and be counted to be interested in debate and branch AGM had to discuss, will be Unite. The criticisms Len motions to be debated later, of and that they care about an issue making union policy in the first in one section, which motion McCluskey has made and his course). enough to do so. We have seen an place. Whilst branches had to we were sending in and which support for Jeremy Corbyn are PCS used to have well over impressive level of self-activity hold their AGMs this year via two, in the same category, we close to the beliefs of most PCS 200,000 members. It now has and organising in recent years - Zoom, some saw an increase in weren’t. activists. We have also been told 185,000 - 15,000 short of the 2020 first with Extinction Rebellion, attendees (like ours), whereas My grave suspicion is that the union merger has to make recruitment target and related then Black Lives Matter, then another branch I know saw a this conference will be PCS’s ‘industrial sense’. to the job losses imposed on the over the murder of Sarah Everard fifth of their usual attendees. last. Earlier in the year there I do not have to explain to civil service. It may be that PCS, and now Kill the Bill (against Priti At a physical conference, was a consultation of branches Weekly Worker readers how financially, should merge with Patel’s Police Crime and Court you can look around the hall on the future of the union. all the super-unions created another union, but we will lose Sentencing Bill). The trade union and see how many delegates Branches were consulted on two via mergers have not been, as our unique identity and some of movement has stated the absolute wish to speak and whether they options: improving the way PCS was argued by others at the the progressive policies we have need to recruit young workers, are for or against the motion is structured and organises; and time, powerful, massive unions that many other unions do not. We but on all these hugely supported under debate (we have coloured whether to save money, or to making governments quake. will lose our democratic culture street protests it has been mainly cards to hold up that say ‘For’, merge with another union (which National industrial action by (way ahead of most unions and invisible. Trade unions are not ‘Against’ or ‘Abstain’). In union was unspecified). We were the super-unions has been rare the Labour Party). I have been a seen to be interested in issues and I put that down to them all PCS fanatic all my working life young people clearly are. being affiliated to Labour, which and even in retirement am active We have seen ever larger has become a conveyor belt for in the retired members section. anti-lockdown protests and Online Communist Forum sell-out union full-time officers I’m also on my local trades even football fans coming out becoming sell-out Labour MPs. council and have helped revitalise against the creation of a Super PCS itself has lost two national a Unite the Community branch in League. Something seems to be industrial action ballots in a row Calderdale. in the air - increasing numbers (the votes were overwhelmingly The NEC elections used to be a of people are taking to the streets for action, but the turnout was walkover for the unprincipled pact against the mainstream media and below the Tories’ legal 50% that is the ‘Democracy Alliance’ establishment narrative.
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