Keith Henderson has taken his case against being denied the right to stand for General Secretary of the GMB to the Certification Officer. Here is the case he has put, to which the GMB must now answer:
1) On or around 1
July 2015 GMB breached section 47 (1) of the 1992 Act in that the Union’s
by-law 13 relating to the Election of General Secretary and Treasurer 2015
prevented Mr Henderson, and other lay members of the union, from contacting
branches to advise them of their intention to stand as a candidate in the
election for the post of General Secretary and Treasurer.
2) On or around 1
July 2015 GMB breached section 47 (1) of the 1992 Act in that the nomination
period of 8 weeks was insufficient for intended nominees to gain the required
nominations from 30 branches and was insufficient for branches to arrange and
hold meetings to decide upon whether to support a given individual’s
nomination.
3) On or around 1
July 2015 GMB breached section 47 (1) of the 1992 Act in that the Union’s
London Central X58 branch was not provided with the necessary
papers/information for the election of General Secretary and Treasurer,
including the nomination form, until 3 weeks into the nomination period which
curtailed the 8 week nomination period thereby leaving insufficient time to
write to branch members, arrange a suitable date for a nomination meeting,
arrange a venue and give reasonable notice to members of such a meeting.
4) On or around 1
July 2015 GMB breached section 47 (1) of the 1992 Act in that the Union did not
provide sufficient information that the election of General Secretary and
Treasurer was being held and, in particular, most members did not know of the
22 June to 17 August 2015 nomination period as no written notification to the
membership was allowed and there was no notification on the Union’s website.
5) On or around 30
June 2015 GMB breached the Union’s by-law 13 in that Regional Secretaries Tim
Roache, Paul McCarthy and Paul Maloney and National Secretary Gary Smith
contacted the Morning Star newspaper directly or indirectly which
published an article stating that these Union officials were seeking nominations
from the GMB branches for the election of General Secretary and Treasurer. This
article constituted the issuing on behalf of candidates in the election of a
text, circular or other material (whether written, typed or printed and whether
communicated electronically or otherwise), other than an election address
according with by-laws 6 to 12 inclusive, and so was prohibited under by-law
13.
Grass Roots Left has had various objections from those opposed to Keith
Henderson using the ‘bourgeois courts’ against opponents in the Labour movement because
this, they say, it is ‘unprincipled’ and is apparently an attack on
‘democracy’. We totally reject this charge.
In 1860 Karl Marx published a
pamphlet Herr Vogt: A Spy in the Workers’ Movement where he
recounts how he used the ‘bourgeois courts’ to expose a state agent. In this
instance the use of the Certification Officer to restore some measure of
democratic rights to the membership of the third biggest union in Britain is
certainly justified and will be understood by all serious socialist and
militants in that light.
And today we are entitled to respond to the
defenders of the GMB bureaucracy who ludicrously claim that they are defending
workers’ democracy against Keith Henderson in the same words as those used by
Marx himself against those who criticised his actions in using the ‘bourgeois
courts’ over a century and a half ago:
“We excuse the lectures on democracy
and democratic organs contained in your letter on the grounds of novelty.” [i]
[i] Revelations Concerning the
Communist Trial in Cologne by Karl Marx 1853, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1853/revelations/footnote.htm
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