By
New Worker correspondent
Voting
for the general secretaryship of PCS is now underway. Three rival left
candidates are in the race for the highest post in the biggest civil service
union in the country. PCS, which now also represents many clerical and admin
staff in the private sector, has been led by Mark Serwotka for nearly 20 years
and he’s the firm favourite to retain his role in the ballot that runs until 12th
December.
Serwotka can count on the support of
the union’s old broad left that brought together a number of left factions
together in the name of the “Democracy Alliance”. But it has come increasing
under fire from the maverick “Independent Left” – a faction largely led by the
Trotskyist “Alliance for Workers’ Liberty” and the rival Socialist Party that
once held sway throughout the union.
The union’s politics revolve around
competing left factions following the complete collapse of the open right-wing in
the union some years ago. Serwotka, who is in favour of the union affiliating
to the Labour Party, is standing on his record as a unifying figure. But his
Socialist Party and Independent Left rivals claim that his support relies on
complacent union grandees who have done little to take on the employer, which
is mainly the Government itself, over terms and conditions.
In 2014 Mark Serwotka was returned
to office unopposed. Only around 10 per cent of the membership bothered to vote
in senior officer election last year. This time round the union is hoping that
a much bigger response in the postal ballot will give the new general secretary
a powerful mandate to take on the Government in the battles to come.
