Unite’s leadership attacks democracy over Palestine

Unite’s national leadership has systematically closed down internal democracy to block solidarity with Palestine.

Since October 7th 2023, Unite’s national leadership have systematically blocked motions raised by dozens of branches and regional committees criticising the Israeli onslaught on Gaza and supporting the rights of Palestinians. This has been an attack both on internal union democracy and on international trade union solidarity, and Unite’s national leadership must be held to account for their deliberate repression of members’ voices.

Throughout the last year and a half, members of Unite have mobilised in our tens of thousands, week after week, on marches across the UK in solidarity with Palestine and calling for an end to Israel’s onslaught on Gaza. At successive Unite Policy Conferences prior to October 7th 2023, our union had adopted good policies supporting Palestine, denouncing Israeli ethnic cleansing and apartheid, supporting ‘Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions’ (BDS) and calling for an arms embargo. These were democratic, delegate-based conferences, mandating the policies that our union leadership are meant to implement.

Yet our national officers (including our General Secretary) have not been seen at the regular Palestine Solidarity Campaign marches, let alone spoken from their platforms. Regional officers have been threatened when they sought to stick their heads above the parapet to support Palestine. And there has been a deafening silence when it comes to mobilising members to join protests. Indeed, the national leadership have denounced and even implied a threat of legal action against members who seek to promote the union’s policies on BDS and an arms embargo.

This persistent refusal to implement democratically-decided policies on Palestine has necessitated a systematic repression of motions raised by members. The union’s structure allows for motions passed by branches to be escalated up to regional and national committees, culminating in the National Executive Council (NEC) of elected representatives. National and regional officers have used the full weight of union bureaucracy to block motions passing through and up this structure, arbitrarily denying members the opportunity to hold the national leadership to account and to influence our union’s interventions.

As early as March 11th last year, two motions on Palestine mysteriously disappeared from the agenda of the NEC, having been pulled by officers mid-meeting and without explanation, despite the presence of members outside lobbying delegates to pass the motions.

The South East Health Regional Industrial Sector Committee (RISC) passed a motion re-affirming support for BDS, but this was blocked by Unite’s National Officer for Health on the grounds that it conflicted with the interests of other jobs represented by the union.

In April, the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Retired branch submitted a motion highlighting “the lack of action from UNITE to support the Palestinians facing Israeli slaughter in Gaza” and expressing concern about “the extraordinary letter sent on 26th March by [Unite’s] General Secretary and Chair to officers and others” in which they attacked those who seek to stop the supply of arms to Israel. The motion simply called for the union to implement its policies. The motion was referred back by the Regional Committee because “motions on Palestine were not being welcomed at national and EC meetings; many arguments had been used to block their progress for debate.” This was detailed in the Retired Members Consultative Committee Report, but no specific reason was offered for this reference back.

In May, the Nottingham geographic branch passed a motion pointing out that the leadership’s exclusive focus on domestic industrial disputes has meant that Global Solidarity (one of the union’s three critical pillars) has been ignored. Again, the motion called for the leadership to implement existing union policy on Palestine. The Regional Committee referred the motion back to the branch in July with a spurious claim that it was in some sense inconsistent with union policy. One regional representative told the branch that the Chair of the NEC had been blocking motions on Palestine, including some from members in the arms industry. The branch amended the motion in September, and passed it back to Region. Six months later, the branch have been asked by Region to remove a clause that asks the union to identify and work “with union members working in companies or government departments that are involved directly or administratively in the arms trade with Israel to build a campaign against such involvement.” This clause is explicitly aligned to our union’s policy calling for an arms embargo!

The North West Health RISC submitted a motion calling for solidarity with Palestine last year. It was tabled for an NEC meeting, but then pulled at the last minute because it “asked union employees to work weekends”. This is how the bureaucracy interpreted a call for the General Secretary and Chair to attend national PSC rallies! The branch deleted that call and resubmitted the motion. The NEC Chair ruled it out of order again, and refused to give his reasons.

The National Young Members Committee submitted a motion to the NEC in December calling for an industrial strategy to oppose British involvement in the widening conflict, to divest from Israeli apartheid, to suspend direct arms shipments and to promote socially productive manufacturing. The South East Region submitted a motion to the same NEC asking the leadership to send speakers and to have a presence at national rallies and demonstrations. The Health NISC also submitted a motion to that NEC condemning the IDF for crimes against health workers, looking to build links with Israeli & Palestinian unions, and proposing regular donations to Medical Aid for Palestine. All three motions were ruled out of order, one because it had originally been tabled 8 months earlier (and “things have moved on since then”) and another because it asked for motions previously ruled out of order to be restored.

Countless Unite Community branches have passed motions in solidarity with Palestine, calling on the leadership to implement existing union policies, including the branches for Greater Manchester, Coventry, Essex, Southampton, Haringey & Barnet, Hackney & Islington, and Lambeth & Southwark. These motions have all been ruled out of order at different points in their passage up the regional and national hierarchy. Some were blocked at Regional Community Forums, at least one at the National Community Forum (where officers claimed that it might be considered “vexatious”), and at least one at the National Constitutional Committee.

There are some signs of discontent regionally at this apparent blanket policy by the national leadership to block Palestine-related motions. In October, the North London Advice Agencies / Social Care branch passed a motion calling on the union’s leadership to denounce Israel’s ongoing attacks as a genocide, and to implement existing Unite policy. The motion was eventually agreed by their RISC, and passed onto Region for consideration.

A similar motion was passed by the Greater Manchester Retired branch, passed (with amendments) at the North West Political and Regional Committees, and referred up to the NEC.

Nonetheless, and overall, this is a sorry tale of a systematic manoeuvre by officers across the union’s regional and national structures to stop members expressing their concerns about Palestine, and holding the leadership to account for their refusal to implement union policy. National officers of our union have defended the manufacture and export of arms to Israel to facilitate genocide. By implication, those national officers have sided with the Zionist state of Israel in its brutal repression of the Palestinian people, and betrayed our sisters and brothers in Palestinian trade unions. They continue to do so, and now are clamouring  for a massive ramp-up in the production of armaments in the UK more generally – armaments which as we know, in any conflict, have only one purpose: to kill working class people across the world.

It is clear that the majority of our members stand in solidarity with Palestine, and against the Israeli genocide. The national leadership must be held to account, and this year’s Unite Policy Conference  offers an opportunity to do just that ¹. The Greater Manchester Retired branch have submitted a motion to Conference calling on the leadership to implement existing policy, and we should resist any attempts to block the motion before it gets to the conference floor. Ultimately, when leadership positions come up for re-election, we must campaign around and vote on the candidates’ track record in implementing union policy on Palestine. No officer should be allowed to flout democratically agreed policies on the defining international crisis of a generation, in the face of the biggest sustained mass mobilisations since the Miners’ Strike, and still get re-elected at the end of it.