Stewards cordoned off the entrance to Albert Square to prevent SA placards passing. Skirmishes took place after some got through. The overwhelming majority of the marchers dispersed and only a few dozen of those who were made welcome to do so, remained to listen to the speeches of Unison general secretary Dave Prentis and others. On this showing, the elementary trade union principle of solidarity appears to be anathema to Unison s leadership. The union s failings are both organisational and political.
Bureaucratic control alienates the mass of the membership from their own organisation.
The bureaucracy and its career structures become ends in themselves and the objectives of the union as a whole become effectively subordinated to the interests of the bureaucracy. Members who are unable to play any meaningful role in determining the policies and activities of their union cannot then be easily won to participate on the rare occasions when those activities require mass involvement. Politically, the union remains a prisoner of the capitalist system. Although its leadership has to articulate the grievances of a low paid membership, its overarching commitment to New Labour ensures that the union demands will, in the final analysis, tend to be muted and modest in the extreme. The unity of the left which has been forged through the Socialist Alliance, presents a wonderful opportunity for organising a reassertion of independent working class politics within Unison and other unions.