Got nothing against Gerard Coyne, but in 20-plus years associating with the labour movement I have never seen a candidate run such a desperate and rubbish General Secretary election campaign. Kicking off his Unite leadership bid, Gerard criticised Len McCluskey for spending more time talking about and fiddling with the Labour Party than looking after […]
Posts Tagged ‘Unite’
The world of skulduggery, smears and secret plots
Mar 22nd, 2017 by Len McCluskey.For the last three months I have been touring the country meeting working men and women as I campaign to be re-elected as Unite’s General Secretary. I have been listening to their hopes and fears in the factories, bus garages, building sites and hospitals. They are worried about their jobs above all, about Theresa May’s […]
Let’s Unite the left for Len
Feb 10th, 2017 by Andy Newman.Even taking account the advantages of incumbency, the momentum, dynamism and confidence of Len McCluskey’s campaign to be re-elected General Secretary of Unite stands in sharp contrast to the lacklustre efforts of the right wing challenger, Gerard Coyne, and the amateur hour theatrics of the “grassroots” candidate, Ian Allinson. What stands out is not only that Len can point […]
We must unite to end Tory austerity
Oct 5th, 2016 by Steve Turner.In recent years, “Economic credibility” has laughingly been defined as an economic policy that has delivered neither sustainable economic growth nor improved living standards for the overwhelming majority of people. Indeed, the Tories’ austerity has even failed on their own very narrow definition of success of reducing the debt to GDP ratio.
Unite conference votes to endorse mandatory reselection
Jul 15th, 2016 by James Elliott.Unite’s Policy Conference sent a very clear message to rebel Labour MPs yesterday by voting by an overwhelming majority to support a rule change to the Labour Party rulebook to reintroduce mandatory reselection of MPs before each general election. The rule change, first introduced in the 1980s and then abolished under Neil Kinnock, to be replaced […]
Will Corbyn be on the ballot?
Jul 11th, 2016 by James Elliott.A successful coup usually requires two things: an acceptable leader-in-waiting, and a delegitimisation of the current leadership. While the PLP have only finally agreed on the former, the latter has been underway for some time. The latest delegitimisation of Corbyn’s position, and an attempt to legitimise the coup, is to claim the rulebook shows he […]
Union backing alone won’t give Corbyn victory, we must work to make that happen
Jul 8th, 2015 by James Elliott.The weekend brought welcome news with the announcement that Unite, Britain’s largest trade union and Labour’s largest donor, would be backing Jeremy Corbyn after a vote of 34 to 13 on Unite’s 63-person Executive Council. To this, Jeremy also has the largest transport union, the RMT; the train drivers’ union, Aslef; the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and the […]
Jeremy Corbyn welcomes Unite’s endorsement
Jul 5th, 2015 by Jeremy Corbyn.It is a great honour to receive Unite’s nomination for the Labour leadership, and it underlines that this a serious campaign that has growing momentum. The leadership election is about one issue above others: whether we accept another five more years of a race to the bottom based on cuts that destroy services and damage […]
Labour Friends of Israel continues to whitewash war crimes
Jul 1st, 2015 by James Elliott.One year on from the tragic events in Gaza last summer, and the British Israel lobby is still trying to distract us from Israel’s crimes by highlighting perceived wrongdoing by other sides. In her piece for Left Foot Forward, Jennifer Gerber makes a number of claims which require refutation: Hamas’ responsibility for provoking ‘the conflict’; […]
McCluskey comes out in favour or working with the SNP
Apr 27th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.The Guardian reports today that Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, has come out in favour of Ed Miliband working with the SNP after the election. However, McCluskey was also careful to back the Labour Party – even under the leadership of Jim Murphy – saying “we’re a democratic party and of course we’re behind him and supporting […]