The Consistent Democrats urge comrades who are members of Unite the Union to vote for Simon Dubbins. Though Simon Dubbins is a left-wing member of the Labour Party, he is not a supporter of Zionism, but an active opponent who has been targeted in Unite for spurious disciplinary action three times for his activities in support of the Palestinians. He is Trade Union Officer for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign1. He Simon Dubbins was also directly involved in the Wapping dispute2.
Simon Dubbins wants to make Unite a more political Union and at least some of the political issues he raises are a step in the right direction. We reject the pseudo-syndicalist approach to trade unionism of Sharon Graham, the implication that trade union activities are separate from politics. Though it should be said that her claims to be an apolitical trade unionist have been shown to be false, as she is one of those in the trade union bureaucracy who has been notorious for demanding more arms spending, particularly for war in Ukraine. She has denounced Palestine and anti-NATO campaigners for ‘undermining’ members’ jobs by refusing to support rearmament. Under Burnham’s new government, with anti-Russian militarist John Healey as Chancellor and the arch-Zionist Wes Streeting as Defence Secretary, opposition to militarism will be even more a crucial political issue.
Sharon Graham has made hostile attacks on those within the union who support Palestine and particularly those who denounced and sought to publicise the witchhunt against the left, particularly the anti-Zionist left, and against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership during his incumbency. When she stood for election in 2021, she conspicuously refused to denounce Keir Starmer’s leadership, and though she tried to make out that she was not minded to fund Labour when it attacked unions, she denounced political opponents of the Zionists and neoliberal Labour right as an unrepresentative minority.
In that election, we initially backed Howard Beckett (until he unfortunately withdrew). He was extremely outspoken in advocating that the union should oppose Starmer, should refuse to fund right-wing Labour, in such a point-blank, political manner that this strongly implied that he would welcome a challenge to Starmer from the left outside the Labour Party. That did not really begin to happen for another four years, but Beckett’s campaign certainly pointed to that. So, it is clear that subsequent events vindicated our support for Beckett.
Dubbins is standing in different circumstances, when Your Party was formed and now appears to have been severely damaged or even wrecked by the Corbynites misleadership, which has perhaps made it less likely for trade union activists to be attracted to such a damaged project. But the considerations above do point to critical support to Dubbins to be the correct position.
Vote Simon Dubbins for Unite GS!
1 https://simon4gs.org.uk/about-simon
2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dklI9Y6wgSE
