It’s time for the SWP, SocialistParty & Counterfireto break with Graham’s Social Imperialism & Stop Apologising for Her
ONRESISTANCE STREET (2023) Trailer
OnMonday I learnt that Sharon Graham had banned OnResistance Street an anti-fascist and anti-racist film that looks at the role music has playedin the fight against fascism and racism.
The reasons for the ban were explainedby Graham’s sycophantic bag carrier, Sarah Carpenter, who, as RegionalSecretary for the South-East, bannedanother film, Jeremy Corbyn –The Big Lie. Carpenter quotedan Executive Committee resolution of September 2023 that:
‘Unite shouldnot use its premises or resources to show or promote any external films orother content that does not relate to our industrial agenda to support the pay,terms and conditions of our members and/or support existing Unite policies.
Leave aside the ‘explanation’ of Carpenter, abureaucrat without an original idea in her head, or the tunnel vision of SharonGraham whose ‘industrial agenda’ poses no threat to British capitalism. Grahamis either so politically illiterate that she does not understand that historicallyracism and fascism have been used to divide and weaken, if not destroy thetrade union and socialist movement. Or else she does not care.
Carpenter’s suggestion that anti-racism andanti-fascism is not part of ‘existing Unite policies’ testifies to herstupidity. Even more worrying, Carpenter also wrotethat:
In thiscontext the Union should be especially careful to avoid appearing to endorseany material which causes unnecessary offence to members.’
Is she really saying that Unite should not offendracists and fascists? This is very similar to the ‘reason’ that Gail Cartmailgave for the banning of Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie when she saidthat:
The General Secretary...is alsoclear that the Unite position must be that we do not stoke division throughanti-semitism and anti-Muslim racism
OnResistance Street was shot on location in England, Belfast and NewYork. It carries an original soundtrackof 20 songs.
The filmrevisits the ‘Rock Against Racism’ movement of the late 70s, noting itsinfluence on future waves of radical artists and political activists. It also shines a light – for the very firsttime in a film – on a 1950s organisation, ‘TheStars Campaign For Inter-Racial Friendship’ which was founded by a group offamous British jazz musicians and entertainers in the wake of the 1958 NottingHill riots. It provided venues in West London for black and white youth tosocialise together. The film alsohighlights the crucial role played by punk rock in uniting young people in1970s’ sectarian Belfast.
OnResistance Street tracks contemporary drifts to the right in the West,the weaponization of Black grammatical history, right wing musical culturalappropriation and the role of anti-racist social media groups today. It looks at grime music and the historic roleplayed by Black musicians in British music.
Thisdecision is nothing less than shocking. For a trade union to ban ananti-fascist and anti-racist film is a sign of how the Sharon Graham leadershiphas degenerated politically.
I thereforemoved a resolution at my own branch last night ‘noting with dismay’ all the lies of Graham and her flunkeys. Forthe first time that I can remember I was criticised for my moderation! Anothermember promptly moved an amendment that said the branch had no confidence inGraham. Just 2 out of 11 members abstained, the rest voted in favour.
Grahamis the most right-wing boss of Unite and its predecessor unions since ArthurDeakin in the 50s. Graham stood on a platform that rejected Len McCluskey’ssupport for the Corbyn Project. She passed herself off as apolitical but inreality she is firmly on the right. Her objection to anti-racist education ismatched by her support for Zionism and the Israeli state.
Itis no accident that Graham has done nothing to support Palestinians in Gazabesides writing a solitary letter to the PGFTU, nearly 3 weeks after itsheadquarters in Gaza were bombed. The very next day she made it clear that shefavoured continuing to send arms to Israel to continue the bombing, the morethe merrier since to her all that matters is British jobs.
Yetdespite her appalling record when it comes to international solidarity,anti-racism and anti-imperialism, the ‘revolutionary’ sects of the Britishleft, have supported her through thick and thin. Both the SWP andthe SocialistParty supported Graham in the election for General Secretary andCounterfire welcomedher victory.
Richard Allday's rant on WhatsApp in defence of Graham
RichardAllday, a Counterfire supporter and member of Unite’s Executive only lastFriday chose to attack me on the Unite 4Palestine WhatsApp group for my ‘obsessionwith Sharon Graham’ and my ‘unsubstantiatedabuse.’ i.e. criticism of Graham.
Tosupport strikes whilst rejecting their political implications, as Graham does,is to reject class politics. It is to treat the state as neutral and capitalismas a fair and equitable system rather than one based on exploitation. This is calledeconomism.
Unfortunatelythe ruling class is not so stupid as Graham. It knows that even if Unite wins afew individual strikes, they still have all the cards. The rich and powerfulcan easily adjust the rules of the game through their tame puppets inparliament. They have the Police to reign in workers who get unruly and ofcourse, if the worst comes to the worst, they can make going on strike itselfharder and harder.
TheEstablishment is more than capable of winning back through legislation thatwhich they lose industrially. Being ‘apolitical’ means accepting privatisationof public services and austerity in order to fund increased expenditure on the military.Graham supports increasing ‘defence’ expenditure even though it means cutting theNHS, education and social services where Unite also has members.
Concentratingsolely on strikes means abandoning the fight against racism, global warming, warand imperialism. It is to define class oppression as solely economic withoutseeing that capitalism doesn’t just oppress people in the workplace but duringtheir lives outside the workplace. There is little advantage in gaining higherwages if the Welfare State is under attack, the NHS is in decline, schools areprivatised as academies and housing becomes harder to get.
Grahamis fighting for a larger share of the imperialist pie not its abolition. Grahamis an avid supporterof NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine and supporteddockers refusing to handle Russian oil. There is some solidarity action thatGraham does support, the problem is that it doesn’t involve genocide againstthe Palestinians.
Whenit came to Ukraine Graham didn’tmince her words:
“There isoverwhelming support being expressed throughout Unite to support the people of*ckraine. It is not only the struggle for democracy that concerns us but alsothe struggle for people’s rights to work and build their future in peace.”
Yetwhen it comes to Gaza, getting Graham to condemn anything Israel does is likedrawing teeth. In her letter condemningthe bombing of the PGFTU headquarters in Gaza City Graham fails even to mentionthe word ‘Israel’. It is as if the bombing of the Trade union HQ happened byitself. Likewise Graham did not once let the word ‘genocide’ slip from herlips.
These things have not gone unnoticed by theZionists. Writingin the anti-Palestinian Jewish News‘Liar’ Lee Harpin described how,
In a furtherput down on far-left foreign policy dogma Graham also wrote “Similarly, we cannot be expected toaffiliate to organisations that actively work against our members and theirjobs.
“Examples include groups that look to buildnetworks inside trade unions to undermine the defence industry or demand thedisbandment of NATO and AUKUS.”
Under Graham’sleadership Unite has also taken great strides in attempting to combatantisemitism within the movement. Despite early claims that the left-wingleader would seek to move the union away from Labour and disaffiliate, Unitenow appears to be opting to become a “critical friend” of the Starmer ledLabour Party.
UnfortunatelyBritain’s far-left sects are unable to see beyond their own noses. They are so pleasedthat a union leader supports strikes that they are unable to understand thatyou can support strikes and still be a racist, warmongering reactionary likeSharon Graham.
Inan effusive pro-Graham articlein Dissent Olly Haynes observed thatUnite refused to support the Enough isEnough coalition with the RMT and CWU because
two of thecoalition’s five demands—building affordable housing and imposing heavier taxeson the rich—could only be enacted directly through state power. ...
Thefirst indication that Sharon Graham was a Zionist cuckoo in the trade unionnest was when Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Liewas banned.
On23 July 2023 the far-right CampaignAgainst Antisemitism claimedcredit for the ban on Corbyn The BigLie. They wrote:
Following correspondencewith Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Unite union has cancelled the screening of a propagandafilm about the antisemitic former Labour Partyleader Jeremy Corbyn....
However,following contact from Campaign Against Antisemitism in which we pointed outthat the scheduling of the event appeared to be contradictory to the reportsthat the film has been banned in all of Unite’s buildings, it was cancelled....
Campaign AgainstAntisemitism commends Unite for its swift and decisive action to cancel thescreening as soon as we brought it to its attention.
Graham’sapolitical election stance was a cover for very right-wing politics. To hercapitalism and imperialism are perfectly normal and therefore not political. Isit any surprise that she refused to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza asgenocide? But if Britain’s far-left organisations displayed their typicallyblinkered approach, engaging in a bout of wishful thinking, then the Zionistorganisations were not fooled. Indeed it is highly likely that Graham signalledto them that Len McCluskey’s support for the Palestinians would be jettisoned.
EuanPhilips (DavidGordstein) of Labour AgainstAntisemitism, welcomedthe election of Graham as General Secretary.
TheSWP, SP and Countefire simply refused to accept that the Skwawkbox’sallegations of Graham’s nepotism,turning a blind eye to racismand despotismamounted to anything. Despite Ska*wkbox being vilified at no time has Grahamdisputed their allegations.
Ather first ExecutiveCommittee meeting as General Secretary (September 2021) Graham ‘Pledged to make our Union the mostdemocratic and transparent it has ever been.’ Actions however speak louderthan words as her banning of films demonstrates.
Grahampromised to ‘Take the lead or providepractical support to other groups tackling wider societal issues such as;climate change, the housing crisis and racism.’ Under LenMcCluskey Unite’s Community branches were established. It is no secret thatGraham is hostileto them as she sees them as naturally political.
Grahampledged ‘there will be no blank cheques’for the Labour Party. The cutting of affiliation fees by McLuskey, has beenreversed without protest. Graham also promisedto
·Introduce a Member Hotline in myOffice.
·Make sure that my expenses areaccessible to members online.
·Introduce ‘General SecretaryLive’ online Q&A
Belowis a time line of Graham’s record as General Secretary:
i.On the 8 June Sarah Carpenter bannedCorbyn – The Big Lie from being shown at Unite’s premises in Portsmouthon Graham’s ‘advice’.
ii.From 7 October to 3 November, Grahamdelayedcalling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
iii.In her statementof 26 June to staff and officers Graham claimed that Unite ‘was the first major union to publicly andunambiguously call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.’ This was a lie.UNISON calledfor an immediate ceasefire on October 26 and it also condemned Israel for itsattacks on civilians unlike the even handed Unite statement a week later.
iv.Graham has not only refused to attendthe national Palestinian demonstrations but she has refusedto allow Unite’s national banner to be present.
v.Graham tried to pressurise Uniteofficial Simon Dubbins to calling off a Unite Palestinian event at Labour Partyconference. She has now suspendedhim.
vi.Graham also triedto persuade Pete Kavanagh, Regional Secretary for London & EasternRegion, from speaking at the Palestinian demonstration in London on January 13.
vii. Graham’sChief of Staff, Sarah Carpenter, appointed without any reference to theExecutive, threatenedKavanagh with loss of a pension bonus if he continued to support thePalestinians.
viii. Grahamsaid nothing about genocide in Gaza until March 25,over two weeks after, when shewrote a letter of ‘solidarity’ to the Palestinian trade union PGFTU after thebombing of their HQ in Gaza City.
ix.One day later, March 26, Grahamissued a lettercondemning attempts to stop the manufacture of arms for Israel. Graham attacked‘groups that look to build networksinside trade unions to undermine the defence industry or demand the disbandmentof NATO and AUKUS’.
In her letter Graham said‘there is no contradiction for a tradeunion to hold a position of solidarity with Palestinian workers’ whilst makingarms intended to murder those same workers. She held that ‘it is a core principle of Unite that as a trade union the 'first claim'on our priorities’ is to support the right of Unite members to produce armsto kill other workers.
Clearly the words ‘internationalsolidarity’ are alien to Graham. It is shameful that the left sects have failedto call her so far. There are indications, judging by a lettercritical of Graham in Socialist Worker that the SWP is revising itsattitude. Let us hope that Counterfire and the Socialist Party do likewise.
Graham could have told Uniteworkers that she would support them refusing to handle arms destined forIsrael’s murder machine in Gaza in the same way as happened with RollsRoyce workers in East Kilbride in 1973 when they refused to service enginesdestined for Pinochet’s airforce.
According to Graham’s logicthe right of workers at IG Farben to produce Zyklon B for the gas chamberstrumped the rights of Jews not to be murdered.
x.On 11 April the Officers NationalCommittee submitteda collective grievance concerning the flouting of grievance procedures and thevictimisation of workers who challenged Graham’s repressive regime. They wrote:
The length of time that grievances andinvestigations are taking to reach a conclusion is not acceptablein a modern workplace... employees are waiting months after submitting a grievance due to arefusal of some to participate in the process, being banned from your workplace when not evensuspended, and an application of “special measures
Using legal privilege to justifyenforcing a refusal to allow an employee to present their grievance isdisgraceful and anti-trade union... part of our role is to challenge power in theworkplace where that power is used to suppress workers seeking transparency,expressing their genuinely held views or seeking protection from abuse.
Threats of legal action forraising a grievance... is... a denial of natural justice.... In seeking to declare agrievance invalid the employer has cited the issues of trust and confidence.... Loss oftrust and confidence is a legitimate reason for dismissal by an employer so toreference it is to further intimidate the worker.’
Thetime has come for the left to stop making excuses for Graham. Richard Alldaytold me that ‘she has not spoken out onthe current atrocity in Palestine’ but he failed to ask why this is. Thetime has come for the left groups to put clear red water between them andGraham.
TonyGreenstein
