Dirty tricks expected as
Jackson submits to the law

Sir Ken Jackson, AEEU Gen Sec has finally abandoned his attempts to stay on without election, in breach of the law. He had previously proclaimed on 'sound legal advice' no election was necessary. Derek Simpson, the left challenger to the self styled 'honest bastard' and Sun columnist Sir Ken, had to launch a legal challenge to stop Jackson staying on beyond his 5 years. Although Jackson has already got himself a new job disposing of nulcear waste, 'Two Jobs Jackson' has said he will stand for re-election. Well not re-election exactly since he has never stood for election by all the membership before.

Dirty tricks and media bias are to be expected in this election: In the recent rail union election, not only did the Murdoch papers rally against the left candidate Bob Crow, so did the TUC! In an extraordinary memo, leaked to www.rogerlyons.com, the TUC spend four pages smearing Crow. The TUC also wrote Crow's opponent's election address! Roger Lyons will shortly take his turn as the President of this impartial body so it can only get worse. Despite all this Crow won a resounding victory on a platform of standing up for members. Sir Ken's opponent, Derek Simpson, is speaking to members in Manchester on 24th February, 11am, Warrington Club, Queen St, Aston under Lyne, OL6 6NS.

There is plenty of information on Sir Ken, his pro-Americian views are very popular with new the New Economy Information Service (NEIS), a project of the US Foundation for Democratic Education which in turn is the financial arm of the cold war body Coalition for a Democratic Majority. CDM is a major supporter of Israel. In a Sun article, published by NEIS, called "Why I Support a War on Terror" Sir Ken said blithely 'it will be impossible to fight this war without killing some civilians. It's not nice. But the alternative is far worse.' Well Sir Ken the civilian Afghani dead is conservatively estimated at over three thousand (BBC).

At the TUC Congress at Brighton in September Sir Ken proposed a 'strike-free future for industry' and told TUC delegates to "stop moaning about what they haven't got". He went on to tell the TUC it should abandon its annual conference and, in the spirit of partnership so beloved of Blair, he called instead for a joint gathering with the bosses union - the CBI! It must have been embarrassing for Sir Ken to discover that, only 24 hours later, over 400 AEEU toolmakers in Fords Dagenham and Enfield plants had gone on strike. This was to back up a claim for extra allowances. As a striking steward stated "we want a strike free Britain as well but one where members skills are recognised".

The following day things went from bad to worse for Sir Ken. The papers were full of reports that electricians (members of the AEEU) were coming out on unofficial strike to urge rejection of a pay offer from the employers that had been negotiated with AEEU national officials. Sir Ken described the strikers as "bloody stupid". According to the Guardian, one AEEU shop steward said of him "He never consults the members. Ken Jackson is a prima donna sitting in an ivory tower who never speaks to shop floor workers. He should start talking to his shop stewards or resign."

We attempted to register the domain www.sirkenjackson.com in time for the election, only to find Sir Ken has got there first. Instead, in a attempt at prescience, we went for www.lordkenjackson.com and www.lordjackson.com with a backup www.twojobsjackson.com. Welcome to the Lordship Sir Ken, kets hope you get booted up there soon, to join the other 9 AEEU Lords.

Read inside information at www.aeeunity.com, the left voice of the AEEU.
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 15th February 2002