Meeting With Graham Goddard Deputy General Secretary Of Amicus
And Chris Weldon Amicus National Political Officer.
Organised By Amicus Unity North East Thursday 6th July 2006 At South Shields Town Hall
The following is a note of the proceedings as far as was possible on the night.
Firstly there was a talk given by Graham Goddard followed by a question and answer session. This meeting was in the Mayors Parlour of South Shields Town Hall.
[Immediately before he spoke one of the regional officers (either Michael Routledge or Jeff Tate) told Chris Weldon that, “We have circulated everybody on the Unity membership list.”]
GRAHAM GODDARD:
I know there has been a lot of criticism of me and the number of AGS and DSG appointments that have been made but that’s something else and we will just have to live with it.
If you take the analysis about the merger position outlined by Derek to the NEC then we have to get our people in position so that the T&G do not take control of the new union. If you take the senior management position then Derek has 3 and-a- half years to go before retirement; Doug Collins will retire at the same time. Then you have Ed Sweeny of UNIFI and Tony Dubbins. The agreement has been made that when Tony goes Ed has agreed to go at the same time and Tony retires early next year. So if you look at things at the senior management level you will see that going into the merger the senior management team will be way down on the numbers – its all about politics and political power. People know this and its all about how people are replaced.
Criticism levied at me is that I have risen up through the ranks of the union too quickly, but I have done all the stuff required of me and I have done the job. So obviously the political thing is to replace people with regard to the senior management team because that will be diluted with retirement and other things and new people will have to gain experience for the merger. The other side of it is when you look at the position around the two women assistant general secretaries. One of these Gail Cartmell who has been criticised because she suffers from ex-SWP-iteis but is now seen as a right winger and we are not going to knock that but she heads up the public sector in the health sector.
This is the biggest growing sector in the union. Plus when you look at the number of people we are getting from recruitment we see that women make up many times more than men and women now make up more than 50% of the union. So when we look at trying to see how to bring the union together in a senior management team we see that we have never had a woman in the senior management team since Lucy Kelly or Anderson if you knew her who was an Assistant General Secretary who left last year. Since then we have not had a woman in the senior management team and we have been criticised for that. We have corrected this now but we need to face up to the equalities issue inside the new union as well.
If there is one thing the T&G has not got a good structure on it is the equalities thing this and if you look at the T&G you will see that they are in a far weaker position than we are and so we can see that we will be able to appeal more with a woman in the senior management team.
So that’s one side of the issue the other side of it is that Derek has decided to put me into the position of being the next General Secretary of the union. Now people might say why should Goddard be the next General Secretary, what’s he ever done. Well this is one reason I’m here tonight and other Unity meetings over the next few months and that’s why I’m doing this now because time is short and I need to get out and meet people.
Now for a General Secretary to put into place a succession policy while he is still in power is a big plus for democracy and our union because no matter what is said and I and all of us have been through the Jackson era and we are all in a campaigning union now making the members voice heard and the way that democracy is coming and the way the union moves is in total contrast to where we were and we have to take that on board.
I will not be Derek Simpson’s clone even though I might sound like him. When I take over [as General Secretary] I will not operate like Derek because we are two different people. The succession policy is well under way its been discussed at the highest possible level and cannot be stopped. All people in the union whether right, left or what have you understand that this is part of the policy that we must look at.
From a Gazette perspective I am not going to say that I am THE Gazette candidate because we have not had people in the hustings or a selection process and why should Graham be selected but I want the job [of General Secretary] I can get it and do it and I will be putting myself forward for it.
One of the things that the Deputy General Secretary and the appointments people has done is to flush out people like Kevin Coyne and Ian Waddle and Les Bayliss who all want to be general secretary because I want it. I want it too because people have started to ask me to do the job and I want to represent them. I could get out to factories and meetings and stage-manage things but I don’t want to do that. I want to get out and meet people informally and explain where I come from. I am member driven and I want that to continue into the new union and that is what I want to focus on so that when I go out and do things like training courses or turn up on a platform people will say, hey that’s the kid who came round our factory, that’s him who turned up on our training course that’s him who came on our demo because the one thing that is what I believe in is that I am an activist and I want the union to be an activists union and that means I will turn up at the Peugeot plant next Saturday. [the 16th July]
I will not be a General Secretary sitting in my office. I will do the job that shop stewards do, that full time officers do and activists do.
I [Graham Goddard] have started linking in all the Regional Councils and Activists Committees and office staff and officers. The Regional Councils will be a resource centre in that region not just a place you go to sort out a problem. So that members can say that’s our office not just an office for full timers.
The merger strategy is something I believe in. The globalisation is something Derek is interested in and which I will have to continue it after him, or rather whoever takes over. The international link is something that we are trying to forge 1st in Europe because we do not have a level playing field but that link we are trying to forge with the cross border unions is exciting and which we will be able to challenge Labour on.
The Labour Party link is something we have got. The Warwick Agreement is also an issue and no one says it is not an issue and we have to get it right because there is no way we can ask people to vote Labour when Warwick is not in place but I do know that a lot of stuff is being done to get it delivered because many people say that there should be a vision of a Warwick 2 delivering much more than Warwick 1 and many people say to me that we need is a Warwick 2 and a lot is being done to get it delivered. Part of my remit was inside it [the political unit] was to, contrary to what was going round at the time that it was my job as DGS to head up the political unit, well that’s not the case, but I’m here to publicise the things that the political unit is doing, such as Warwick and the funding that is happening now because one thing that is coming across now is that the government is looking at state funding which we could not be doing with that and neither Tony Dubbins as well. There is loads of other stuff also that I’m involved with. The Political Unit is doing a good job.
What it does for me and this why Chris [Weldon] is with me is that I am now in the DGS position to go round the country meeting people to put a line out and it will be a line that the Gazette will put out for me. I will attend Gazette meetings for this. I do attend Gazette meetings. I know that Derek has been criticised for not attending Gazette meetings but I will certainly attend. If you want me to give you reports of the Deputy General Secretary then I will do that.
Derek has been criticised for not turning up to Gazette meetings and there are politics around this because the trots have been involved in politics influencing the Gazette and we have spent more time talking about this than talking about things that the Gazette ought to be doing such as union campaigns and we ought to keep that going.
This is a quick synopsis of where we are at now. I hope the position will be looked at that they have put me here for the right reasons. If I don’t get the Gazette candidature to run as next General Secretary and that’s to look at inside the merger because there is no way that the T&G want Amicus General Secretary to run the new union and there is no way that Amicus wants Woodley to run the new union and we are not going to give the reins to Woodley. If Derek goes in 3 and a half years time and Woodley has got another 4 years after that we are NOT [Goddard’s emphasis] going to hand over the reins to Woodley and that’s the big debate at this stage that’s going on. There are a number of scenarios that are kicking about. Such as a new election for Amicus then we would have joint general secretaries and then one would go and we would have another election but that’s not something we are looking at. We are now at the level of how we are going to work out how to get an Amicus General Secretary to take over the merged union and how to have all 12 regions controlled by Amicus regional secretaries. So that’s where we are now things are at this serious level and are being talked about very seriously but I don’t want to go into things into much detail because we are still talking about things at this stage.
I could go on at length about all the other things we are doing such as ant-fascism work and the dignity of work and equality and all such things as this. I will talk about these but I would like to say something else about the merger thing because its important. Now that the GMB has gone and this is not the bad thing we would have thought a year ago because the size of the GMB pension fund deficit would have brought down the 3 unions. The deficit is £90 to £120 million but no one knows exactly how much.
Just one thing that Chris is doing in the political unit is that it was a long job to get rid of Jackson. When we were saddled with Jackson and we were losing members hand over fist Derek’s line was always about the Labour Party – don’t throw it out, throw him (Jackson) out. The Labour Party has been taken over by people who are not real Labour or Labour’s friend and we have to get rid of these people who are not working class. We have to get back the real Labour Party and the Amicus voice heard.
There then followed a short Q and A session that was cut short by a supper break.
Q from Ray Smith
You said something about the dignity of work and I guess you want a more democratic workplace also. By this do I take it that if you were general secretary you would reinstate Jimmy Warne.
A by Graham Goddard
Well I don’t know what he’s done so I cannot say anything. Actually I’m not ducking it, I just have not been involved in the issue. I know only that they were suspended and then sacked. I don’t know why. I can’t comment. I don’t know. I haven’t been involved with the debate at all. I’ve heard Jimmy’s side. I ain’t heard the other side not even from Derek.
Q from Ray Smith
Well is this not a reason for reinstatement because the union as a union and the employer has not said what he is charged with. This is a simple case of natural justice where the accused should know the accuser, the nature of the charges that are levied and is allowed to question the accuser and witnesses. Its simple justice.
A by Graham Goddard
Well I don’t know if that’s right.
Interjection by Ray Smith.
Well I think it is right. I have written to Derek Simpson on many occasions for him to explain the charges. I have not had an answer, not even an acknowledgement. I have also invited him to my branch or any appointee he can think of to explain to my members why Jimmy has been sacked. I have not had any reply. Not even a get lost you little trot, because I am a member of the SWP and I too believe in democracy, freedom of speech and due process - the right of a fair trial before sentence is passed. These are fundamental human rights that people have suffered for and even died for.
A by Graham Goddard
Well I’ve got no problem with democracy and freedom of speech but I honestly don’t know what they’ve done or what they’ve been charged with but that’s all part of the system that we have to live with.
A by Chris Weldon.
The problem Graham’s got is that he’s aware of a tribunal and he doesn’t want to comment on and I would not want to comment on this or anything about it. Also if we did say anything about it the Police could come round my door and prosecute me. We have here the Deputy General Secretary of the union and if he said anything here tonight he could in the morning get a summons to appear before the tribunal. This side of the track, this side of the tribunal we don’t know and if we did know we could not say. The thing is we cannot say anything because we do not know anything about it. Nothing has been said to us. They [Jimmy, Des and Cathie] know but we don’t. They talk about it but we don’t.
Q from Ray Smith
This a strange business. Here is a case that has split the union in two and which everyone even the dogs on the street are talking but the most senior officials of the union do not talk about it and seem semi-detached from the issue.
A from Chris Weldon
No nothing has been said. I know nothing about the case.
Q from Ray Smith
So nothing has been discussed in private amongst union officials. Not in private, over a pint maybe or in a smoke-filled room. Not even by the most senior officials in the union.
A from Graham Goddard
I don’t know anything about this case and nobody has said anything to me.
A from Chris Weldon
No, that’s right Graham, nothing has been said or talked about this issue. There will, I promise, be a full debate inside the union, sorry the Gazette after the case. The issue will have to take its course.
Q from Ray Smith
Originally they were suspended because the allegation was that they had put out a leaflet at last year’s TUC.
A from Graham Goddard
Well obviously they have now been dismissed and it’s gone to tribunal. That’s the last thing I heard so they will know through the tribunal system that they have had a bad response from the union anyway.
Interjection by Chris Weldon
And its sub judice anyway and it’s an issue that’s going to take its course anyway. From an Editorial Boards perspective we have promised a full debate the other side of the tribunal so that we can hear both sides of the argument. In the meantime they have every right to do as they do. We will just have to wait for the outcome and the debate that has been promised by the Editorial Board.
Q by a shop steward
Can I ask a question and to move things on a bit. Obviously we all know what’s been going on around the Gazette but where do you see the Les Bayliss thing and the ATU network.
A by Graham Goddard
Well one thing and I’ve tried to say it in a roundabout way and because its flushed out some of the people and where it was seen as an officer led ATU then because of the personal ambitions of some of them and what’s come out, that organisation will just disappear now it might take six months but I think it will just go downhill now. People in there can’t now go round saying they were the centre left policy wanting to come into the Gazette and there is only a fag paper difference between us. I sat down with Richard O’Brien, Caspey, me and Steve Davison had a short chat in Scarborough and that was their line and its not true and now that we have flushed them out it definitely ain’t true.
Q by Tom Gardner
Can you give us a short history of yourself. Just where you have come rom and general information because people in the branch will ask who you are.
A by Graham Goddard
Well its not just in the branch who will ask, people come up to me and say who the fucking hell are you, especially at Scarborough. I had a badge with DGS on. I was in the CP my father was also a Party member and he worked in a foundry and he got onto the district committee of the union. I got involved with things through him. I started work in a crankshaft factory called Shardwells in Sheffield. It had its own communist party branch. It was a well-organised factory. I became a steward. When I came out of my time [I went through the normal hierarchy process to where I am now.]
Q by Jeff Tate
What’s happening with the merger process. Are we still on time.
A by Graham Goddard
The merger process now that the GMB is out of it was holding things back. Originally we were looking at the membership work being done in by the first quarter but Derek thinks it should be achieved in the first six months to actually make it on the 1st January 2007
Q by Ray Smith
When are we going to get more information about the merger because even now we have had hardly any information about the new union and
why we should have a merger in the first place
A by Graham Goddard
Well I think we have had about as much as what’s been available to be honest. There has already been a lot of information already. There will be more information when we sort out the regional structure of the new union. This is the only thing holding things up now but things are still set for the 1st Jan 2007. We have to sort out who the regional secretaries will be. The T&G have a 10 region structure and we a 12 region one and there is a focussing thing going on, well it’s a power thing ain’t it, and looking and saying what’s it gonna be. I suppose if you take the Regional Secretaries issue now because of the death of John Elliott and Arthur Taylor taking his BR then we would actually, I suppose we could say we want extra regional secretaries but all we would do currently is to put somebody there, to some being a melting pot, for a debate because we want all 12 regions but the reality is that we will not get all 12 and so its daft really because if we appointed more regional secretaries we would have to give some a tap on the shoulder and say you anin’t gonna be a regional secretary in the new union and so that’s one of the reasons why Jenny Bremner is currently heading two regions and why they put Lawrence Fairclough from MOD, a National Officer, to run a region and we still need to sort out who all the regional secretaries are going to be because with retirement issues and things like that around these things we need to sort it out. So we have the numbers game on that but information wise I think that’s what’s holding it up but once its sorted out I think more information will be released then. So when members vote they will have the information because you need the information to base your vote
Q by a shop steward
So when will the election of General Secretary be
A by Graham Goddard
To be just on with Derek Leaving or retiring in 3 or 3 and a half years time. His birthday is in December and he’s 62 now and so its about on time for that
Interjection by shop steward
So its gonna be a long campaign then
A by Graham Goddard
Yea, yea, that’s why we are consolidating currently from where I got the DGS job and they said don’t go flying about everywhere but obviously people are asking the question and this is why Jeff [Tate] invited me here tonight because of the questions that people have asked me tonight but I am not going to go round everywhere that quick. Its obvious about what you said about it being a long campaign and I have to get the experience of doing the DGS job and I’m currently doing a regional secretaries job also. So I had better be careful about what I say as well and not get out of step.
Q by Ray Smith
Suppose Br Simpson fell under a bus tonight, what direction would you take the union in a way that Derek Simpson is not taking it
A by Graham Goddard
NOT TAKING IT [Goddard’s emphasis] Well (rather heatedly) that’s probably where we disagree because as I tried to say earlier I think Derek’s changed. I think he’s changed the union movement for what he’s done. He’s got the campaigning issues back on board. He’s got people talking about trade unions and I would continue that role and as I tried to say earlier my view is and my role would be and I say this when I go round training courses when I meet stewards and people as a regional secretary I believe that the union should come upwards and its what members want what their campaigns are obviously you have to realise it as part of the union but not everything fed down. Those of us involved with Jackson remember everything was fed down and if you didn’t like it you were side lined.
Interjection by Ray Smith
On a good day
A by Graham Goddard
Aye, on a good day. I remember missing quite a few conferences because of that
Q by Ray Smith
By my last question what was really going through my head was that there is huge sense of injustice in the country because employers are seen as pleasing themselves; all the law has been composed in their favour; if we want to take industrial action there is a massive bureaucratic procedure we have to go through while employers can just walk in and summarily sack people no reasons, just out you go. Now suppose the Trade Union Freedom bill was sabotaged by Blair and Brown what would you do.
A by Graham Goddard
Well the response of the union would be to continue the campaign and get it changed
Interjection by Chris Weldon
Well to be fair, well in all fairness its not gonna change with Blair. Blair is not gonna change it and neither is Brown. What we have to look at is that Brown is gonna be a short term thing and it’s the candidate after Brown that we have to look at.
A by Graham Goddard
The Freedom Bill, aye well, I went on the London May Day rally and things like that supporting it and we had the Gazette guy John McDonnell speaking and so we support it but if you think I was gonna be naive and say we should have unofficial action to change it, now you ain’t gonna say that
Interjection by Ray Smith
No I wasn’t going to say that
A by Graham Goddard
No I wasn’t going to say you would but I was just saying it in case you were gonna say it. So in the finality I would not put the union in jeopardy as Derek has done for the wider movement because of that issue and we have to keep the campaign and the arguments running and this is why if going back to the link with the Labour Party and if we break the link we change the avenue by which Blair can’t sabotage it and we have people in Parliament who will say to Blair, look you can’t sabotage it you can’t do this it is what we voted for this is the feeling of ordinary working people that the Labour Party represents and we will be able to keep it good.
A by Chris Weldon
I would like to say something on this because it has to do with a project I’m involved in that’s really medium to long term and maybe we can turn this thing around. You see we are already looking at the next set of Parliamentary elections. When I first got sight of the set of Amicus Parliamentary candidates who we would be supporting in the next Parliamentary elections I was looking for people who are aligned with the Gazette. People like you who are here tonight. I counted just two maybe three on a list of a hundred and so my project is to ensure that people who are sympathetic to the views of people here are that the list is to be refreshed and there are already people who are on that panel now and there are a number of other comrades who will be invited on to it. I can now say that from being in a minority we are now in a majority on the panel. We have got people sympathetic to the Gazette on the panel well in position to stand in seats that are available. Our weakness at the moment and to be honestly truthful is that we have too many men and notenough women because the Labour Party is pushing all women shortlists and that as we are sitting at the moment will hit us quite hard. So we are definitely looking at the next intake to Parliament for people who are sympathetic to centre left views who are going in and supportive of the view that the union is pushing at the moment. So we talk about a Trade Union Freedom Bill and even the leadership contester who everyone looks to every once in a while. I’m talking about John Prescott. He said no but there is a hell of a lot of pressure being put on him. We’ve met a load of our MP’s at Scarborough at the industrial conferences and so on. We started banging about names who might run for deputy leader for us and there were quite a lot of them were not really about it for whatever reason and I wont embarrass them for naming them or saying why but what we said to some of our leading MP’s was, well how about you standing and they all said, well we won’t win well we said nether will that individual because we wont support them but if you stand on a principle you have a third of the trade union votes going into the election behind you.
Since Derek’s election one of the first things he did was to get the big four unions into a room and agree that no longer would they fragment and split votes at Labour Party conferences. The trade unions would stand solid. So a third of the votes every time would always be weighted on a progressive manner and that has meant that Blair has been beaten on at least six occasions over the last six years on votes at labour party conference and more and more the labour party constituencies have started to lean towards the trade unions and there was a massive vote for us and we want to encourage that and work on that. For a long long time he was always seen inside the labour party to be invincible but the trade union block has shown that he can be beaten. Now is the time to try to do that inside the parliamentary labour party because the fragmentation towards old labour must continue and the fragmentation continues and we must take that fight we must take the fight to the parliamentary labour party and try to get a candidate. Whether can get a right candidate only whether that fight is successful only time will tell but we want to try. The names that are being bandied about at the minute I don’t feel are people who, well not really people who we can, well they are people who are not really palatable to us. I won’t embarrass them by naming them or say why we feel this way about them but what I think is what we should do is to concede that Gordon Brown will be the leader after Blair and we should skip a generation and lets look and see if see if we can get one of our people as deputy leader and go for the prize in a generation backed up by the influx of people coming in this time followed by the influx of people coming in next time after that and that’s the project I’ve been working on along with Tony Gubbons. I must say that when I first get set on by the union I was working with people like Harry Flannigan and Bob Shannon and anybody who knows these and every move and every thought I came to got blocked but now that I’m working with Tony Gubbins I can assure everybody that every door I need to go through is open and I get every assistance and it’s a breath of fresh air really and the political department for the first time is working in tandem with the industrial side and we are starting to lobby and we have all the MP’s linked to industrial sectors so that we can get a deal on our behalf and that they are working on our behalf. The one’s who have been using the union as a flag of convenience have been left out and the ones who are really solid behind the union and support us will get our full support and that’s already been started in that we have cut some donations to those who are not supportive of the union we have severed all links altogether, we have cut donations to constituencies from £1500 quid to £500 and we have been quite open and said look this MP has not attended any of our Parliamentary meetings is not working with us therefore we are not shutting the door totally but its up to you as a constituency to say to your MP that if you want a development plan with Amicus if you want to work with Amicus then you have to start getting involved with our projects and with what is important to us.
Q by Ray Smith
Actually what I was saying earlier on about this freedom bill is important because the Tory laws we have now are designed to keep unions in their place and I think it’s a fundamental right for us to say no, we don’t like this we will not do it. It’s a fundamental human right. What I was saying earlier on about the Freedom Bill is that I am sure that Blair and Brown would sabotage any attempt to bring it into law and Blair is on record as saying that he would not allow it to go into law. When I said what would the union do if the Bill was sabotaged, which it would, I did not mean we should take unofficial and more importantly illegal action because you have to be very careful before calling for this type of action and I don’t think that such calls would be followed at the present time. No what I was saying is that we have a fundamental right to say to Blair and Brown that if you do not support us we have the right to fund those organisations that will and are prepared to help us. Its what you have just said about individual constituencies.
A by Graham Goddard
Well that can’t happen because we are not allowed by rule to financially or otherwise to support any other organisation except Labour. So that’s out the window to start with.
Interjection by Ray Smith
No, I’m asking what would the union do in those circumstances. I’m asking as a for instance suppose that rule did not exist what would you do as a union.
A by the Mayor of South Tyneside
We would be far worse off. We had this debate at Christmas. The trade union as a trade union and the trade union movement as a whole would be far worse off if it was not linked to the Labour Party because you cannot ……
Interjection by Chris Weldon
If you go outside in the corridor and look at that banner, the miners lodge banner on the wall you will see what happened to an industry after the last time we had 18 years of a Tory government
Interjection by Ray Smith
Well what we have now is
Interjection by the Mayor of South Tyneside
I agree what we have now is not the best it is a Labour government that is very much attracting the centre ground. In fact Blair is much more pro business than he is union. The truth is that Blair is not of the Labour Party he is not of our ideas or ideals he is not a socialist he is not a labour man he would be very much at home with the liberal party but he is not THE labour party. Those who are individual members of the labour are the labour party not Blair or Brown but just to finish this Jeff we would be far worse off if it was a government of another complexion. A labour government of the pinkest of pink is better than any alternative and as Chris [Weldon] said look what happened after 18 years of a Tory government, Christ we don’t want that anymore
Interjection by Ray Smith
Well we have that alternative now under Blair haven’t we. I think that
Interjection by the Mayor of South Tyneside
No you see its
Interjection by Ray Smith
Well I think we have. How many times has Blair taken us to war without any discussion or debate, just off to war. This is the Tory; well we hear today that a soldier from this town has been killed in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was a war that was supposed to be over with 5 years ago and where the population was supposed to welcome us and now we
Interjection by Jeff Tate
We can talk about this but what we as a union are concerned about is how can we stop the parachuting in of parliamentary candidates. What influence can we have at the end of the day. Its not just Amicus but what the whole trade union movement can do. This parachuting in is just not on and we have to stop it
Interjection by a shop steward
Well look at this constituency it’s a fine case of
Interjection by Chris Weldon
We do have influence here and we should be able to find out when seats are becoming available and we should be able ask or find out if the seat will be an all woman shortlist. We got turned over no end at the last set of parliamentary elections where we got our people mainly men well placed in seats then we got shafted cos they were turned into all women shortlists and we have now rectified that and we should now be able to find out which seats will be all women and which won’t and we should also have some influence and we have started a debate within the big four unions. Its by no means concluded but what we are trying to do is to actually get an agreement between unions is that there should be one union candidate. So every time you won’t have the T&G and Amicus or the GMB fighting against each other. There will be just one union candidate fighting the seat so even if you did get a number-10 candidate fighting the seat you would see a clear distinction for the local party who will say look do you want a local candidate or a number-10 candidate who has been parachuted in and so it will be a local union candidate who will get the seat
Interjection by Graham Goddard
I think what Jeff said about getting back to the union and the labour and all that and what Chris said about the big four and the difference that has made at the labour party conference and if you take it into the merger discussions because I like to link it into the merger because its all linked its no surprise that Blair turned up at the GMB conference spoke for an hour and a half got a standing ovation and the next day they took the decision to pull out of the merger which then and don’t be surprised that when we get to the labour party conference this year I don’t think the GMB will be supportive around some of the decisions of the big four decisions because Blair has promised them things in the future. I don’t know what that is because I’m not high up enough to know what’s going on and I don’t think its all about the labour party its an establishment thing, they see the union moving on and when I say I see Derek moving the union on becoming a voice and doing something for working people and the globalisation and the challenging of multinational companies. Now they’ve seen that and they know we can do it if we do it right and organise right because they know that if we organised right we would be lethal and I think they have recognised that and that’s why they are putting all the emphasis on first they are publicising what are unions about and all that and you know they don’t publicise unions that not in their nature but all of a sudden like we are being talked about and they would dearly like to see it stopping happening like at the labour party conference this year
Q by Tom Gardener
Chris [Weldon] can I ask you your history too please.
Interjection by Graham Goddard
He ain’t got one, well maybe just a very tiny one
A by Chris Weldon
Well just three bars in Sheffield and they’ve all got plaques with my name on
Interjection by Graham Goddard
And I’ve got the name of the woman
A by Chris Weldon
My history is that I started in steel works becoming full time officer with british steel that became corus. Worked on seven different plants. I was shop steward in every single one. The final one that I arrived at weren’t unionised I unionised it and built up a committee and became senior steward or convenor or whatever you want to call it. From being branch secretary at the age of 24 to Jackson shutting the branch when we merged with the ETU and I was on the old AEU district committee, well at more or less the same time about 83 or 84 time as Graham [Goddard] but while whereas Graham took the TUC industrial role I took the and became heavily involved with the unions political role from that close onwards. As well as being a full time officer I was also a councillor and I’ve set up an Amicus councillor network and I organise Amicus’s anti-fascist network on a national basis and I sit both on the Unite against Fascism and Searchlight’s national steering committees and coordinate all that
Interjection by Ray Smith
Well that’s very good, I had no idea you were so distinguished in these areas, but while on this general topic am I right in thinking that Amicus nationally is still the only union not to be nationally affiliated to Stop the War if this is right why not and are there any plans to affiliate nationally.
A by Chris Weldon
Well I thought we had but er well you know
Interjection by the mayor of South Tyneside
Well lads it would be nice to continue this discussion but the suppers are ready and we can continue later on.
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