WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE GAZETTE?

(By Jimmy Warne, ex Chair of the Gazette)

Every since the removal of the Chair (me) and Editor (Des Heemskerk) of the Gazette by Derek Simpson and his supporters the Gazette has been in decline, and in my view now, terminal decline. This is evidenced by the poor turnout at its meetings Nationally and locally. Its influence upon events inside Derek Simpson’s Amicus has become non existent, the 23 Executive Councillors it elected in the height of its powers are split to the four winds and its credibility amongst the membership has gone the same way.

At a crucial meeting of the Union’s special Executive, to change the rules and have a ballot for General Secretary, the NW Gazette members Neil Sheehan and Pat Coyne voted the exact opposite way to the SWP Gazette members. Also one current Gazette member and union official openly campaigns for Simpson, in direct defiance of the Gazettes decision to nominate Laurence Faircloth (more about him later). Now let us consider what the Gazette will do about this. Well the answer is nothing, no-one will be expelled, though many have been for far less and the recriminations continue.

The only remaining Left candidate for General Secretary, Jerry Hicks, is vilified by those in the Gazette for running scared of the Gazette Nationally and avoiding the nomination process and accused of being a splitter who ‘will not work with the organised Left’ as Pete Gillard of the National Gazette Board puts it.

Why then Pete does no-one in the Gazette nationally take action against the people who are the real cause of the Gazette’s problems, the true splitters, the ones who claimed the Gazette for there own, the very people who worked with Simpson to first take control of the organisation to stop the criticism of Simpson then left it to its own devices when they had ripped the heart out of it, the people who are campaigning for Simpson now and have no interest in collective responsibility or abiding by democratically taken decisions. Now that’s a question many of us would like answered.

Jerry Hicks in my opinion has done the right thing, to have the yoke of the Gazette as it now is around your neck whilst campaigning is the best way to guarantee defeat I can think of.

Jerry Hicks can show and again, in my opinion must show, that he is not tainted by the betrayals of Simpsons Gazette or by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), who have a history of sectarianism of the worst kind and who now proclaim Laurence Faircloth as their man.

We must ask why the SWP are supporting Laurence and indeed why the Gazette are doing the same. I have no problem with Laurence as a person, he is affable, good company and a good and competent Officer, but remember that, despite what Syd Packer and others might say, Laurence is no supporter of the left, let me explain why.

When the AEEU changed from a Full time Executive Council (EC) to a lay one, 48 of us were elected to that Council from two distinct Political Groupings: 12 were delivered by the Gazette and the other 36 from AEEU United, Sir Ken Jackson’s organisation. Guess which one Laurence came from.

When we met for our caucus prior to the first EC meeting our numbers had swollen by just one, that man was Billy Spiers who to his credit defected to the Left grouping when it very quickly dawned on him what was happening.

Laurence on the other hand never once voted with the Left on the EC, has never attended Gazette meetings and he left the EC like others from AEEU United to accept Jackson’s offer to become Full time Officers. Would it not have been fair and decent for the Leadership of the North West group of the Gazette to have pointed out this history to its people before they were tied into a decision to support Laurence? Finally on this subject, at the time of Ken Jackson’s departure from office, I was the Chair of the Gazette and a sitting EC member and I never received any information at all from Laurence , helpful or otherwise, to assist in removing Sir Ken Jackson. Mick Longley and Vi Huddard to their credit were of much more help.

All of us who claim the Left as our own and wear it as the badge of honour it truly is should remember the late Tony Banks MP who never said a truer thing when proclaimed that “you cannot ride two horses with one arse”.

The Gazette if it was ever about anything was about delivering change for the membership and being an alternative voice from the leadership. Sadly it has gone from those ideals to be first a praetorian guard for Derek Simpson and latterly a shadow of its former self, leaderless, rudderless and riven by political infighting, dismissed by the membership as a busted flush.

If anyone really does want to support a Left wing candidate for General Secretary then you should look no further that Jerry Hicks who is a thoroughly decent and honourable human being.

I have written this article for www.dearunite.com after watching in disbelief the behaviour of people who should know better, many of whom owe their existence to the Gazette. I could not sit back without commenting on their very short memories and lack of moral fibre. We should all be judged by what we have done, not how well we are paid for doing it.

Jimmy Warne

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