"Please come and have a DRINK!! with me"

I got this odd email invite the other day. Too busy doing union stuff to attend. 

: "For a new squabbling and democratic centralist disunted left? 

To: "Dave Bala<d.bala@trotsrus.co.uk>

Dear Comrade, I am writing to ask if you would be interested in an initial chat and drinkies about how UNISON activists in London can best organise between and across branches and Service Groups to provide each other with solidarity, support and fun! 

I'm sending this to a fairly random selection of fellow activists who I think might be interested, but if I've got that wrong in your case please accept my apology and feel free to denounce me in whichever way seems most appropriate! 

A few of us will be meeting in the O’Neils pub in Euston Road for several hours from 1pm on Thursday 9 January to have such a chat about fine wines, favourite Waitrose recipes and Star Wars. 
We hope that this will be the beginning of a conversation which will broaden and deepen over the coming year. 

Since the tragic popular vote to walk away from pointless strikes was taken two years ago, we have been trying to chase more strikes, with precious little support from our national and Regional Union. 

Although individual branches and activists are resisting the attacks from us strike chasers we have not had a sufficiently strong rank and file network to force them to do what we tell them other in more than an ad hoc way. In London many of those trying to strike chase are under attack and feel isolated, and the official structures of the Union perpetuate that. 

With a further round of cuts and the threat of widespread privatisation at the same time as the possibility of spreading the fight for fair pay beyond Higher Education, now may be the time to build and strengthen an activist pub network for support and solidarity. We can only work out if this is possible through drinking between activists. 

Those of us hoping to start this discussion believe that all our union work must be founded on and informed by a principled and consistent opposition to oppression. We don't believe in an approach which sidelines (for example) issues of male violence against women in the interests of unity to oppose cuts. Our vision is of a workers' movement which builds unity from all our struggles and drinks together. 

Which is why we don’t want any of those splitters and wreckers from the SWP or SPEW, also why we have picked a pub to meet up with since we don’t want any boring teetotalers or Muslims turning up either. But while it's nice to have visions, what we need right now is far more practical. Such as a few drinkies! 

At this stage, we think activists need to consider and debate how we provide each other with mutual liquid aid in the circumstances of 2014 in UNISON in London. 

On Thursday lunchtime I hope to be part of the beginning of a long drinking discussion about how we might do that. If you're interested I hope you might be too? 

Obviously only a few of us will be able to participate in a lunchtime weekday chat. Many activists will be tied up in their branches doing real union work and don’t have full facility time like what we have. So they will not be able to use their facility agreements and travel during their union time to the pub, have drinkies, then travel back in union facility time. 

This is the beginning of a discussion of which no one knows the outcome. You know what it is like when you have had a few jars. 

Please pass this on to any UNISON member you think might be interested. Best wishes for the New Year! 

Solidarity, 
Dave Bala Lambeth Workers' Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Trotskyism Thought. (but completely unofficially of course!)

National Association of Pension Funds Local Authority Conference 2012

This was very informative and well organised conference taking place during an absolutely crucial time for the future of the local government pensions scheme (LGPS). I was there as a Councillor and member of the Borough LGPS Investment and Accounts committee.

I did “twitter” (in my case a very apt term?) during the conference (see hash tag @grayee and #napf).
The NAPF had amongst many other speakers the minster responsible for the LGPS, Bob Neill MP, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Charlie Bean; the Chair of the Local Government Association, Sir Merrick Cockell (who in a Q&A I referred to as “Michael”) and from the unions, GMB national secretary Brian Strutton.

The Chair of the NAPF is Joanne Segers. By coincidence the first ever trade union pension course I ever went on was delivered by her father, TUC tutor Terry Segers. Proper old school ex-fire brigade union.

Considering the number of forthright and opinionated individuals present at the conference, the Q&A sessions were quite quiet, which gave a opportunity to a certain gobby part time politician and union rep to somewhat hog the floor during questions.

Key issues to me from the speeches and seminars were:- how Housing associations are “gagging to build new homes” which if happened could help us get out of recession like it did in 1930’s; the real problem in pensions is not in the public sector but that private sector pensions were destroyed by various incompetents; if you truly want diversity on company boards why not have employee reps on them? Are fund advisers really interested in good governance and making company boards accountable? It’s a “no brainer that LGPS should share services" (if so why not just merge?); in the current LGPS if you earn £150k per year you pay less in percentage terms net than if you earn £15k pa (this is wrong, wrong, wrong); What is the collective term for Actuaries? Answer “An invoice”; the new proposed £2 billion infrastructure fund and LGPS governance (a possible national Local Government Pensions Board?)

There was clearly an expectation by speakers that the future of the LGPS negotiations would have been finalised by now. But there is some last minute hic-cups. This is immensely frustrating but I suppose they do want to make sure, as far as possible, that there is no misunderstanding or ambiguities about the “agreement”. The ultra left trade union cry babies (the so called 0.8%ers) are of course still weeping tears at the prospect of no more strike chasing to bring about the revolution but we should have the final offer very soon.

It was good to see at the final session that the conference applauded DCLG pensions lead, Terry Crossley, who is retiring from the civil service. I have crossed swords (politely) with Terry for the past 10 years or so over beneficiary representation on the LGPS. I wish him well in his retirement and told him that if a deal is reached on a new look LGPS then he should have a new part time job and go out and sell the model to the private sector who are in desperate need of affordable and sustainable defined benefit pension schemes.