PCS Broad Left Network

On Friday 14th April the Cabinet Office published it’s pay remit for 2023/4. The remit is the government’s way of telling departments what they can spend on pay each year. This year they have set a limit of 4.5% for pay increases plus a further discretionary 0.5%. Not only is this nowhere near last year’s claim – it does little to help hard working members meet the ever-increasing cost of living crisis.

PCS were informed of this limit by government officials who said the limit of 4.5%-5.0% was not negotiable and there would be no improvement on the 2022 pay rise of 2.0%.

What does this mean? Well, after nearly 6 months of a badly led pay campaign:-

• No negotiations on our 2022 pay claim of 10.0% – no improvement on the 2022 pay limit of 2.0% which was massively below inflation
• No negotiations on 2023 pay – imposition of 4.5-5.0% increase for 2023 which is less than half the rate of inflation.

The six-month strike mandate we secured on 7 November 2022 has nearly run out. We need to renew it. We need a massive Yes vote in the re-ballot currently taking place.

But renewing the mandate will not be enough to make the government take us seriously. We need a change of approach and a change of leadership.

Other unions launched their campaigns with programmes of national action. This paid off with the government forced to negotiate and make offers for 2023 and proposals for 2022 pay.

We don’t say the offers to these unions are good enough. In fact, they are likely to be rejected-as is the case with the nurses, where following a rank-and-file campaign the membership has said a resounding “no”! But the contrast is stark. These unions have put enough pressure on the government to make them negotiate. PCS hasn’t!

The current PCS leadership by adopting the approach put forward by the BLN secured a statutory strike mandate but waited six weeks before taking any action – and then only small-scale targeted strikes. They waited three months before the first day of national strike action. They have called only three one-day national strikes in six months.

From the start BLN supporters argued a clear strategy of immediate and escalating national strike action, supported by targeted selective strikes and a ballot for action short of strikes. We highlighted the need to coordinate action with other unions also fighting the cost-of-living crisis.

It is essential that this strategy is now implemented if we are to secure our 10% claim for 2022 and at least a cost-of-living proof increase for 2023.

Broad Left Network supporters reject the opportunistic rhetoric of Mark Serwotka and his Left Unity supporters on the PCS National Executive Committee. Serwotka has suggested that it is only as the result of our national campaign that the government entered into discussions. This is dishonest in three ways.

First – the discussions are the regular annually-scheduled discussions about the Treasury Pay Remit. They are not dispute resolution talks conceded in order to discuss terms for ending PCS strike action.

Second – the pay remit discussions do not touch on three of the four major issues raised – pensions, civil service compensation scheme or jobs.

Third – the talks are not intended to address an additional payment to cover our dispute over 2022-23 pay, but instead are designed to meet the government’s obligations for consultation on 2023-24 pay.

The General Secretary’s attempt to claim progress is to say the least premature.

Also erroneous are the claims being made in PCS propaganda, issued under the auspices of the National Executive, that there has been progress in Scotland.

Unelected negotiators have attempted to railroad through a deal with the Scottish Government for our devolved area members that falls shy of the 10% pay claim, without adequately explaining what it means for members’ pay packets. Further the proposed deal does not deal with our claim for adequate staffing in the Scottish civil service, nor with longstanding demands amongst Scottish members for a shorter contractual working week with no loss of pay.

Crucially, members in Scotland are currently being balloted on this deal, so claiming it as a union victory is as premature as it is dishonest. The Broad Left Network as well as SG West and Central Scotland branch are officially recommending rejection, against the cowardly official position to accept this wholly inadequate offer.

This Tory government is extremely weak and crisis-ridden – with serious and coordinated action we can defeat them!

On 20 April the union’s elections start. Ballot papers will be sent out by post. Use your vote to support Marion Lloyd for President and the Broad Left Network/Independent Left list of candidates.

Vote for a leadership that can win on pay and the other issues facing members.

The Broad Left Network supports the decision to re-ballot members to extend our current strike mandate which runs out on 6th May. The ballot starts on 20th March and will finish on 9th May.

It’s vital we get over the Tory  50% anti-union law threshold. It’s vital we get a massive Yes vote to continue the fight for our 2022  pay demand of 10% and to defend jobs .

After months of targeted action and two 1 day national strikes the government has not moved. No fresh offer has been made to increase our 2022 pay beyond the 2% government pay limit.

It’s a disgrace that the Tory  Government is prepared to turn its back on thousands of  its own employees forced into in-work poverty by its policies:-

• 40,000 civil servants use food banks
• 45,000 civil servants claim in-work benefits
• 49,000 DWP/HMRC workers are paid the minimum wage

The government is holding pay  talks with health and education unions. Their strikes have brought ministers to the negotiating table. But as Mark Serwotka is reported as saying “…they won’t talk to their own workforce..”

This government indifference to the cost of living crisis suffered by our members will only be overcome by stepping up the action, by increasing the pressure on the Tories. This requires  the urgent implementation of a programme of national action, sustained targeted strikes and, we would argue,  a ballot for action short of strikes such as overtime bans.

Yes we need to win the ballot to renew our industrial action mandate. We will work tirelessly to achieve this. But it cannot be just for more of the same. We need the union’s current leadership to articulate a strategy to win our 10% claim, to defend jobs , secure pension justice and protect the compensation scheme.

The government can be moved. We need to massively escalate the action!

PCS reps including BLN members and supporters worked tirelessly to win the mandate for strike action. We must use the massive mandate we  achieved to force the employer to give us what we deserve. The action must include a programme of all members strikes supported by targeted action 

We have now been joined by members in Revenue and Customs, Companies House and others – all of whom have now voted to join the campaign – a clear sign of members continued determination to win this dispute with the government on our 2022 pay and other issues.

The magnificent ballot success of Prospect which includes also a mandate for action short of strikes eg overtime ban means we can join with them in taking action. This  will strengthen our campaign. PCS does not currently have a mandate for action short of strikes . We believe this is a weakness in the union’s strategy that should be put right – the union leadership has an opportunity to do that in the next ballot.

The Broad Left Network fully supports the call to strike and march together on Budget Day. The day on which the government will be setting out their spending plans.

Our pay demands for 2022 are not yet settled, we want the money and we will not stand for further pay misery. This is the message that mass action on 15th March will send to the Tories – so all out on Budget Day.

        •       Over 130,000 PCS members voted  for strike action to force the government to pay us our 10% wage claim, stop job cuts, and give pensions justice.

        •       The pay cap imposed by the Tories is an insult. With inflation at over 10%, energy prices going through the roof and increased interest rates pushing up mortgage costs and rents we need more money in our wage packets. 

        •       We are not alone. Across the public service and the private sector too union members are demanding cost of living pay increases. Many of these unions are also calling strike action on 15th March including NEU, UCU, Prospect, BMA, HCSA, ASLEF & RMT on the tube, NUJ, GMB in Amazon.

We must make a stand now for decent wages, protection of jobs, offices and services. We have nothing to lose and much to gain.

Let’s make 15th March a day the Tories will not forget. Let’s make 15th March a stepping stone to a major escalation of our action on pay and jobs – of increased all-members action supported by targeted strikes. We need to make the government take us and our demands seriously.

Support the Budget Day strike. 

We can win – make the Tory Government pay up. All out on 15th March!

Supporters of the PCS Broad Left Network offer our deepest sympathy and solidarity to the family and friends of Brianna Ghey. Brianna Ghey was a 16 year old trans girl who was murdered in Warrington last weekend. In response, vigils have been called across the country to stand with the LGBT+ community. The PCS Broad Left Network urges our supporters to make every effort to support these vigils and the struggle for LGBT+ rights generally. Brianna was a much loved daughter, supported and cherished by her family. Like anyone, she wanted to live a life with the space and support to be her true self. Due to the UK government’s appalling U-turn on reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the absolute failure of our society to make space for trans people to live as their authentic selves, Brianna’s death will have to be recorded using her deadname and her death certificate will wrongly declare her to be male. This injustice demonstrates the erasure of Brianna’s young life, just one example of the erasure faced by all trans people who get married, live and die under a system which forcibly denies who they are. Now that she has died, the state – aided by reactionary elements in our society – will insist that she never truly existed as the wonderful young woman that she was. This erasure, propped up and deepened by the disgusting transphobic discourse ripping through the media at present, is the genocidal outcome of the anti-trans lobby.

That word is not used lightly; the Lemkin Institute for Genocidal Prevention describes the gender critical movement’s ideology and practice as having a “genocidal nature” in their 2022 report and call it a “centerpiece of right wing ascendency in the Western world”. The 1948 United Nations Convention on preventing genocide states in Article 2 that alongside the obvious definition of killing or harming members of a group, one definition can be “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction or in part.” While the Convention refers to “national, ethnical, racial or religious groups”, the parallels with the targeting of the very essence, existence and validity of trans people as a group as described in the Lemkin report are clear. A person’s trans identity is an inherent and inalienable part of who they are, and there is a growing voice in society urging us to deny that. We must reject it, and trans rights must be upheld and defended as an urgent matter of life and death.

Trans people, the LGBT+ community and their allies, can see that her murder is not simply an isolated incident. LGBT+ rights are under attack in a way that hasn’t been seen since the 1980s and the introduction by the Thatcher government of the hated Section 28. In reality, despite improvements amongst social attitudes and legal protections won because of the struggles of LGBT+ people to have their voices heard, trans people continue to face unrelenting hostility throughout their lives: in schools, on the streets, in the workplaces, and in wider society.

The newly-appointed Deputy Tory Chairman, Lee Anderson, has openly stated that their party will use a culture war-type agenda to sow division by attacking trans people in a bid to desperately try to cling to power. Disgracefully, much like their approach to striking workers, Keir Starmer’s Labour sit on their hands whilst trans people face attacks from the right and the far-right. Trans people also face specific barriers in accessing public services, such as access to mental health provision and gender reassignment services, because of the austerity policies of successive governments and councillors representing the mainstream capitalist parties. Hypocritically, some of so-called allies of trans people amongst these pro-austerity parties are the same politicians who have voted to introduce cut services, scrap or water down equality training including in the civil service, slash legal aid and introduce tribunal fees to deter access to justice. PCS members at conference have consistently voted to show their solidarity with our trans comrades by passing motions, often in spite of the recommendation of the Left Unity-dominated National Executive Committee, to unequivocally defend trans rights.

The PCS Broad Left Network is proud to demand justice for Brianna and her family and friends. The BLN recommits its pledge to stand with the LGBT+ community and against the austerity policies that fan the flames of division, hatred and discrimination in our society. We urge our supporters to join the vigils over the coming days ahead to demand justice.

The union’s National Executive Committee (NEC) met this afternoon, Tuesday 7^th February, to discuss the impact of the all-members national strike action taken by 100,000 PCS members on 1^st February. Rightly, the attitude of the NEC was positive, given the big turnout on pickets and demonstrations across the UK and union members’ clear support for a fightback on pay, on pensions, on redundancy rights and for many other improvements.

Fiona Brittle, BLN supporter elected to the union’s NEC, voted for further action to be called on 28^th February, 15^th March and 16^th March, all of which are dates where coordination with other unions is possible, including teachers’ and lecturers’ unions NEU, UCU, NASUWT and EIS. Coordinated action would seriously raise the pressure exerted on the government and has been under-developed by the current leadership of PCS.

However, it is not enough to simply call for further dates to be named. There must be a clear industrial plan, demonstrating the impact of well-supported strike action and this must be explained to members across the union, both those with mandates and those re-balloting. Fiona laid this out very clearly at the NEC, even while voting with other NEC members who had gone even further to name specific dates in April as well.

In addition to demanding proper exploratory work be done to extend coordinated action, and for a serious campaign of national strike action be announced no later than 16^th February, Fiona also renewed her demand that branches must be given access to members’ contact details.

Branches cannot contact members via the usual route of desk-dropping circulars or work emails because we need to talk about strike action. Home emails and phone numbers are essential, to reinforce attempts at mass engagement by our key activist layer in the branches.

This is certainly necessary as we approach the expiry of the union’s mandate, on 7^th May, 6 months after our ballot victory on November 7^th 2022; the nearer this gets the more thoughts should be turning to re-balloting, to including action short of strike action, and to making a serious case to members as to why they need to vote YES to help us win our demands.

The NEC majority, led by those who call themselves “Left Unity”, refused to support any of this, voting down all of the proposals made by Fiona to strengthen the national campaign, and opposing all dates for action except 15^th March. Broad Left Network supporters will throw themselves into building for March strike action, but we must also highlight to members the utter failure and calamity that has been the union’s current leadership during this dispute.

Keep pressure on the union’s Left Unity leadership

Our criticisms of the current leadership of PCS, Left Unity, are well-known by now. During the pandemic, they abandoned our national campaign on pay, pensions, redundancy rights and the rest, in favour of an offer for cosy fireside chats with senior Tory ministers.

While members were being forced back into unsafe offices, they failed totally to mobilise any serious resistance even though sporadic ballots over safety in Departments like DWP showed that there was enormous support in key workplaces for a militant attitude.

For the five years up until the most recent national ballot was launched, in September 2022, Left Unity supporters on the NEC made a point of principle out of opposing disaggregated ballots, where individual civil service employers would be balloted at the same time but on a department-by-department basis.

These so-called leaders spread rumours and scaremongered in order to witch-hunt out anyone who called for consideration of how disaggregated ballots could be used to break through the barrier of the 2016 anti-union laws, including the overall 50% participation threshold. This included the union’s then-Assistant General Secretary, Chris Baugh.

They said disaggregated ballots would “wreck the national campaign.”

Four years later, in 2022, they finally switched to a disaggregated ballot, which is how we arrived where we are now, with 100,000 members and 126 areas across the union with a live mandate on which we can finally take the action we need to win on pay, on pensions etc. There was no admission of failure, or of previous mistakes. They just chucked out everything they’d ever said up to that point and switched course.

With the most recent ballot, they failed to include action short of strike action as a question on the ballot. They claim this is a strategy, but the view of BLN supporters is that they are incompetent. They fail to understand that real socialist politics are not just a wish-list of nice things; it’s a way to understand how to make the union a vehicle for workers’ struggle.

Action short of strike action could have been used to frustrate the massive use of overtime to undermine strike action in the civil service. It could have been used to target even more intensively the key areas where targeted action has been authorised, with small number of members taking weeks upon weeks of action. It could have been used to stop employers moving work from one striking site to another, which is not striking.

These are just a selection of low points. Other failures, especially the dismal, centralising, anti-democratic, machinations of the current leadership are not hard to find.

BLN supporters – not just those elected to the NEC but those in branches and on regional and other committees – called on the NEC to launch a powerful national campaign right out of the gate, upon winning the mandate back on 7^th November. They refused.

Today we learned of a further consequence of that refusal.

The Left Unity majority on the NEC clearly forgot that Northern Ireland’s anti-union laws are slightly different. By failing to call action covering NI within 28 days of securing the mandate for action, the NEC allowed our mandate in the important areas, including the NI Home Office and NI Passport Office branches, to lapse.

Members in Northern Ireland, who won a mandate with 100,000 of the rest of us on 7^th November, must now be re-balloted or face exclusion from the national campaign. This shameful failure is the latest in a long list and proves that the current leadership must be replaced.

A fighting, socialist programme for the 2023 PCS elections

Reps and members from across many different civil service departments and the privatised, contracted-out areas, have long recognised that there are problems with the current leadership by the Left Unity faction, and these problems are getting worse. This is clearly shown just by the above brief historical recap of their failures since 2018.

Those of us who have served on Group Executive and National Executive Committees with this leadership know that reasoned argument has no effect upon them. Their rants, insults and screaming behaviour of some of their worst elements are well-known across the PCS activist layer. They are a serious barrier to our union’s victory and they must go.

The Broad Left Network was founded by PCS reps in order to put forward a plan for a campaigning, democratic union, governed by socialist policies. This year we will fight the 2023 elections in PCS on a stark programme, recognising that we are in the middle of a major dispute and that members are under enormous pressure, through the cost-of-living crisis:

• Support, build and lead the strikes across PCS.
• Develop a serious, escalating programme of national, targeted and selective strike action to beat the Tory cost-of-living squeeze and the anti-union laws, including action short of strikes to maximise pressure on the government, our employer.
• Ensure that PCS takes the lead in calling for mass coordinated action across the trade union movement.
• Strengthen democracy and accountability within PCS, including by extending elections to include full-time officers, and by bringing their pay more in line with the members they represent.

In the elections, Broad Left Network candidates will be standing alongside candidates from another organisation within PCS, the Independent Left.

Independent Left has agreed the above platform. This allows both sets of candidates to stand on one united, left slate. Such a move recognises how important it is to oust the charlatans clinging to control just now, and to replace them with a new generation of socialist, activist union reps who have the ideas and the ability to get out and build our union and its campaigns.

Nationally we are calling on all branches to support and nominate the following:

National President – Marion Lloyd (BEIS)

National Vice Presidents – Fiona Brittle (Scottish Government), Bryan Carlsen (HSE), Bev Laidlaw (DWP) and Jon-Paul Rosser (HMRC).

Ordinary NEC: Dave Bartlett (MOJ), Tom Bishell (DWP), Rob Bowers (Defence), Fiona Brittle (Scottish Government), Alex Brown (Health Group), Sarah Brown (Met Police), Bryan Carlsen (HSE), Josh Chown (Home Office), Eleanor Clarke (Cabinet Office), Victoria Cuckson (HMRC), Chris Day (National Archives), Alan Dennis (Defence), Nick Doyle (HMRC), Matt Exley (Culture), Chip Hamer (Culture), Rachel Heemskerk (DWP), Karen Johnson (DLUHC), David Jones (DLUHC), Bev Laidlaw (DWP), Marion Lloyd (BEIS), Chris Marks (DWP), Vijay Menezes-Jackson (DWP), Nick Parker (ACAS), Rob Ritchie (Shared Services Commercial Sector), Jon-Paul Rosser (HMRC), Dave Semple (DWP), Gary Spencer (DLUHC), Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale (DWP), Paul Suter (DWP), Colin Young (Education).

Over 100,000 PCS members voted  for strike action to force the government to pay us our 10% wage claim, stop job cuts, attacks on redundancy and get pensions justice.

• As things stand a 2-3% pay increase is the limit imposed by the Tories. This makes no sense with inflation at way over 10%, energy prices going through the roof and increased interest rates pushing up mortgage costs.

• We are not alone. Across the public service and the private sector too, union members are demanding cost of living pay increases. Many of these unions are also calling strike action on 1st February including teachers in the NEU, train drivers in ASLEF and RMT and university workers in UCU. As well as the TUC calling a National Day of Protest on the same day to defend our right to strike

• So, we have a choice. Do nothing and get nothing. Or make a stand now for decent wages and protection of jobs, offices and services. We have nothing to lose and much to gain.

• Support 1st February strike. Let’s make it a day the Tories will not forget. Let’s make 1st February a stepping stone to a major escalation of our action on pay and jobs – of further national action supported by targeted strikes 

• We can win – make the fat cat, tax avoiding Tory Government pay up. ALL OUT on 1st February 

PCS members across the UK will take strike action on February 1st, in the first national strike action since the union gained a legal mandate on November 7th. All Broad Left Network supporters have been working hard since this was announced on 11th January to mobilise their branches and to link up with other striking unions – NEU, UCU and ASLEF.

Members are extremely angry with the government, and they support the goals of the campaign – particularly a 10% pay rise to undo the 10% pay cut imposed by rocketing inflation. Many are also angry with the leadership of the union for a litany of failures, in a rocky start to our industrial campaign but this should not be allowed to cut across a huge turnout on 1^st February.

A strong showing allows PCS members to link up with striking teachers, lecturers and train drivers, and mass pickets will allow for a discussion on tactics and what way forward to build the campaign. It will draw more members into an active role in the campaign than has hitherto been possible, thanks to NEC refusal of national action up to this point.

All branches should consider convening meetings of members to explain how strike action works, particularly as most areas have not organised strikes since large-scale homeworking came in. Zoom can be used for this. The other common pre-strike work, of identifying pickets, making sure members can ask questions and winning over doubters is under way.

Changing situation – a serious campaign means national action

On 16th January, the National Education Union (NEU) secured a decisive mandate for strike action and their executive has announced 7 days of strikes, a mixture of national all-members’ action and some geographical action, targeting specific locations, so that no member will lose more than 4 days’ pay. This bold approach is exactly what BLN has argued PCS should do.

Since November, BLN supporters have argued that national action would bring all members into the campaign in a very direct way, extremely important given that tens of thousands have not taken strike action since 2015. Targeted strikes, of smaller areas taken out for longer periods, could be used to supplement this – but cannot be used to replace it.

Members have played a heroic role, mobilising for targeted action in different areas – including Border Force, Highways Agency, Rural Payments Agency, DVSA and in small areas of the Department for Work and Pensions. Targeted action, like rolling action and other forms of action have a role to play. Yet they have been left isolated by the absence of national action, that could involve all PCS members and would unite the union behind our campaign.

Our opponents, a group called “Left Unity”, who currently have a majority on the union’s NEC, have replaced national action with targeted action. They would likely disagree with this assessment, but the facts speak for themselves. We are now three months into a six-month mandate and only now are we pivoting towards national strike action.

Branches and regions have been writing to the NEC, condemning how they’ve handled the dispute so far. Now, exposed by the audacious decision of the NEU executive, the PCS NEC majority feel pushed towards national action. BLN supporter Fiona Brittle, a current NEC member, has consistently argued that we need to expand this national action.

Some of these criticisms have not been shared with the NEC; paranoia and unaccountability seem increasingly common amongst certain NEC officers. All branches need to keep the pressure on the NEC for a programme of further national action which is absolutely necessary to win.  

Branch reps work hard to convince angry members

At all NEC meetings since the first post-ballot NEC on 10th November, the Left Unity majority of the NEC majority have launched attack after attack against BLN supporter Fiona Brittle, who has been the most consistent voice for national action. Meanwhile the genuine activists of the union have been working hard to retain the support of very angry members.

The absence of a mandate to take action short of strike action, including an overtime ban, has left many members asking why they should strike when the work will be covered by others on overtime. The NEC’s arrogant reply to this was that so long as it increases the cost of clearing the work, it is still worth going on strike. This is not good enough.

A re-ballot of those areas with a mandate could have been organised, as BLN supporters have suggested, at the NEC and other committees, to include a further question on action short of strike action. This could have been done in concert with the re-ballot of those areas which did not gain a mandate on 7th November, including large groups such as HMRC group. Instead, the NEC has defaulted to a laissez-faire “let us know if you want to do anything” attitude. This is simply not good enough.

We need to raise money to support selective strikes but the NEC’s incompetent job of explaining the launch of the union’s strike levy, agreed late last year, and which temporarily raises monthly subs by £3 or £5 (for members earning over £24,000 per year), has also been a source of frustration. This has been made worse by repeatedly incorrect emails sent to members since December about their subs.

Branch reps know that the NEC is not the union. PCS members are the union. This is our campaign, and we can win it. The NEC can be bent to the will of branches – but this requires re-building the tool that can accomplish that, a PCS Broad Left, bringing together all of the socialist activists in PCS to fight for a campaigning, democratic trade union.

We need a Broad Left, stretching the length and breadth of the union, speaking up for socialist politics, for the hard-working activists of the union and for members, to hold the NEC to account, regardless of who is elected to it.

Report from NEC on 18th and 19th January

The recent NEC involved extended discussion of the union’s industrial strategy. We do not intend to report publicly what the NEC has decided, because this could aid the employer. Fiona Brittle made it absolutely clear that she fully supports the decision to call national strike action on February 1^st. This is what Broad Left Network have been calling for since November and we will all do everything we can to make it a success.

However, Fiona raised significant concerns about the way targeted action is being handled by the current Left Unity leadership and called for further national action.

Serwotka and the NEC leadership did not propose further national action, only Fiona did. The NEC leadership did not address any of the organising issues raised by branches, including lack of access to members’ contact details. Instead, they rubbished any critique of the strategy as “posturing”. They refused to accept that the implementation of the levy was poorly handled, insisting that the NEC “must make difficult decisions”.

The NEC leadership have repeatedly hidden behind members difficult financial circumstances, arguing that the cowardice of the NEC is justified because members cannot afford to take national action. This disgraceful argument makes mockery of the sacrifice of nurses, posties, railway workers and others who have taken substantial unpaid strike action, and of the teachers who are about to. This is how we can defy and beat a government intent on destroying the public sector, and how we defeat their allies in the private sector.

Lack of confidence in members’ desire for all-out action is indicative both of what the PCS leadership really think about the capacity of workers to win against bosses, and of how little they understand the current mood and needs of members.

Fiona proposed amendments which remedied all the NEC’s failures. She also proposed:

• a proper analysis (including costings) of the impact of targeted action undertaken so far, both industrially and in forcing the government to return to negotiations,
• detailed analysis for any new targeted action, in order to assess whether this would be effective in moving Ministers towards putting money on the table,
• a special NEC immediately after the Feb 1st strike to assess the impact of the strike and to call substantial national action, with the General Secretary – as is his role – tasked with identifying dates of high impact and possible coordination with other unions,
• reballots to add action short of strike to our mandate,
• a campaign of education and agitation around the new anti-union laws,
• insistence that pressure be put on Scottish Ministers to bring concrete proposals to the current talks on Scottish Sector pay, and a deadline imposed.
• including Scottish MSPs and Welsh Members of Senedd (MS) in the union’s e-action as part of publicity for the 1st February strike.

All of Fiona’s proposals, including those which are uncontentious, were voted down by the Left Unity majority on the NEC, amidst highly personal comments about how Fiona was “undermining the campaign” by daring to put forward an alternative view about how to fight and win. During a live ballot mandate, engaging with debate and discussion on strategy is not “disunity. Wide debate builds confidence in our approach and builds unity amongst members.

The Broad Left Network stands against the personal abuse which has for many years been a common technique of Left Unity in PCS. They are not socialists and so they do not have a political understanding of the battle we are in, or why only mass opposition to the government will win that battle. Personal abuse is the last refuge of those bereft of ideas.

PCS Broad Left Network supporters will be opposing the Left Unity leadership in the union’s 2023 elections – it is time for them to go. Our immediate priority, however, must be to strengthen the union’s national campaign and make 1st February a massive success as a step toward the programme of further national action that is required to force the government to meet our demands.

I was privileged to chair our BLN Conference on Saturday (14th January). The conference was a great success with activists from all parts of the union discussing the important issues facing our members. The discussion was great and really demonstrated the serious attitude and commitment of the BLN membership and also the wider periphery who attended.

National Campaign 

First up on the agenda was the union’s campaign on pay and jobs against the background of a government pay limit of 2-3% and the cost of living crisis faced by our members. The conference made clear BLN support for a national campaign on pay and jobs. It applauded PCS members striking and sacrificing on behalf of all of us but disappointed that national action uniting all those areas who had won the mandate and co-ordinated action with other unions had barely featured in the union’s strategy and demonstrated a lack of understanding about what is required to win.

The conference sent solidarity to all workers across the movement, committed to do everything possible to encourage members to support the levy, to support those areas re-balloting and to work tirelessly to ensure that the 1^{st of} February was a huge success.

However, escalation is needed, and conference agreed BLN will call/campaign to include:

• Immediate and continuing all-members national strike action – preferably when we can but not exclusively alongside other unions – to maximise pressure on the employer.
• Selective strikes supported by a levy consented to by members.
• Immediate re-ballot of all those groups of members who failed to secure a strike mandate.
• Immediate further ballot for action short of strikes to support the pressure of all-members national strikes and to increase the effectiveness of the targeted action.

Under the Tory anti-union laws our ballot mandate runs out on 7 May. Conference agreed BLN should argue for a fresh ballot beginning no later than 7 April if our campaign demands are not met by then.

Conference agreed that the national campaign needs to be under the democratic control of the union’s members and for this purpose BLN should argue for a special conference in mid-March to review the progress of the dispute and determine what strategy is needed to win.

Tory Anti-Union Legislation 

The Tories are planning further attacks on our right to strike with legislation giving them the power to impose minimum service levels and removing the already limited protection from dismissal for workers judged not to have complied. The conference agreed to continue to campaign for the repeal of all Tory anti-union legislation and that the TUC should “prepare for the maximum co-ordinated industrial action, up to and including a 24 hour general strike if the Tory Government moves to implement new anti-union laws and restrictions”.

NEC Report 

Fiona Brittle is currently playing a fantastic role as the lone BLN supporter on the National Executive Committee. Fiona’s report to the conference concentrated on the national campaign and in particular her consistent efforts to persuade the Executive to take the fight to the government with a bold strike strategy the major part of which would involve all member national action. She meets, she said, with repeated rejection, but would not be deterred from putting forward a strategy which put us in the best possible position to win our demands on pay, jobs, pensions, and the compensation scheme.

BLN Secretary Report 

Alan Dennis, BLN Secretary, reported on the work of the BLN Steering Committee over the preceding twelve months which he said had contributed to the BLN becoming a major force in the union and to it being seen as the left opposition to the current leadership. Alan identified a major challenge for the BLN in the period ahead of challenging and changing the top down approach of the current leadership and democratising the working of the union.

Guest Speaker-Sheila Caffrey (NEU)

I was really pleased to welcome Sheila to our conference. Sheila is an NEU Executive Committee member and supporter of the left group Education Solidarity. Sheila expressed the hope that the NEU statutory strike ballot (NB: which is now has and we will all join up on the 1^st February) would give them a mandate for action and that PCS and NEU would shortly be sharing picket lines. She explained that support for the left had grown in the NEU based on an approach expressed in their slogan – “Lead from the front and build from below “. Sheila thanked us for the opportunity to address the conference and suggested we should more regularly link up left groups across the unions.

Conference Motions 

A number of motions were discussed which have determined BLN policy and which BLN supporters will take to their Branch Annual General Meetings for discussion. These included: Covid – the threat has not gone away and the union needs to act collectively. On tax justice the enormous tax gap from evasion which if collected would fund a fair health and benefits system. A bigger and better union by linking organising and bargaining. PCS digitalneeds to be designed around the needs of branches and members. Proper access to members mobile and email addresses for lay reps is vital to build the union and coordinate action. Need to rebuild the Proud structures in the union. What we need to do and campaign for to ensure trans equality. No to privatisation /outsourcing. Need for a better health service fully resourced free from privatisation and outsourcing. Need an Anti- Austerity Charter.

BEIS Group – NEC Impose New Constitution 

A motion rejecting the imposition of an unagreed constitution by the Left Unity led NEC was agreed. This has no precedent in the twenty year plus history of PCS and takes our union back to the undemocratic practices of the old CPSA right wing. Conference agreed full support to BEIS Group.

Regional Committee Structures-Consultation

The conference noted that the NEC were consulting on the union’s regional committee structure and urged BLN supporters to respond by the 20th January deadline making the case for properly funded and democratically controlled regional committees.

Election candidates agreed

The conference agreed the composition of the BLN Steering Committee for the twelve months ahead and the candidates that BLN will support in the 2023 PCS elections.

That’s It

In bringing our conference to a conclusion it seemed right to emphasise the critical role we will play individually and collectively in the period ahead securing our national campaign demands and a fairer, better – socialist – society for all workers and their families. 

If you read this report and are not yet a BLN member, please consider joining us.

If you would like to join the Broad Left Network, please fill in the form below and post it to – “PCS BLN, 11 Carr Road, Sheffield S6 2WY”

BLN Membership FormDOWNLOAD

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (the Bill) is a piece of legislation which simplifies and demedicalises the process by which trans men and women in Scotland can obtain legal gender recognition via a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), which allows them to change the sex marker on their birth certificate.

Legal gender recognition is an existing right which has been available since 2004, and the Bill does not change the effect of a GRC or introduce new rights for trans people, it simply allows them to change their legal gender on the basis of self-determination. This means the applicant giving a solemn and serious statutory declaration (a common legally binding mechanism similar to an affidavit) to a solicitor or justice of the peace that they intend to live in their “acquired gender” for the rest of their lives and have already done so for a minimum time period. It does not, as opponents have tried to claim, allow just anyone to declare that they are a different gender

The current system for obtaining a GRC is totally unfit for purpose, and fails to provide many trans people with access to the right of legal gender recognition. It involves a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a minimum two-year waiting period (though in reality this can be more like 3-5 years given waiting times for accessing gender identity healthcare to receive a diagnosis) and requires a person to make an application to a Gender Recognition Panel – a UK tribunal comprised of lawyers and doctors who never meet the applicant, and who pass judgment on a person’s identity without any right of appeal. This has been described as invasive, demeaning, onerous and dehumanising by trans rights groups, and is significantly outdated in comparison to international best practice (self-determination) as outlined by multiple bodies including the UN and the World Health Organisation, who haven’t recognised gender dysphoria as a mental disorder since 2019.

The Scottish parliament passed the Bill with over a two-thirds majority, and with cross-party support from members of every political party in the chamber. This followed six years of public consultation and numerous Parliamentary evidence sessions, making it one of the most consulted-on pieces of legislation in the history of the Scottish Parliament. It does not affect reserved legislation such as the Equality Act 2010, which still applies precisely as it does under the current system. Indeed a Labour amendment was accepted and placed on the face of the Bill which states that for the avoidance of doubt, the Bill does not modify Equality Act.

Single-sex services catering to women have the option under the Equality Act to exclude trans women (with or without a GRC) from women’s services on a case-by-case basis if to do so would be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. The Bill does not change this, and organisations would still be able to use those exclusions. It is worth noting however that Rape Crisis Scotland, Women’s Aid and Engender all gave evidence in strong support of the Bill, and gave the view that it would not make any change to their already inclusive policies – no one in Scotland has to show a birth certificate to access a rape crisis centre or a hospital ward, and never has.

Despite all this diligence and care, and the obvious will of the Scottish people, the UK Tory government has chosen to use section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 to veto the Bill by blocking it from being submitted for Royal Assent and thereby preventing it becoming Scots law. This unprecedented and undemocratic action is one of the most serious constitutional issues to have arisen since devolution, and has provoked outrage. At the very least it makes a mockery of the concept of devolved government if the UK Parliament can veto any bill they do not like, even if it is wholly in relation to matters devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

Many commentators have said that this overriding of the Scottish Parliament’s authority signals an absolute guarantee of Scotland gaining independence. So why would the Tories risk something which they have vehemently opposed (most notably by refusing to allow a second independence referendum) in order to veto a very short Bill which introduces measures comparable to those already in place in multiple jurisdictions including Norway, Belgium, the Republic of Ireland, Malta, India and some states in the USA? Especially when there is no evidence at all from these countries to show that using a self-determination model for legal gender recognition causes any increase in risks to women or girls, and simply allows trans people to live, marry and be buried with dignity in their affirmed gender.

The answer is clear:

The Tory Government has managed to produce a huge economic and social crisis where many workers are on strike just so they can heat their homes, put food on the table, and clothe their families. The use of food banks has rocketed, excess hospital deaths are at more than 500 per week, and essential care services are falling apart increasing pressure on an already failing NHS service. The NHS is not failing through bad management within the service, but through chronic under-funding and a disastrous management of the economy by this Tory government. At the same time huge tax breaks have been given to private schools, energy companies, and city bankers meaning the rich are getting richer while the hard working British citizen is struggling with an energy crisis and a cost of living gap too huge to bridge.

Amidst all this economic carnage, what better than a manufactured culture war against a tiny misunderstood minority using the false flag battle cry of anti-woke and protection of women and children? The compliant right-wing media headlines will once more focus public attention away from the economy and onto this constructed constitutional crisis and the ongoing demonisation of trans and non-binary people.

We must not be fooled by this tactic of distraction. Self-ID for trans and non-binary people is accepted best practice and demonstrates no increased dangers when it has been introduced elsewhere around the world. Indeed, the Scottish Parliament’s Bill was only a first step on the path to properly enshrining the rights of trans people and is hardly world-leading; the Bill made no provision for legal gender recognition of non-binary people, which is absolutely vital to ensure all people are able to live in dignity as their authentic selves, and must be urgently demanded of both nation’s governments by the labour movement.

The Broad Left Network and the wider PCS union are absolutely clear in their support for trans rights, as is demonstrated year on year by our support for trans inclusive policies at Annual Delegate Conference. Recent attempts by “gender critical” groups to weaken support for our trans comrades within our trade unions and wider society must be rooted out and rejected. Questions about the validity of trans lives have been allowed to drive a wedge into society under the guise of “legitimate concerns”, and we can now see the fruits of that in the disgusting and transphobic so-called debate around the Bill.

Trans lives are not up for debate. Trans people are valid, they are welcome, and they are deserving of the same rights as anybody else. As one trans person who told Scottish Parliament the heartbreaking story of not being able to marry their partner before they died due to the failures of the current system put it: “Reforms are badly needed…it would have allowed me just to be ordinary, which is all we ever wanted.”

The blame for any constitutional crisis must be laid squarely at the door of the UK Tory Government, and we must keep up pressure to remove them from office just as soon as possible for their utterly destructive and inhumane handling of the British economy which has put so many hard-working people into poverty. We must never forget that it is they who have led us to the place where children are going hungry, people are dying needlessly, pensioners are freezing in their own homes, and workers cannot earn enough to cover basic bills when working full-time.

At the same time, the Tories’ friends in big business are making obscene record profits for themselves and their share-holders. This is the same Government who slash public spending, thereby beggaring the very services that provide the healthcare and support for women that they so desperately and dishonestly claim to champion as they stick the boot into trans people. This is where truly legitimate concerns should be focused – on the consequences of successive austerity governments and parties on local authorities, starving our public services, facilities and amenities, causing the poverty and deficiencies that serve to fuel the fire of this debate.

The right wing used the same arguments against equal marriage and the repeal of section 28 as they are using today against gender recognition. Reject it, and reject the hate-filled austerity politics inherent in the functioning of capitalism.