Select Chris Baugh as Left Unity AGS candidate

Chris Baugh out supporting PCS members on strike (Click to enlarge)

Chris4AGS campaign statement

PCS Left Unity members will be saddened to hear that Janice Godrich is suffering ill health, and therefore not able to accept the Left Unity nomination for assistant general secretary (AGS) of the civil servants' union.

Everyone in the Chris4AGS campaign wishes her a speedy recovery.

Janice's decision not to accept the Left Unity nomination for AGS was announced the day after the national Left Unity conference which took place on 1 December.

A new Left Unity national committee was elected at that conference. The Left Unity secretary sent out an email to Left Unity members saying that, as a result, the matter would be referred to the national Left Unity committee.

Close vote

Most trade unionists would assume that, given the closeness of the vote and the fact that no other candidate was put forward, incumbent AGS and Socialist Party member Chris Baugh would automatically be announced as the Left Unity candidate for AGS. But it seems not.

Since the announcement on 2 December, many Left Unity members have written in to the national secretary, Gordon Rowntree, expressing confusion as to why this hasn't happened already, so that we can get on with uniting around our candidates. The official PCS nomination process for positions opens on 17 January.

No further communication has gone out from the newly elected national Left Unity committee on this important issue - who will be the left's candidate to lead our union in the AGS position?

An article in the Socialist Worker newspaper, a key supporter of Janice's Socialist View faction, has stated: "Discussions among supporters of Godrich's campaign were ongoing as Socialist Worker went to press".

PCS Left Unity was set up as a democratic organisation working with broad layers of socialists to agree common aims to build a fighting union. Socialist View supporters have a right to their opinion but this should be expressed through Left Unity and the Left Unity national committee.

We support the call for an early Left Unity national committee to confirm Chris as the Left Unity candidate for AGS and for an end to divisive attempts to block the left's most credible candidate for the position.

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.