I have received a number of really positive reports from delegates to UNISON Black members conference which took place last weekend in Bristol.Apparently it was an extremely upbeat conference with many people talking about how proud they were to be UNISON members and what the union had done for them, and a lot of people speaking about how inspired they are by the example of Barack Obama's rise to power.
Conference concluded with a show of unity as extracts from speeches by Martin Luther King and Barack Obama were read to conference by National Committee members and there was a moving communal rendition of Bob Marley's 'Redemption Song'.
Interestingly, unlike past years, there was not a single SWP or SP intervention in debates and it was refreshingly free of such malign influences.
Apparently three SWP members tried to leaflet the delegates in the hotel foyer as they entered conference on Friday. The hotel called the police and escorted the comrades from the premises, leaving them to stand out in the street away from the hotel's entrance, where they were completely ignored.
I think that black members are showing the way to the rest of UNISON in rising to the challenge of Barack's example and also excising madcap Trotskyist interference from their self-organised group.
A leading member of the London delegation has promised to write a guest post on the conference for me. At this moment he will be heading for a TV screen like the rest of us.
3 comments:
Hi John, What a day i wish i was there in the states, History in the making, Martin luther king what a man he was and what a voice, looking at Obama i was thinking about m,l,king how proud he would have been...
Funnily enough the SWP people ordered along to leaflet the conference were all white!
I'm not suggesting that white people can't talk to balck people. But, jesus h. christ, it certainly shows up the paucity of black SWP support if they can't even find a black member in Bristol of all places to show a 'united front' in order to engage with a conference designed to promote self-organisation for black workers.
They are clearly in deep doo-doo if this is the case.
Romeo D
Seems your sources are accurate, John - not a single word about the conference in the latest issue of Socialist Worker.
Last year there was a short report, so maybe UNISON's black members have kicked them all out at last - and good on them for that!
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