PCS elections: Time for change
Katrine Williams, PCS member
Ballot papers for the 2023 PCS civil and public services union president and national executive elections will be posted out to members on 20 April. The closing date is 11 May. There are also separate online group elections, which open on 27 April and close 16 May
Socialist Party members in the union are campaigning for the joint slate of Broad Left Network (BLN) and Independent Left candidates. These two groups have joined forces to contest the elections on an agreed commitment to:
- support the strikes currently taking place on pay and jobs
- develop and build a serious escalating programme of national, targeted and selective strike action to beat the cost-of-living squeeze and anti-union laws
- ballot for action short of strikes
- ensure that PCS takes the lead in calling for coordinated action
- campaign for a ‘yes’ vote in the reballot
- strengthen democracy and accountability in the union, including extending elections to full-time officers and bringing their pay more into line with the members they represent
Broad Left Network
The BLN is a rank-and-file socialist group in which Socialist Party members are active. Its demands include:
- 100,000 new civil service jobs
- Oppose office closures, no redundancies, increase investment in local communities
- Better flexible working arrangements, not used to cut office space, close offices and cut services
- End privatisation. Return outsourced work to the public sector; protect all jobs, pay and conditions
- PCS should lead a campaign against the Tories’ further anti-union legislation
- Tories out! We need a strong political voice. Support candidates who are anti-austerity and support the interests of our members and our policies. Corbyn stands with us and we would support him standing independently
- Reject all attempts to divide us on the basis of race, gender, disability, sexuality, age and all other oppression
- Climate change: campaign for public ownership and democratic control of energy and the big polluters, and tax justice to fund investment in renewables. A socialist just transition on jobs
Challenge
It’s time for change. The current leadership is not up to the challenge of the fightback that is needed on pay and the many other problems facing members.
In 2020, the leadership signed up to ‘national unity’ during Covid by ‘parking’ the PCS pay claim. BLN members campaigned for a serious national fight on pay. In 2022, having secured a statutory strike mandate on 7 November, they waited six weeks before taking any action at all, in the form of small-scale targeted strikes, and only called three one-day national strikes in six months. Their strategy has failed to move the government.
We urge full support for the joint Broad Left Network and Independent Left slate of candidates.
Vote Marion Lloyd for PCS president.
The full set of NEC candidates can be seen here: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/pcs2023-slate.jpg
