ATU Network
Encyclopedia
ATU Network is a caucus group
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...

 within the Amicus
Amicus
Amicus was the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union, formed by the merger of Manufacturing Science and Finance, the AEEU agreed in 2001, and two smaller unions, UNIFI and the GPMU...

 trade union which seeks to attract members and employees of Amicus who support the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 and who are sympathetic to Blairism
Blairite
In British politics, the term Blairism refers to the political ideology of former leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who left both positions in 2007 to become Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East...

. It announced its formation in January 2005.

The group's name probably derives from Amicus the union, the union's campaigning slogan.

The founders of ATU Network, who signed the group's founding statementhttp://www.btinternet.com/~davidbeaumont/msf/atu.jpg, are:
  • Les Bayliss, Assistant General Secretary of Amicus
  • Cath Speight, a full-time officer who is Regional Secretary for Amicus's Wales Region and a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee
  • Kevin Coyne, a full-time national officer who was then the Regional Secretary of the North West Region


ATU Network competed with the larger and more established Unity Gazette
Unity Gazette
Unity Gazette is a broad left caucus group in the Amicus trade union. It includes activists from the former MSF and AEEU trade unions which merged to form Amicus. The broad left of AEEU was also known as Unity Gazette or Engineering Gazette...

 grouping. That group pursues broad left
Broad left
Broad Left is a coalition of left members, usually involving independents, members of the Labour Party, and members of organised revolutionary leftist movements within a trade union. Several groups are described by the term....

 aims and objectives.

Activities

ATU Network is believed to have campaigned against the rule change that introduced the requirement to elect new Full Time Officers. That rule change was approved at the June 2005 Amicus Policy and Rules Conference, after a campaign by the Unity Gazette.

However, ATU's greatest success to date, where it emerged as a serious opponent to the Gazette, was at the North West Regional Branch Conference, held on 2006-01-21. At that conference, almost all the candidates on the ATU slate were elected. North West England was the main power-base of MSF for Labour, but the vast majority of the ATU's recommended candidates were relatively young and unknown, with many being drawn from the former UNIFI
Amicus
Amicus was the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union, formed by the merger of Manufacturing Science and Finance, the AEEU agreed in 2001, and two smaller unions, UNIFI and the GPMU...

 finance union, and the older activists from the MSF days were almost all absent from the slate. Apart from indicating that ATU have had some success within the finance sector, it could suggest that ATU want to be seen to be making a clean start, and to avoid being associated with the political machinations of the MSF era.

Current status

The current status of ATU Network is unknown. Its domain name now points to a holding site. The election literature circulated by Kevin Coyne, when he stood for the position of Joint General Secretary (Amicus Section) in February 2009, made no mention of his role as a co-founder of the network.

Response of the Unity Gazette

A number of senior Gazette members expressed the opinion that Gazette and ATU membership were mutually incompatible.

In its founding statement, the ATU Network published a tariff of membership fees for the various grades of union employee, maximum £10/month. However the nominal fee for lay members of ATU is only £1/year. In contrast, Gazettee membership is free for lay members and employees alike, although the Gazette solicits voluntary donations to fund its activities. This has led some members of the Gazette to conclude that the ATU Network is, in effect, a self-preservation society for Full Time Officers who feel threatened by the introduction of elections for officers.

Earlier organisations

MSF for Labour, the equivalent group in the MSF
Manufacturing, Science and Finance
Manufacturing, Science and Finance was a trade union in Britain...

 union which merged to form Amicus, was more influential than ATU Network. Its supporters included MSF's General Secretary Roger Lyons
Roger Lyons
Roger Lyons was the General Secretary of the MSF trade union from 1992 and re-elected leader of the union in 1997. When the union merged with the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union to form Amicus in 2002 he subsequently became one of the Joint General Secretaries of Amicus.Lyons studied...

, and several prominent members of that union's National Executive Committee, many of whom (including Lyons) have since left Amicus or are no longer active at national level. Its most visible activity was the distribution of "crib sheets" at MSF National Conferences, advising delegates how they should vote on particular motions.

At the time of the merger to form Amicus, MSF for Labour held a meeting with its counterpart in the AEEU
Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union
The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union was a British trade union. It merged with the MSF to form Amicus in 2001.The history of the union can be traced back to the formation of the "Old Mechanics" of 1826, which grew into the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in 1851...

, known as AEEU United, to discuss forming a joint organisation. However, the co-operation achieved from these discussions appears to have been limited and undoubtedly benefitted the Unity Gazette which had been more successful in uniting its own supporters from the two unions. This was borne out by results in the 2003 NEC elections where candidates on the Gazette slate did well.

During 2004, at least some of the members from MSFfL were using the name Amicus First with other members using Amicus Members 1st.

The formation of ATU Network can therefore be seen as an attempt to unite Blairite members of Amicus within one group.

External links

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