Thank you as ever for the background and analysis. I’m a Unite Community member with a ballot paper not yet filled in. A consideration for me is who is backing the two candidates and which outcome is most likely to generate organisation at rank and file level for greater democracy and militancy? Behind the Dubbins campaign is the United Left and the unanswered questions about corruption, however “clean” the candidate is himself (set against Graham as previously part of that same bureaucracy). Also some of the Dubbins campaign supporters links to the malign, undemocratic faction that has strangled Your Party at birth. The old right in Unite may well be backing Dubbins, but Graham on the climate, on international solidarity, on democracy is well to the right of Dubbins stated positions. Rank and file activists I trust and respect spread across all three positions. A ballot paper still not filled in.
This is a perfect example of why the real choice is not who to vote for, but how to build a rank-and-file left that is not centred on elections. Both candidates are senior bureaucrats; the difference is that Graham has tied her brand to “exposing” the old corruption while Dubbins is now using that same history to attack her leadership’s broader record. Part of how different left currents assess the candidates is how much influence they have, as a group of movers-and-shakers, over the candidates. This simply replicates the top-down problem in the union and, of course, explains why different parts of the left align to different candidates because of their relationship distance rather than the bigger picture, much as you and I buy our food at different shops because we are in different localities.
Graham is indeed to the right of Dubbins’ stated positions, and that is a major reason why sections of the left back Dubbins. International solidarity that talks left but materially is just signing statements and paying affiliations is not an acceptable alibi, neither for unions nor for states: https://redmole.org/p/the-campist-left-has-a-iran-problem
There is no clear evidence in open sources that the traditional “old right” faction as a faction is systematically backing Dubbins, but his campaign claims it would open up internal debate, restore implementation of conference policy (especially on Palestine and climate), and make the leadership more responsive to the elected EC and branches. All of this should be taken with a pinch of salt, given United Left's DNA, but even if he delivers his plan, it is around optimising the functioning of the bureaucracy.
Thank you as ever for the background and analysis. I’m a Unite Community member with a ballot paper not yet filled in. A consideration for me is who is backing the two candidates and which outcome is most likely to generate organisation at rank and file level for greater democracy and militancy? Behind the Dubbins campaign is the United Left and the unanswered questions about corruption, however “clean” the candidate is himself (set against Graham as previously part of that same bureaucracy). Also some of the Dubbins campaign supporters links to the malign, undemocratic faction that has strangled Your Party at birth. The old right in Unite may well be backing Dubbins, but Graham on the climate, on international solidarity, on democracy is well to the right of Dubbins stated positions. Rank and file activists I trust and respect spread across all three positions. A ballot paper still not filled in.
This is a perfect example of why the real choice is not who to vote for, but how to build a rank-and-file left that is not centred on elections. Both candidates are senior bureaucrats; the difference is that Graham has tied her brand to “exposing” the old corruption while Dubbins is now using that same history to attack her leadership’s broader record. Part of how different left currents assess the candidates is how much influence they have, as a group of movers-and-shakers, over the candidates. This simply replicates the top-down problem in the union and, of course, explains why different parts of the left align to different candidates because of their relationship distance rather than the bigger picture, much as you and I buy our food at different shops because we are in different localities.
Graham is indeed to the right of Dubbins’ stated positions, and that is a major reason why sections of the left back Dubbins. International solidarity that talks left but materially is just signing statements and paying affiliations is not an acceptable alibi, neither for unions nor for states: https://redmole.org/p/the-campist-left-has-a-iran-problem
There is no clear evidence in open sources that the traditional “old right” faction as a faction is systematically backing Dubbins, but his campaign claims it would open up internal debate, restore implementation of conference policy (especially on Palestine and climate), and make the leadership more responsive to the elected EC and branches. All of this should be taken with a pinch of salt, given United Left's DNA, but even if he delivers his plan, it is around optimising the functioning of the bureaucracy.