Against bans and proscriptions: Defend Andrea Egan, UNISON President

Time for Real Change condemns the bureaucratic expulsion of Andrea Egan, UNISON’s elected National President from the Labour Party.

Andrea, who has been a Labour Party member for more than ten years, was expelled for sharing two articles from the socialist newspaper Socialist Appeal, one opposing the potential proscription of the paper and the second, an article covering the results of the UNISON NEC Elections. Both articles were written prior to the proscription of Socialist Appeal.

This is the fourth time since the September 2021 Labour Link Committee elections that a member of UNISON’s National Labour Link Committee has been expelled from the Party and we are aware that several other UNISON members have been expelled.

What does this mean for UNISON and Labour Party democracy?

• The Labour Party leadership feel confident in attacking leading UNISON members, seemingly in pursuit of factional objectives;

• Elected UNISON members can be removed from office, before their appeals are heard;

• Involvement in or supposed approval of proscribed organisations leads to immediate exclusion and is being applied retrospectively – without the right to respond, against the principles of natural justice;

• The bar for support of proscribed organisations appears to be set extremely low and can be reached by simply liking or sharing social media posts of proscribed organisations (in some cases prior to their proscription);

• Delays in the Labour Party disciplinary processes mean that members who are later cleared are subjected to long suspensions during which they are unable to hold or stand for office within UNISON Labour Link.

Time for Real Change opposes bans and proscriptions of socialists from the Labour Party. We are particularly concerned that the Labour Party should target Andrea, who is the Elected President of the biggest Trade Union in Britain, a union that has a central role within the Party at all levels.

We are concerned that these bureaucratic attacks on leading members of UNISON and other Trade Unions (such as Unite) seem designed to sow divisions between the Party leadership and the affiliated trade unions. This is bad enough at any time but is particularly inappropriate at a time when the trade unions are involved in a serious struggle to defend members living standards and jobs. UNISON, along with Unite and other unions provide huge financial, material and human resources to the Labour Party, these expulsions will inevitably raise questions as to the benefit that the trade unions gain from providing that support.

Our members and working people in general are struggling to cope with a huge cost of living crisis, rising fuel costs and the threat of further austerity. We believe that the Labour leadership should be concentrating their efforts on fighting the real enemy, the Tories and their backers who are determined to make us pay for the crisis.

As trade unionists and socialists, we understand that it is impossible to separate socialist ideas from the organised working class movement. We believe that suspensions and expulsions of good socialists can only serve to weaken the Party, just at the time when the people we represent need Labour to be providing a strong and clear alternative to the Tories.

• We call on the Labour Party NEC to immediately reinstate Andrea Egan to the Party and to put an end to this divisive and short sighted witch hunt.