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Challenging party politics during conference season

2 September 2010

Most of the country believes that public services need investment not drastic cuts. Many politicians take the opposite view.

That is why PCS will be taking its new national campaign - including an economic alternative - to the TUC and party conferences.

The conference season is an opportunity to dispel many of the myths politicians have about civil and public servants - such as gold-plated pensions and well-paid faceless bureaucrats.

New MPs and those who have been helpful in the past can be encouraged to support the campaign.

The PCS parliamentary group has grown since the election and is now made up of 70 MPs from across the political spectrum.

The political context has changed and the union needs to build broad alliances to win enough support to overturn the government’s proposals to cut jobs, decimate public services, reduce pay and rip up terms and conditions.

The theme during this conference season is campaigning against the cuts and outlining an alternative. Demonstrating very starkly the mistake the new government has made with its spending proposals.

Going green

For the third time PCS is attending the Green Party conference – from 10-13 September – and encourages party members to join union campaigns.

Green activists can support the fight to defend local services – by stopping cuts to the Government Office Network and the Regional Development Agencies. A consultation on the closure of magistrates’ and county courts ends in September and harsh cuts to the Equality and Human Rights Commission are expected to decimate local advice services.

PCS will also highlight its environmental campaigns - including supporting the call for one million green jobs.

In solidarity at the TUC

At the Trades Union Congress in Manchester in September PCS will be demonstrating with other unions to call for a united defence of jobs, services, and workers’ conditions. The union is holding a fringe meeting and will have a stand in a prominent place.

On the fringe at the conferences

At each of the conferences the union will be holding a fringe meeting. General secretary Mark Serwotka will present PCS’s economic alternatives to the cuts which include collecting the tax that is evaded, avoided, and goes uncollected by properly resourcing Revenue and Customs rather than cutting staff.

Representatives from the Tax Justice Network will also contribute..

Liberal views?

The first few months of a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition - where the Lib Dems have capitulated on many of their policies - will provide the backdrop to one of the more interesting conferences of the year.

PCS is supporting a protest outside the conference centre on 19 September to remind delegates that the cuts the government is announcing go against their party’s policies. There could be heated debates if the Lib Dem rank-and-file feels angry about the coalition agreement.

Labour finally loving us

PCS will have a stand at the Labour party conference for the first time. The union will also be seeking to build the parliamentary group by inviting Labour MPs to join us in defending our jobs and vital local services.

Conservative woes

The National Executive Committee has agreed to support a demonstration just before the Conservative party conference in Birmingham on 3 October. This protest will let the biggest coalition partner know that the planned cuts are not welcomed by the public and that workers are angry about paying heavily for a financial crisis that was not of their making.

What you can do: