By New Worker correspondent
JEREMY CORBYN got a rapturous welcome from PCS
delegates last week. The Labour leader ticked all the boxes during his address
on the last day of the civil service workers’ annual conference in Brighton
last week.
“The success of
a future Labour government will depend on the trade union movement,” Corbyn
said. “When Labour comes to power, you come to power too. These changes are not
possible without you.
“Together we
will create a social security system that is about support not sanctions,
tackle the climate emergency and smash racism.”
He slammed the “ugly face of Tory austerity
Britain” and vowed that the next Labour government would repeal all the
oppressive Tory union laws, restore free collective bargaining and facility
time for trade union activities, and introduce online balloting for strike
votes and union elections.
Conference
agreed to continue its national pay campaign despite an earlier strike ballot
that failed to pass the 50 per cent turnout threshold that is now a legal
requirement for strike action. Members voted by four to one in favour of strike
action or “action short of a strike”. But turnout was 47.7 per cent and a
further 3,000 votes would have been required to pass the threshold, introduced
via the Trade Union Act 2016.
The National
Executive Committee (NEC) remains in the hands of the major left factions that
have dominated the union for years but the Socialist Party (SP), the main
successor to the old Militant Tendency, was shaken by the surprise victory of
John Moloney, a supporter of the maverick Trotskyist Alliance for Workers
Liberty (AWL) faction, in the race for assistant general secretary, defeating
the long-standing SP incumbent and a full-time union officer who was Mark
Serwotka’s choice.
Earlier
Serwotka seemingly discounted rumours of early retirement by confirming that he
would run again when the general secretary elections come round in the autumn.
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