Democracy is the lifeblood of trade unionism

#uNDC14 'As well as the formal policy debates over four days there will be the opportunity to attend fringe meetings for high quality debates and briefings on key campaigns as well as time for hardworking union activists to network and socialise with UNISON sisters and brothers from across the UK' writes Angela Rayner North West Regional Convenor in a preview of conference on the regional website:
http://www.unisonnw.org/national-delegate-conference-our-democracy-in-action/

England’s local democratic deficit

'Over a period of decades, English local government has been reduced to a dwindling set of prescribed services that councils are permitted to perform. We do not really have local government, but rather councils with responsibilities for some local public service. The sector does not decide the policy on which it will act or have the powers to tax or borrow to the degree needed to execute this for the area it serves’ writes Rob Whiteman on CIPFA’s Public Finance blog. Whiteman points out that the devolved administrations outside of England retain control of the shape and system of local government 'whereas ‘double devolution’ in an English context is often more a matter of central government cutting out what it sees as the middle-man of local government by creating markets of autonomous delivery/provider organisations’

Free schools & academies have no part to play in a democratic society

Next month Labour’s national policy forum will publish new consultation papers before a final forum meeting in July agrees basis of the manifesto for the 2015 general election. There is no shortage of Con Dem destruction to make good and nowhere more so than in the state education system in England. Graham Lane, writing in Tribune, makes a compelling case for a future Labour government to abolish academy chains and free schools: ‘Labour should make it clear that the privatisation of the delivery of education is not appropriate for a democracy. That means free schools and academies have no part to play in a democratic society’
http://www.tribunemagazine.org/2014/01/undemocratic-free-schools-and-academies-must-go/

Never mind Democracy feel the Zero-Based Review

Ahead of the 2015 general election, the Labour Party has published a discussion document on the future of public services. According to the New Statesman, ‘Labour’s Zero-Based Review’ contains the ‘most explicit statement yet that the party will cut departmental spending in 2015-16 and will not borrow to meet day-to-day spending’. A prospectus of an incoming Labour Government continuing the austerity squeeze on public services will be greeted with dismay by trade unionists and Labour supporters. And while the document embraces concepts such as ‘iron discipline’ and ‘value for money’ readers will search in vain for any reference to enhancing ‘democracy’ or ‘democratic accountability’
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/12/balls-reaffirms-labours-commitment-cuts-2015
http://www.yourbritain.org.uk/uploads/editor/files/Zero_Based_Review.pdf

Peering into political patronage

The House of Lords Library has published a briefing note which provides details of all appointments to that undemocratic obscenity since May 1997 with tables showing by party affiliation all those appointed under Blair, Brown and Cameron - swelling the current ranks of the unelected Lords to 781 (compared to the 650 strong House of Commons):
http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/LLN-2013-040/peerage-creations-since-1997

Online voting - the key to Increasing turnouts in union ballots and elections

#TUC13 Detractors of unions often make reference to low voting levels to imply a lack of mandate for industrial action or to undermine the credibility of elected leaders. The fundamental problem of course is the imposition of postal ballots to preferred addresses (home addresses by default) which prevents participation in union democracy at work and requires the modern day hassle of returning ballot papers by post. An important debate at this week's TUC Congress proposed changes to trade union law to allow online voting. It was unanimously supported but will require legislation before it can be implemented for statutory elections - GS and NEC elections - as well as industrial action ballots.
http://ersblog.com/2013/09/13/trade-unions-ers-at-tuc-congress-2013/

Working people need a political voice

Excellent article in today's Guardian by John Harris placing the Falkirk situation in its proper context of a UK party political system dominated by elites, patronage and transactional leaderships. Ahead of Ed Miliband's well trailed speech coming up tomorrow which will announce reforms of the trade union Labour constitutional relationship, Harris cautions against a breaking of the link: 'if millions of working people do not have a dependable means of accessing mainstream politics, capital will have scored another win – and our democracy will be even more impoverished'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/07/falkirk-rotten-state-political-parties/print

A Worthless report from Policy Execrable

Some people are a bit brass necked and then there are some who would put a giraffe to shame. One such person is Sean Worth former number 10 policy advisor to Cameron and the former head of the Conservative Party policy unit. In the latest Worth-less report he has the gall to criticize the ‘vested interests’ of the top of trade unions as a reason for stalling public service reform.
http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/
publications/category/item/better-public-services-a-roadmap-for-revolution

Council Tax freeze is an attack on local democracy

Tory local government Minister Eric Pickles vents spleen in the Daily Telegraph, accusing local authorities of being ‘democracy dodgers’ because they have the temerity to raise Council Tax below his centrally imposed 2% limit – to avoid triggering a costly referendum.

Latin America 2012: Courage, solidarity and inspiration

It is impossible to put in words the feeling I had listening to Aidee Moreno from Colombia’s Agricultural Workers Union at Saturday's Latin America 2012 event in London. You are in shock when she tells how her husband was murdered in 1994, her mother ten years later and then numerous other members of her family. On top of this you are numb listening to tales of the thousands of members assassinated, disappeared or in prison. Living with two bodyguards because she is a trade union leader, Aidee is a brave and unbelievably stoic individual who makes as powerful case for international solidarity as I have ever heard.

Greek society on the point of collapse?

The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, who highlighted the rise of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. Has said that Greece is teetering on the edge of collapse with its society at risk of disintegrating unless the the State is shored up with urgent financial aid, the country's prime minister has warned:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/05/greek-prime-minister-society-disintegrate.

UNISON's LGPS Ballot - Questions of Democracy and Leadership

UNISONActive has endorsed the democratic process of the union in relation to the ballot on the LGPS proposals for England and Wales, particularly in regard to the Local Government Service Group. This was not a process imposed on the union by officials. It was the decision of the local government conference.

The political tide is going out for Privatisation and Outsourcing

Two excellent articles in yesterday’s papers considered the implications of the G4S Olympics security contract failures for privatisation and outsourcing in the UK. Michael Meacher MP writing in the Morning Star states that it is ‘a delicious paradox that the one persistent theme in the coalition's ideology is privatising everything in the public sector that moves, yet nothing has exposed the inadequacies and incompetences of privatisation so ruthlessly as the government's enthusiasm for it’
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/121527

UNISON calls for Directly Elected Mayors to be rejected

Today in 10 English Cities there will be a Government imposed referendum on the adoption of a Directly-Elected Mayor - a system which has been described as the 'optimal internal management arrangement for privatised local government sevices'. UNISON branches have been campaigning against the change which will remove powers from elected Councillors. A statement issued by Manchester local government branch is reprinted below: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17299196

The Mayoral Delusion

The emergence of new political structures such as Elected Mayors and Police Commissioners in England poses new challenges and contradictions for UNISON. In those cities where decisions have been taken to establish Mayors, such as Leicester, Liverpool, London and Salford, the union will be backing the Labour candidate. Elsewhere, in cities such as Manchester and Sheffield, UNISON is actively supporting the NO campaign against the establishment of Elected Mayors, in line with union policy in favour of collective political leadership by elected Councillors. John Harris in the Guardian puts a very strong case for this position: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/09/elected-city-mayors-power-freak-politics

So Who Takes Decisions in Europe?

UNISON has a record of questioning where democracy within the European Union lies and has consistently pointed out that the role of the European Central Bank overrides that of democratically elected politicians. Recent developments in economic policy have confirmed that the austerity programme that has been a policy reiterating a monetarist free market approach that places the wishes of bankers over the needs of the working people of Europe and has even lifted the ETUC out of its usual stupor.

New Mayoral system is 'fundamentally flawed' - UNISON

In a recent local government circular LG/10/2012, UNISON has set out its opposition to the Mayoral system and the union’s preference for municipal government by democratically accountable, locally elected Councillors. The advice, which is not yet available on the UNISON website, can be read below. Meanwhile, it appears that the electoral commission approved question in the upcoming (and imposed) May referenda on the creation of Elected Mayors in England’s largest cities, has been rigged against the status quo:

Never mind democracy feel the cuts

Crisis ridden Greece will hold a general election in April following Sunday's passing of an austerity bill by the Greek parliament in order to secure a £110bn bail out from the EU and the IMF. EU Economics commissioner Olli Rehn is now demanding 'written confirmation that the measures will be implemented regardless of the outcome of April's election.' The austerity measures include a 20% cut in the minimum wage, 150,000 public sector job losses and an attack on employment rights. It speaks volumes about the contempt of the EU for democracy and national sovereignity that an unelected commissioner can demand, ahead of a general election, that the Greek people forfeit their right to reject austerity and neo-liberalism:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17012604

UNISONActive Analysis - We are ruled by the banks for the banks

Running this government are two sons of bankers. Cameron's father was a stockbroker, Clegg's is still chairman of United Trust Bank (and famously helped his son get some work experience). For its part, Labour spent so long outsourcing all economic thinking to Gordon Brown and Ed Balls that it has long lost the ability to argue against the orthodoxy of giving the City what it wants.

Council Tax freeze is an attack on local democracy

Heather Wakefield, UNISON head of local government, writing on the public finance blog, makes a connection between the additional pension contributions being levied on council workers and the announcement by Con Dem Chancellor Osborne that council tax in England will be frozen in 2012/13 (by an injection of £805m of government funds) - which will disproportionately benefit wealthy property owners. At a time of massive budget cuts, the removal by central government of the autonomy of councils to levy local taxes to fund discretionary services is also an attack on local democracy:
http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2011/10/council-tax-freeze-is-lgps-members-lolly/