On 4 July, PCS members will have the opportunity to rid us of 14 years of Tory misrule which has culminated in some of the most inhumane and right-wing ideologically driven policies that most of us will have experienced in our lifetimes.  Nothing illustrates this more than the Tories desperate attempts to implement its Rwanda deportation policy which the PCS Left Unity leadership together with our members in the Home Office have been central in the resistance to.

Historically, Civil Service Unions were apolitical in outlook accepting that it is the duty of our members to carry out the will of the elected Government of the day no matter how abhorrent particular policies may be.  Under the previous Democracy Alliance (DA) leadership of PCS we campaigned for and won a big majority of membership support for the setting up of a political fund for the Union. A critical factor to the success of that campaign was that this fund would be used for political campaigning on  particular issues of concern to our members such as our anti-fascist, anti-racist campaigning and against the privatisation and contracting out of our jobs and public services. PCS remains independent of any specific party political affiliations or financial donations – a position which Left Unity supports.

The DA leadership also put in place an active PCS Parliamentary Group which has played a significant role in raising issues of concern to our members in Parliament and briefing our Parliamentary representatives which have been instrumental to helping us to win campaigns against Office closures amongst other things but also enabled us, led by Left Unity members, to develop a political alternative to successive Governments public sector cuts policies and put the case for Tax Justice and Welfare Rights in particular which have now been taken up by many Politicians and other campaign groups. The PCS Parliamentary Group is now firmly established and under the stewardship of John McDonnell and subsequently Chris Stephens has carried out sterling work on behalf of PCS members.

This flexible approach to our political strategy has allowed us to assess different sets of circumstances and consider what political representation best serves our members interests at any particular time. It has allowed us to adapt to the different political complexities of our Devolved Nations most particularly faced by our members in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It’s allowed us to articulate support for Jeremy Corbyn, and other MPs who have consistently supported PCS members struggles by visiting our picket lines and speaking up publicly in our support. This also allowed us to advocate support for the Labour manifesto of 2017 and 2019 under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn as it very closely resembled many of our Union’s policies and if it had been given the opportunity to be implemented would have provided a massive transformation and favourable shift in society to the significant benefit of PCS members and the public services we provide. It represented the closest manifesto to the Socialist policies and programme that Left Unity members aspire to.

Both the main two groupings that now form part of the Coalition of Chaos on our NEC argued for fundamentally opposed positions on this important issue. Representatives of the Independent Left argued that it was the right time to throw our weight fully behind affiliation to the Labour Party which would have meant PCS funds being directly used to support only Labour candidates in UK elections as is the case with other Labour affiliated Unions. Their allies in the Coalition, the Broad Left Network (BLN) publicly criticised PCS support for a Corbyn led Labour government arguing for the Union to support a range of different candidates irrespective of their electoral prospects who may support PCS on some issues.

The BLN maintain their support for this position in their latest written material. It is one thing to offer some practical support to sitting MPs such as Corbyn who have a track record of supporting our members in struggle and could use their platform in Parliament to continue with this but the BLN approach also refers to “other candidates” and if implemented would lead to PCS resources being directed to fringe candidates, predominantly those of the Socialist Party front – the  Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).  TUSC has failed to make any headway on the electoral front often receiving embarrassingly small numbers of votes and even the RMT Union who initially backed the project giving it some degree of Trade Union influence have now withdrawn from it.  With the Coalition partners of the IL and BLN having diametrically opposed positions in relation to this issue it is difficult to see any coherent political strategy for the Union emerging from their NEC majority – only more chaos.

So what should we do for this election and in its aftermath?

We all want to see the back of the Tories and we expect most of our members will vote pragmatically for the candidate best placed in their constituencies to ensure a heavy defeat for them. However, there is also a distinct lack of enthusiasm amongst many for the alternatives on offer. This has enabled reactionary individuals such as Farage and Reform UK to dominate most of the political discourse around this General Election. The likelihood is though that Keir Starmer will be the next Prime Minister and will have a comfortable Parliamentary majority to implement their manifesto.

There are mixed messages emerging from some of Labour’s pronouncements to date. Some of the more extreme Tory policies such as Rwanda and the Minimum Services Bill are likely to be ditched along with much of the culture war agenda that the Tories have promoted.

Other commitments seem less certain. James Murray, Shadow Secretary to the Treasury spoke at HMRC Group ADC this year pledging investment and additional resources to HMRC under a new government which is to be welcomed but at the same time Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves was stating that she wanted to see her Civil Servants back in their offices to deliver this. There has also been some backtracking already on a new bill of rights for workers and Trade Union organisation so there will be much to play for under any new Labour government.

PCS established political strategy under our leadership of the Union of maintaining independence from affiliation to any outside Party allows us to challenge them where it is in the interests of our members to do so. It was an LU/DA NEC that led action against the New Labour governments proposals of 100,000 job cuts in 2004 and onwards and we will have to be prepared for such battles again in the near future once the inevitable honeymoon period for a Starmer led government comes crashing down. Public spending cuts will again bring our members into conflicts with them.          

PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote has written to Keir Starmer setting out key priorities for PCS from any new Government which will effectively be our new employer.  The nine priorities identified and promoted on the PCS website are Pay, Jobs, Pensions, Hybrid Working, Insourcing, Social Security, Tax Justice, Safe Passage and Tarde Union rights. More details on these, our campaign for a Four Day Working Week and comments on the various Parties election manifestos can be found here                               https://www.pcs.org.uk/campaigns/general-election-2024

Left Unity believe it’s absolutely correct to place demands like these on an incoming government but also to be politically independent from any undue influence of outside political parties. It remains to be seen  how the Coalition of Chaos will respond to the challenges of a new government that many of our members will have voted for to bring an end to the chaos of 14 years of Tory rule.  The flexible and coherent strategy that the previous LU led NEC has developed remains the best way forward.