See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

Four Unison members - Glenn Kelly (Branch Secretary Bromley Unison and Unison national executive), Onay Kasab (Branch Secretary Greenwich Unison), Suzanne Muna (Branch Secretary Unison Tenant Services Authority), and Brian Debus (Branch Chair Hackney Unison) – were found guilty on Friday by Unison’s disciplinary committee of two charges, relating to a leaflet distributed at the Unison 2007 conference. The leaflet questioned why a third of all branch motions had been omitted from the agenda for the conference.

 

The branch motions that had been omitted from the agenda by the Standing Orders Commission included motions calling for debates on Unison’s continued funding of the neo-liberal New Labour project, the election of full time officials, and control over strike action.  The leaflet questioned these anti-democratic measures.

 

Following the conference, Unison’s leadership initiated investigations against five branch officers. However, only four of the five faced disciplinary proceedings. The four who faced charges are all members of the Socialist Party, underlining the political motivation for the witch-hunt.

 

Two charges were brought. The first was that by questioning Unison’s anti-democratic agenda to prevent legitimate debate, they had “attacked the integrity of the Standing Orders Committee”. Yet the reality is that a third of all motions brought by individual branches were ruled out of order at the 2007 conference. Neither did the leadership of Unison learn their lesson; at the 2008 conference, half of all motions were ruled out of order.

 

In light of this, it is difficult to understand how the Standing Orders Committee thought they could stifle debate, and it is equally difficult to understand why Unison’s leadership has felt the need to persecute their own members for questioning Unison’s ‘tops down’ dictatorial approach to running an organisation that is supposed to represent its members’ interests.

 

The second charge brought was that, by using an ancient Buddhist proverb – “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” – and illustrating this with a cartoon of the Three Wise Monkeys, the leaflet had contained discriminatory material.

 

You can see the leaflet below:

Now, socialists are usually the first to challenge discrimination and racism wherever it raises its head. This includes the subtle, ‘coded’, language of racism that is so prevalent in modern society. Yet for the Unison disciplinary committee to have accused the four of racism for the use of cartoon monkeys in their literature is clearly farcical. The four accused Unison members are themselves of a diverse heritage; and there was evidently no racial stereotyping at play. The cartoon was intended to demonstrate the lack of impartiality of the Standing Orders Committee. For the disciplinary committee to pursue such a ridiculous charge provides further proof of the political nature of the accusations.

 

Indeed, Unison further demonstrated the malicious political intentions of the initial charges subsequently. I have quoted below an excerpt from the Defend the Four: Defend Union Democracy campaign website, which you can read here.

 

UNION HYPOCRISY

 

There were massive protests at the 2008 UNISON conference.

 Within weeks of the first hearing accusing the four of causing racist offence for using the cartoon of the three wise monkeys, paid national officials of the union held a protest outside the local government employers’ conference over the pay offer – during which they handed out peanuts and bananas to delegates, some of whom were black and Asian! Despite a protest by members at the differential treatment of the four, the response has been to ignore it!

 

Then it was discovered that the UNISON South East regional disabled members’ committee used a cartoon of the three wise monkeys on one of their leaflets. A further protest was lodged and the response? Nothing! It further came to light that an officially sanctioned leaflet was distributed to UNISON national women’s conference, which again used the three wise monkeys! These examples highlight the sheer hypocrisy of the union and shows that this case has never had anything to do with the issue of racism and everything to do with a political witchhunt.

 

The charge of intentional discrimination was, of course, dropped, to be replaced by an equally nonsensical charge of “failing to show due care in not anticipating that someone might take offence”.  It was on this charge, and the charge of “attacking the integrity of the Standing Orders Committee”, that the four were found guilty on Friday.

The four persecuted members found guilty will now have their ‘punishment’ decided by the Disciplinary Committee.  We should know the results in a couple of weeks.

 

This case demonstrates the need for fighting unions. This whole ridiculous and malicious prosecution has essentially grown out of the union leadership’s undying loyalty to the neo-liberal machine of New Labour, while the rank and file recognise that the interests of pro-business New Labour and the interests of workers are in opposition to each other.

 

We will see continued attacks on workers, particularly as we slip deeper into a sustained economic depression. We will see attacks on pay and conditions, and on employment rights that workers and trade unionists have fought hard to earn. Trade unionists should have every right to feel that their union is defending its members’ interests. Clearly, this is incompatible with a union leadership that perceives its primary role to be the offering of unconditional support to the very government carrying out attacks on workers and on their own members.

 

Rather than reevaluate their own position and respond to their members concerns, the leadership of Unison have opted to ignore the concerns of their rank and file and have instead pursued a malicious and politically motivated attack on those members attempting to build a fighting union; a union that will actually defend workers. This amounts to a purge of socialists from their union; a trick they may have learnt from their gurus in modern Labour. The actions of the leadership of Unison are indefensible.  

 

It isn’t even as if this case is an isolated one; in repeated attempts to stifle debate and suppress opposition, the leadership have not only orchestrated this disgraceful with-hunt, but have also banned the right of their members to campaign, and have taken over dissenting branches. As the Defend the Four campaign points out: “Handing over millions to New Labour whilst at the same time asking members to fight to defend their jobs, wages, and conditions, from attack from the very same Labour government, is asking members to go into battle with one hand tied behind their backs by the union leadership.”

 

I have reproduced below an article from yesterday on the Socialist Party website. You can read the original article here:

 

 

Socialist Party members attacked by Unison leadership

 

Four Socialist Party members under attack from the Unison leadership have been found "guilty" of two charges.

The first charge against the four Unison members is that they produced a leaflet at the annual conference of Unison in 2007 which questioned why the Standing Orders Committee had ruled out key motions from being debated. Simply highlighting this on a leaflet resulted in the first charge of an "attack on the integrity of the members of the Standing Orders Committee."

 

The second charge relates to the use on the leaflet of a well known Buddhist proverb and cartoon of the 'three wise monkeys' (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.)

 

The four have been charged with "Failing to show due care in not anticipating that someone might take offence [from the leaflet]".

 

On 17 July Unison's disciplinary panel delivered their verdict and then scuttled off to consider the sentence. The result should be known in a couple of weeks.

 

The attacks on the four Unison members found guilty have nothing to do with these trumped up charges and everything to do with eliminating any opposition to the Unison leadership - and specifically any opposition from the Socialist Party which the four are members of. Five Unison members were originally investigated but charges against the member who was not in the Socialist Party were dropped!

 

Socialist Party members in Unison have consistently argued that the Unison leadership should put their members before the interests of New Labour, who receive huge sums of trade union money but then attack public sector workers, many of whom who are members of Unison.

 

This is a classic witch-hunt. Some Unison members have already been expelled and others are under investigation for opposing the leadership.

 

The two-year investigation and hearings into the four Socialist Party members now found guilty have caused widespread anger towards the Unison leadership. The Defend the Four campaign has attracted huge support within Unison and the wider trade union movement.

 

All supporters of the four are called on to flood Unison headquarters with protests against this blatant witch-hunt. The charge of racism in particular, no matter how its framed, could not only jeopardise their union membership but also their employment chances.

 

This witch-hunt is a disgrace to the trade union movement. All four have a long and proud record of fighting racism and fascism in the workplace and the wider community.

 

Send your protests now to Unison HQ: Unison, 1 Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9AJ . Telephone: 0845 355 0845

 

e-mail: d.prentis@unison.co.uk

 

Also send to: Defend the Four Campaign, PO Box 858 London E11 1YG.

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