Alliance for Workers' Liberty
Encyclopedia
The Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL), also known as Workers' Liberty, is a Trotskyist
group in Britain. The group has a complex history but has always been identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna
. The AWL publishes the newspaper Solidarity
.
The AWL is registered with the Electoral Commission
as a political party, for which purpose it has listed various executive committee members as officers: its leader as Cathy Nugent, its nominating officer as Mark Osborn and its treasurer as Martin Thomas.
in 1966 in which he argued that the Revolutionary Socialist League
, by then effectively the Militant tendency
, was too inward looking and needed to become more activist in its orientation. The RSL refused to circulate the document and, with a handful of supporters, he left to form the Workers' Fight group. Espousing left unity, they accepted an offer in 1968 to form a faction within the International Socialists
as the Trotskyist Tendency.
.
In December 1971, the leadership of the International Socialists called a special conference to "defuse" the TT. The TT described the "defusion" as an "expulsion" given that they did not wish to leave.
At the end of 1975, it fused with the smaller Workers Power group, formerly the Left Faction within the IS, to form the International-Communist League. A small group of members in Bolton and Wigan opposed to the merger formed the Marxist Worker
group, which later fused with the International Marxist Group
. Workers' Fight was renamed Workers' Action and went over to a weekly publication schedule and the group's quarterly magazine was now entitled International-Communist. It joined with other groups that considered themselves to the left of the USFI in the Necessary International Initiative
. In 1976, two-thirds of the ex-Workers Power group's members left in a dispute over Labour Party work and resumed a separate existence. The I-CL increased its activity within the Labour Party
, and in 1978 helped set up the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. This campaign proved relatively popular and initially involved a range of figures on the left of the Labour Party who wrote for and supported its paper, Socialist Organiser
. After a dispute over whether local government rates should be increased to offset cuts made by the Thatcher
government, most of the Labour left figures - including Ken Livingstone
- withdrew from Socialist Organiser until the I-CL was the only force involved in what was now its central publication. Both Workers' Action and International-Communist were by 1979 discontinued, reflecting the group's entrism into the Labour Party.
's Workers Socialist League which had now also entered the Labour Party. The new organisation, also called the Workers' Socialist League, mostly worked through the Socialist Organiser Alliance. It also produced a theoretical journal, Workers' Socialist Review. In 1984, the groups split apart. The key issue was the Falklands War
: most of the former I-CL argued for the defeat of both sides; most of the former WSL supported a victory for Argentina. The tensions had also been strained over questions of internal democracy and differences over the national question.
over the GLC
's policy of increasing rates to offset cuts in grants made by central to local government.
The group initially decided to organise its student work through the National Organisation of Labour Students
(NOLS), forming Socialist Students in NOLS to campaign within the National Union of Students.
In 1985, after the split in the WSL which led to the departure of what became the Socialist Group
, the group reassessed its politics, and adopted a two state
position on Israel-Palestine. In 1988, the group's national committee moved from its original position that the Stalinist states were "deformed or degenerated workers states", and opened a discussion on the thesis that they were some 'new exploiting society'. By the 1990s, the organisation adopted a bureaucratic collectivist analysis, with a minority around Martin Thomas holding a state capitalist analysis.
and had little effect on the newspaper prior to 1990. In response to the ban, the Socialist Organiser Alliance dissolved. In 1992 the editors of Socialist Organiser launched an organisation known as the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Since 1999 the AWL has regularly stood candidates in local and general elections, either through left unity initiatives such as the Socialist Alliance
, Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform
and Socialist Green Unity Coalition
or independently.
A small workers statist
minority left to join the International Socialist Group
in 1992, arguing that the AWL was wrong to support the ban on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
in the coup attempt of 1991
. Subsequently, the AWL adopted a number of other positions associated with Third Camp socialism.
After closing SSiN in the late 1980s, it established and led a number of left opposition campaigns in the NUS, including Left Unity and the Campaign for Free Education
. It continues to organise left opposition in the NUS through its activity in the Education Not for Sale
network.
, President of the NUS from 2004 to 2006 was formerly a member of the AWL and the Campaign for Free Education
. It has played leading roles in the NUS Women's and LGBT
Campaigns, championing its policies on liberation and international solidarity within them, securing their representation within the NUS and working with groups such as OutRage!
and Al-Fatiha
.
The AWL has published the newspaper Solidarity
since 1995. It also published Workers' Liberty as a roughly quarterly magazine between 1985 and 2001. In 2001 and 2002, a second series of the magazine was published in a journal format. A third series of WL started in February 2006, taking the form of thematic collections issued as inserts within Solidarity.
In 2006, the AWL reproduced the Muhammad cartoons
that were originally published in Jyllands-Posten
on their website, describing it as an issue of free speech. While it opposed the Iraq war, the group did not actively call for the immediate withdrawal of US and UK forces, a position opposed by a large minority within the organisation. These and other positions have led to other far-left groups characterising the AWL as "imperialist
" and "Zionist
".
The AWL is active in campaigns such as No Sweat, Education Not for Sale
, Feminist Fightback, Workers' Climate Action
and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts.
The group has international links with the Solidarity Tendency, who are members of the Scottish Socialist Party
, Workers' Liberty Australia and supporters within the Revolutionary Left Current in Poland and Solidarity
in the United States. Its website also carries links to a number of organisations with whom it says it has "friendly relations", among them the Débat Militant/Democratie Revolutionnaire tendency in the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire, Liaisons, Convergences Révolutionnaires and mondialisme.org in France, the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq
and Workers' Left Unity Iran.
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
group in Britain. The group has a complex history but has always been identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna
Sean Matgamna
Sean Matgamna, also known as John O'Mahony is a Trotskyist theorist and activist. He was a founder of Workers' Fight in 1966 and is still a prominent member of the group, now called the Alliance for Workers' Liberty.- Early political experience :He joined the Young Communist League as a teenager...
. The AWL publishes the newspaper Solidarity
Solidarity (newspaper)
Solidarity is a socialist newspaper published by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty .The paper was founded as a monthly in the mid-1990s, as Action for Health and Welfare, by the Welfare State Network , a campaign supported by the AWL, the International Socialist Group and others.The paper became...
.
The AWL is registered with the Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission (United Kingdom)
The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. It regulates party and election finance and sets standards for well-run elections...
as a political party, for which purpose it has listed various executive committee members as officers: its leader as Cathy Nugent, its nominating officer as Mark Osborn and its treasurer as Martin Thomas.
Workers' Fight
The AWL traces its origins to the document What we are and what we must become, written by the tendency's founder Sean MatgamnaSean Matgamna
Sean Matgamna, also known as John O'Mahony is a Trotskyist theorist and activist. He was a founder of Workers' Fight in 1966 and is still a prominent member of the group, now called the Alliance for Workers' Liberty.- Early political experience :He joined the Young Communist League as a teenager...
in 1966 in which he argued that the Revolutionary Socialist League
Revolutionary Socialist League (UK, 1957)
The Revolutionary Socialist League was a Trotskyist group in Britain which existed from 1956 to 1964.-Formation:After the dissolution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Ted Grant and his supporters were expelled from the RCP's successor The Club in 1950 and formed the International Socialist...
, by then effectively the Militant tendency
Militant Tendency
The Militant tendency was an entrist group within the British Labour Party based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964...
, was too inward looking and needed to become more activist in its orientation. The RSL refused to circulate the document and, with a handful of supporters, he left to form the Workers' Fight group. Espousing left unity, they accepted an offer in 1968 to form a faction within the International Socialists
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...
as the Trotskyist Tendency.
Trotskyist Tendency
The Trotskyist Tendency (TT) clashed with the leadership of the International Socialists (IS) over many issues, for instance Britain's membership of the Common Market, on which the IS leadership itself was divided, and the use of the "Troops Out" slogan regarding Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
In December 1971, the leadership of the International Socialists called a special conference to "defuse" the TT. The TT described the "defusion" as an "expulsion" given that they did not wish to leave.
International-Communist League
Outside the IS, increased in size, the group resumed publication of Workers' Fight, now as a printed paper, not as was previously the case as a duplicated journal, began publication of a theoretical journal entitled Permanent Revolution and made efforts to publish a small number of workplace-oriented publications in specific industries.At the end of 1975, it fused with the smaller Workers Power group, formerly the Left Faction within the IS, to form the International-Communist League. A small group of members in Bolton and Wigan opposed to the merger formed the Marxist Worker
Marxist Worker
Marxist Worker was a Trotskyist organisation in Britain, which produced a publication of the same name. It was formed by the Bolton branch of Workers' Fight, who opposed that organisation's merger with Workers' Power in 1976 and refused to enter the new organisation, the International-Communist...
group, which later fused with the International Marxist Group
International Marxist Group
The International Marxist Group was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It and its youth organisation had had around 1,000 members and supporters in the late 1970s...
. Workers' Fight was renamed Workers' Action and went over to a weekly publication schedule and the group's quarterly magazine was now entitled International-Communist. It joined with other groups that considered themselves to the left of the USFI in the Necessary International Initiative
Necessary International Initiative
The Necessary International Initiative, often shortened to NII, was a Trotskyist international grouping formed in March 1976 by groups considered to the left of the Fourth International, which the NII characterised as "centrism sui generis", although the British section disagreed with this...
. In 1976, two-thirds of the ex-Workers Power group's members left in a dispute over Labour Party work and resumed a separate existence. The I-CL increased its activity within 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 in 1978 helped set up the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. This campaign proved relatively popular and initially involved a range of figures on the left of the Labour Party who wrote for and supported its paper, Socialist Organiser
Socialist Organiser
Socialist Organiser was a weekly socialist newspaper circulated in the Labour Party. The newspaper was founded in 1979 by the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory, later renamed the Socialist Organiser Alliance....
. After a dispute over whether local government rates should be increased to offset cuts made by the Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
government, most of the Labour left figures - including Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
- withdrew from Socialist Organiser until the I-CL was the only force involved in what was now its central publication. Both Workers' Action and International-Communist were by 1979 discontinued, reflecting the group's entrism into the Labour Party.
Workers Socialist League
In 1981 the I-CL fused with Alan ThornettAlan Thornett
Alan Thornett is a British Trotskyist leader, and one of the officers of the left-wing Respect party.Alan Thornett began his career as a car worker in Cowley, Oxford in 1959. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain there in 1960 before being recruited with other shop stewards to Gerry...
's Workers Socialist League which had now also entered the Labour Party. The new organisation, also called the Workers' Socialist League, mostly worked through the Socialist Organiser Alliance. It also produced a theoretical journal, Workers' Socialist Review. In 1984, the groups split apart. The key issue was the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
: most of the former I-CL argued for the defeat of both sides; most of the former WSL supported a victory for Argentina. The tensions had also been strained over questions of internal democracy and differences over the national question.
Socialist Organiser Alliance
The Socialist Organiser Alliance grew from the broad left Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. By 1983 the paper was dominated by Matgamna's supporters (by then in the Workers Socialist League) and was clearly identified with that faction leading to a split with independent Labour left politicians such as Ken LivingstoneKen Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
over the GLC
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...
's policy of increasing rates to offset cuts in grants made by central to local government.
The group initially decided to organise its student work through the National Organisation of Labour Students
Labour Students
Labour Students is a student organisation affiliated to the British Labour Party.Membership comprises affiliated college and university clubs . Membership of Labour Students is through membership of a university or college Labour Club. Affiliation is open to any Labour Club generally supportive of...
(NOLS), forming Socialist Students in NOLS to campaign within the National Union of Students.
In 1985, after the split in the WSL which led to the departure of what became the Socialist Group
Socialist Group
The Socialist Group is a primarily social-democratic political grouping in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The group comprises of 180 members from 45 states of the Council of Europe. The Group is chaired by Andreas Gross of Switzerland....
, the group reassessed its politics, and adopted a two state
Two-state solution
The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the consensus solution that is currently under discussion by the key parties to the conflict, most recently at the Annapolis Conference in November 2007...
position on Israel-Palestine. In 1988, the group's national committee moved from its original position that the Stalinist states were "deformed or degenerated workers states", and opened a discussion on the thesis that they were some 'new exploiting society'. By the 1990s, the organisation adopted a bureaucratic collectivist analysis, with a minority around Martin Thomas holding a state capitalist analysis.
Alliance for Workers' Liberty
Socialist Organiser was banned by the Labour Party in 1990 when its application to register with the Labour Party was rejected. The register was an attempt to regulate entryists, but this measure was primarily aimed at the Militant tendencyMilitant Tendency
The Militant tendency was an entrist group within the British Labour Party based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964...
and had little effect on the newspaper prior to 1990. In response to the ban, the Socialist Organiser Alliance dissolved. In 1992 the editors of Socialist Organiser launched an organisation known as the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Since 1999 the AWL has regularly stood candidates in local and general elections, either through left unity initiatives such as the Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alliance (England)
The Socialist Alliance was a left-wing electoral alliance in England between 1992 and 2005.In late 2005, a small group reformed with the name "Socialist Alliance", with a mutual affiliation with the larger Alliance for Green Socialism.-Origins:...
, Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform
Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform
The Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform was a faction of the Socialist Alliance , a left-wing political group of England and Wales which existed between 1999 and 2005....
and Socialist Green Unity Coalition
Socialist Green Unity Coalition
The Socialist Green Unity Coalition is an electoral alliance formed by leftist parties and political organisations in Great Britain prior to 2005 parliamentary election after the Respect Unity Coalition rejected requests to discuss an electoral arrangement to avoid clashes in...
or independently.
A small workers statist
Degenerated workers' state
In Trotskyist political theory the term degenerated workers' state has been used since the 1930s to describe the state of the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in or about 1924...
minority left to join the International Socialist Group
International Socialist Group
The International Socialist Group was a Trotskyist organisation in Britain. It was the British section of the Fourth International until July 2009 when it dissolved into Socialist Resistance.- Origin :...
in 1992, arguing that the AWL was wrong to support the ban on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
in the coup attempt of 1991
Soviet coup attempt of 1991
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup , was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...
. Subsequently, the AWL adopted a number of other positions associated with Third Camp socialism.
After closing SSiN in the late 1980s, it established and led a number of left opposition campaigns in the NUS, including Left Unity and the Campaign for Free Education
Campaign for Free Education
The Campaign for Free Education was a left-wing grouping in the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom of those opposed to tuition fees and the abolition of student grants....
. It continues to organise left opposition in the NUS through its activity in the Education Not for Sale
Education Not for Sale
Education Not for Sale is a radical left-wing student campaign in the United Kingdom.The name originally derives from the "European Education Not for Sale network" and was first used by socialist and other radical activists at the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom conference in...
network.
Current work
Its student work has involved winning elected positions in the National Union of Students on the basis of campaigning for free education and other issues. Numerous supporters have won seats in the structures of the NUS. Kat FletcherKat Fletcher
Kathryn Jane Fletcher was president of the UK National Union of Students between 2004 and 2006, the first to be elected from a political slate clearly to the left of Labour Students, who had held the position for most of the previous twenty years.-Early life:Fletcher was formerly the General...
, President of the NUS from 2004 to 2006 was formerly a member of the AWL and the Campaign for Free Education
Campaign for Free Education
The Campaign for Free Education was a left-wing grouping in the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom of those opposed to tuition fees and the abolition of student grants....
. It has played leading roles in the NUS Women's and LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
Campaigns, championing its policies on liberation and international solidarity within them, securing their representation within the NUS and working with groups such as OutRage!
OutRage!
OutRage! is a British LGBT rights group that was formed to fight for equal rights of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in comparison to heterosexual people. It is a group which has at times been criticised for outing individuals who wanted to keep their homosexuality secret and for being...
and Al-Fatiha
Al-Fatiha Foundation
The Al-Fatiha Foundation is an organization which advances the cause of gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims. It was founded in 1997 by Faisal Alam, a Pakistani American, and is registered as a nonprofit organization in the United States...
.
The AWL has published the newspaper Solidarity
Solidarity (newspaper)
Solidarity is a socialist newspaper published by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty .The paper was founded as a monthly in the mid-1990s, as Action for Health and Welfare, by the Welfare State Network , a campaign supported by the AWL, the International Socialist Group and others.The paper became...
since 1995. It also published Workers' Liberty as a roughly quarterly magazine between 1985 and 2001. In 2001 and 2002, a second series of the magazine was published in a journal format. A third series of WL started in February 2006, taking the form of thematic collections issued as inserts within Solidarity.
In 2006, the AWL reproduced the Muhammad cartoons
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
that were originally published in Jyllands-Posten
Jyllands-Posten
Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten , commonly shortened to Jyllands-Posten or JP, is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Viby, a suburb of Århus, and with a weekday circulation of approximately 120,000 copies, it is among the largest-selling newspaper in Denmark...
on their website, describing it as an issue of free speech. While it opposed the Iraq war, the group did not actively call for the immediate withdrawal of US and UK forces, a position opposed by a large minority within the organisation. These and other positions have led to other far-left groups characterising the AWL as "imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
" and "Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
".
The AWL is active in campaigns such as No Sweat, Education Not for Sale
Education Not for Sale
Education Not for Sale is a radical left-wing student campaign in the United Kingdom.The name originally derives from the "European Education Not for Sale network" and was first used by socialist and other radical activists at the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom conference in...
, Feminist Fightback, Workers' Climate Action
Workers' Climate Action
Workers' Climate Action is a direct action and solidarity network made up of socialists, anarchists and other class struggle activists involved in both the environmental and labour movements....
and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts.
The group has international links with the Solidarity Tendency, who are members of the Scottish Socialist Party
Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence....
, Workers' Liberty Australia and supporters within the Revolutionary Left Current in Poland and Solidarity
Solidarity (US)
In left-wing politics in the United States, Solidarity is a socialist organization associated with the journal Against the Current. Solidarity is an organizational descendant of International Socialists, a Trotskyist organization based on the proposition that the Soviet Union was not a "degenerate...
in the United States. Its website also carries links to a number of organisations with whom it says it has "friendly relations", among them the Débat Militant/Democratie Revolutionnaire tendency in the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire, Liaisons, Convergences Révolutionnaires and mondialisme.org in France, the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq
Worker-Communist Party of Iraq
The Worker-Communist Party of Iraq is a Marxist political party in Iraq and amongst Iraqi exiles. Rebwar Ahmed is the current leader of this party. It was Established in July 1993 through a merger of communist groups....
and Workers' Left Unity Iran.
Notable former members
- Newsnight ScotlandNewsnight ScotlandNewsnight Scotland is a BBC Scotland television news programme which started on Monday October 4, 1999. The programme is aired from BBC Pacific Quay in Glasgow, and is an opt out of the main London-based Newsnight programme...
presenter Gordon BrewerGordon BrewerGordon Brewer is a Scottish news and current affairs broadcaster, currently working for BBC Scotland. He has presented the flagship Newsnight Scotland programme since 1999.-Education:Brewer was educated at the Voluntary Aided school St... - Screenwriter of Ken LoachKen LoachKenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
's The NavigatorsThe Navigators (film)The Navigators is a 2001 British film directed by Ken Loach with screenplay by Rob Dawber.It tells the story of the reactions of five Sheffield rail workers to the privatisation of the railway maintenance organisation for which they all work, and the consequences for them...
Rob DawberRob DawberRobert "Rob" Dawber was a British railwayman turned writer whose script for the film The Navigators was commissioned by director Ken Loach and shot in Sheffield, where Dawber lived...
who was still a member when he died - National Union of Students president Kat FletcherKat FletcherKathryn Jane Fletcher was president of the UK National Union of Students between 2004 and 2006, the first to be elected from a political slate clearly to the left of Labour Students, who had held the position for most of the previous twenty years.-Early life:Fletcher was formerly the General...
- Political theorist Alan Johnson
- Author and journalist Charlotte RavenCharlotte RavenCharlotte Raven is a British author and journalist.She studied English at Manchester University. As a Labour Club activist there in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she was part of a successful campaign to oust then student union communications officer Derek Draper, though she subsequently had a...
- Political journalist Andrew MarrAndrew MarrAndrew William Stevenson Marr is a Scottish journalist and political commentator. He edited The Independent for two years until May 1998, and was political editor of BBC News from 2000 until 2005....
- Public and Commercial Services UnionPublic and Commercial Services UnionThe Public and Commercial Services Union is the sixth largest trade union in the United Kingdom. Most of its members work in government departments and other public bodies although some work for private companies.- Membership and organisation :...
General Secretary Mark SerwotkaMark SerwotkaMark Serwotka , is General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union , the trade union for British civil servants.-Early life:Born into a Catholic orphanage in Cardiff, Wales, he was adopted by a Polish British father and a Welsh mother....