theActivist members in
Issue 104
Retail workers desperately need
a fighting and democratic union
The Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) of Usdaw, the retail and distribution workers’
union, takes place on 25-26 April. Socialist Party members in Usdaw take a look at the
changes taking place within the union.
Union elections
Although the right wing in Us-
daw has made gains in recent
union elections, the results do
not represent any enthusiasm for
them, as shown by the fact that
the right wing’s preferred can-
didate for president, Jane Jones,
received over 2,000 fewer votes
than Socialist Party member and
incumbent Amy Murphy when
standing three years ago.
The new executive council
(EC) is going to be very quickly
tested as the current pandemic
has churned up a whole num-
ber of issues. The Usdaw Broad
Left has attracted new member-
ship throughout the election
campaign showing that there
are members looking to get or-
ganised to fight back collectively,
frustrated by the lack of lead at
the top.
Industrial
The pandemic has seen the accel-
erating deterioration of the high
street with hundreds of stores
closing and thousands of work-
ers being made redundant. Un-
ion members, and those not yet
organised in a trade union, are
crying out for a bold campaign to
defend jobs and call for national-
isation of struggling retail chains
to protect livelihoods. General
Secretary Paddy Lillis’s ‘tripar-
tite’ or partnership approach
of trying to work constructively
with bosses and the Tory govern-
ment must be abandoned.
Even in Usdaw-recognised
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ENGLAND & WALES
Tesco distribution centres, boss-
es have tried to implement fire
and rehire tactics. Likewise, in
Sainsbury’s/Argos, where Us-
daw is recognised, 3,500 job cuts
are threatened. They wouldn’t
be able to get away with this if
the membership was mobilised
to face down such threats with
strike action.
Also, with the massive prof-
its reported in the supermarket
sector, Usdaw is well-positioned
to demand that workers rather
than shareholders should be
rewarded for working unflinch-
ingly through three lockdowns.
If, instead of piously trying to
work with the bosses, the un-
ion leadership used the strength
of the membership to demand
£12 an hour for workers - recog-
nised through this pandemic as
key workers - members would
PHOTO RICHARD GROVES
gladly back up the demand with
a preparedness to take industrial
action.
Similarly, trying to work with
the Tories is folly when already
they have attempted to extend
Sunday trading hours, have now
allowed shops to open from 7am
to 10pm, and have even refused
to strengthen legislation protect-
ing shop workers from abuse on
the job.
Political
Paddy Lillis and the right-wing
majority on the Usdaw EC have
consistently led members into
a blind alley, backing the Blair-
ite wing in Labour and seem in-
creasingly out of step with the
rank-and-file membership po-
litically. Paddy Lillis reportedly
resorted to ejecting three Usdaw
EC members from a decision
ADM special
April 2021
IRELAND
meeting to tip the balance in
favour of backing Keir Starmer
ahead of the 2020 Labour leader-
ship election.
The right wing has also backed
millionaire Blairite Anas Sarwar
for Labour leader in Scotland,
who has a position of ruling out
another independence referen-
dum for a lifetime.
Although there are those, even
in the Usdaw Broad Left, who at
this stage would not be prepared
to back the building of a new
workers’ party, there is certainly
growing support for this. One
thing that is clear among mem-
bers is the growing anti-Starmer
mood that exists, combined with
the record of the Usdaw right
wing attacking Jeremy Corbyn’s
leadership, at a time when many
members supported him.
At the very least, Usdaw mem-
bers should be demanding that
Labour candidates commit to
policies which support the mem-
bers or risk having union funding
and support withdrawn. Labour
councillors can stop implement-
ing cuts and can empower union
members by refusing to relax lo-
cal trading hours without agree-
ment from the workers’ trade
union representative.
It is vitally important that the
developing anti-Starmer mood
does not translate into the union
being pushed in a direction away
from political representation but
instead looks to use the strength
of the 400,000-strong member-
ship to help any steps towards
building a party that will repre-
sent the interests of the working
class. The news that Amy Mur-
phy, Usdaw president, joined
the Trade Unionist and Socialist
Coalition (TUSC) national steer-
ing committee, was generally
warmly received, which shows
the potential that exists for sup-
porting working-class political
representation when a lead is
given.
theActivist
The Activist Guide to ADM 2021
The diminished democracy at
this year’s online Annual Dele-
gate Meeting (ADM) means that
many propositions will be put to
the vote with only the wording
of the proposition itself and the
EC’s stance and reasoning being
available to make a decision on.
However, this limiting of lay
members input into the debate
is further curtailed by a num-
ber of the reasonings produced
by the EC on propositions they
oppose contain both, and also
some factual inaccuracies.
Most glaring is in relation to
proposition 12 on Council
Budgets from Plymouth and
District General. The EC’s rea-
soning here accuses the branch
of calling to “…support those
setting illegal budgets.”, whereas
the proposition actually specifi-
cally says “Using reserves and
prudential borrowing powers it
is possible for Labour councils
to set legal ‘needs budgets’ that
protect services…”
This smacks of the EC want-
ing to give blanket support to
all Labour councillors, includ-
ing those who vote for policies
which can damage the interests
of Usdaw members, especially
in relation to things such as in-
creased parking charges, which
in the absence of good quality,
affordable public transport is
having a detrimental effect on
high streets up and down the
country.
On proposition 8 on affiliating
to the Campaign Opposing Po-
lice Surveillance (COPS) the EC
tries to paint as ‘narrow’ a cam-
paign that involves a significant
proportion of the non-state
‘Core participants’, ie those who
were spied on by the police, in
the ongoing Mittings inquiry
into undercover policing, and
their legal teams, including La-
bour affiliate, the Haldane Soci-
ety of Socialist Lawyers.
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the bulletin of
Moreover, there is an entirely
false suggestion, that sup-
porting the proposition would
mean that the Union wouldn’t
be able to “focus on working
with the TUC to support estab-
lish campaigns for privacy and
civil liberties”. Why? The mo-
tion doesn’t call for that, neither
does COPS. If the EC disagrees
with the strategy of the COPS
campaign they should say so
instead of resorting such dis-
tortions about the nature of the
campaign.
In relation to proposition 45, on
Clause IV of Labour’s constitu-
tion, there is a similar sleight of
hand attempted whereby the
EC’s justification again doesn’t
deal with the political content
of what is being put forward by
South West London branch - in-
stead technical reasons are put
forward.
This includes nonsense about
“It would not be appropriate to
come forward with a rigid form
of words…” while an internal re-
view takes place. However, if Us-
daw members decide that this is
their preferred form of words
to be put forward, then that is
precisely what the union should
put forward to the conference.
members in
Our elected delegates to the
conference could then accept
or reject proposed amendments
from other affiliates.
But given the majority of the EC
supported Keir Starmer in the
Labour leadership election, as
shown by their nomination of
him, with Starmer’s pro-big busi-
ness policies, then in reality they
are opposed to the policies that
are proposed to be enshrined in
the Labour Party’s constitution,
such as “common ownership un-
der the democratic control and
management by working peo-
ple, of the commanding heights
of the economy” - this presum-
ably why the policies passed
at ADM for nationalising retail
companies in crisis to save jobs,
have remained a dead letter for
the EC, despite there being am-
ple need for them to protect our
members.
However, in the opinion of the
Activist, given the tacit support
for the government over the last
year of the dangerous mishan-
dling of the Covid pandemic,
including attacking education
unions taking action earlier this
year to ensure safe conditions
for teaching, we are not con-
vinced such a policy would find
majority support within the La-
bour Party, or if it did find any
implementation, given the pha-
lanx of pro-big business coun-
cillors and MPs that dominate
the Labour Party. That’s why a
number of Activist supporters
are standing in the council elec-
tions as part of the Trade Union-
ist and Socialist Coalition to give
working class people, including
Usdaw members, the chance to
vote for a party that backs them
100% of the way. Our regular
Sunday night fringe meeting is
dedicated to this theme and we
encourage Usdaw members to
attend to find out more.
Thankfully, the EC is not oppos-
ing a number of other propo-
sitions raised an immediate
consequence of the pandemic,
such as sick pay from day one,
improving statutory sick pay
and including hazard pay in
negotiated agreements. How-
ever, it is disappointing that in
response to proposition 47 call-
ing for key workers “to be paid
at least the annual pay aver-
age in the UK”, part of the EC’s
qualification they are putting
forward seems to be to limit that
to the much lower figure of £10
an hour!
theActivist the bulletin of members in

We need to elect socialist fighters

The Trade Unionist and Socialist
Coalition (TUSC) is fundamen-
tally opposed to any and all at-
tempts to make the working class
pay for crises they had no part in.
From the financial crash of 2008
to the Covid-19 cuts of 2021, any
TUSC councillor or representa-
tive elected this May would be
a socialist fighter for the work-
ing class, not the parasitic class
who ignored multiple pandemic
prep warnings, and are now too
busy fumbling Covid contracts
to their friend’s shell companies.
No wonder politicians or bank-
ers were not included on the es-
sential workers list!
Labour’s record in fighting
cuts, austerity and privatisation
has been dismal at best, even
in 2010, when Labour were in
government, they were plan-
ning devastating austerity cuts
that the then chancellor Alistair Similarly, these ripples are felt threatened with dismissal if tar- This is why I am standing a
Darling proudly stated would across other essential sectors. As gets are not met, all of which TUSC candidate, for the first
be “tougher and deeper” than an Usdaw rep in a well-known we are fighting against. Being a time in both in my borough and
Thatcher in the 80s. Labour distribution centre, I have wit- Labour-affiliated union means county election.
leader Sir Keir Starmer offered a nessed first-hand, among count- being trapped in an abusive po- Workers need a socialist al-
disgraceful below inflation 2.1% less other insults - illegal, late and litical relationship, fighting with ternative to Labour’s red-col-
pay offer to the NHS staff that inadequate PPE, union meetings one arm trapped in a ballot box oured capitalism, TUSC is a
had kept the country as safe as being suspended by bosses, the means workers are not allowed step towards a new mass left
possible with their limited time removal of hazard pay at the first to express their full potential and workers party needed to ce-
and resources. opportunity, agency workers power. ment that.

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