THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF CPSA
FIGHTING ON IN OUR 45th YEAR BUT A BIT RETIRED NOW
FREEDOM! UNITY! SOCIALISM!
ONE CIVIL SERVICE UNION,
ONE GLORIOUS DESTINY!
REVOLUTION UNTIL VICTORY!
ROUND AND ABOUT
by Judas Iscariot - Early September 2002
Well the silly season is almost over. Full-timers and high castes have returned freshly tanned from Tuscany or the Caribbean while the other ranks glance ruefully at the cost of their fortnight in Benidorm coming up on their credit card statements. And there’s an uneasy lull on the NEC as both major blocs plan their next moves. The Moderati meekly agreed to Madame Godrich’s version of Standing Orders, but most of the motions were referred for legal advice. It is peculiar for the left wing to place so much faith (and the members’ money) in the often misplaced wisdom of the Bourgeois legal profession; it would surely be less wasteful if future NEC candidates were legally qualified.
It’s been a painful August for the Moderati who are still licking their wounds over the REAMSBOTTOM fiasco. In the provinces some of the Mods still believe he will make a come-back with another court action to challenge the legality of the last GS election. There’s no doubt that the Great Scot would only be too happy to return to the fray. But only if some-one else pays for the silk. BARRY’s certainly not going to mortgage his villa in Spain or his house in Balham for a legal action which he is unlikely to win. And though the Moderati bloc on the NEC (now led by PAULINE ABRAMS – strings pulled by JAZZA) still has an overall majority, they show little enthusiasm in using it for what many of them now reluctantly concede is a lost cause.
RAMSBLADDER’s friends in high places in the Labour Government have been shown to be largely imaginary, or as the media including Private Eye, have been delighted to inform us, consist of old right-wing union dinosaurs on the verge of extinction. The Eye informed us of BARRY’s voluntary work for the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin MP, which largely consists of BARRY using his Commons pass to buy drinks for his cronies in the Commons bars. Of course his friendship does go back a long way. Both men are part of the influential Scottish Labour Catholic mafia and the Great Scot may be once again be hoping to land a juicy seat in the Edinburgh parliament when the next vacancy occurs.
But for the rest of the Jockocracy there is only uncertainty. CURRIE is sulking in his tent after switching off the Moderati Website he’s been running as their mouthpiece, without warning or explanation. McCANN’s been going to the well more frequently – the medical term for his problem is a “bad back” or at least that’s what he says – despite repeated warnings that this will only make SERWOTKA’s job easier when the purge begins.
But will it? Last month the Trots were baying for blood. LUNITY was urging its followers to push through motions demanding the mass resignation of the entire MOD bloc, the withholding of RAMSBLADDER’s two year’s “top-up” paid leave to offset the union’s legal bills incurred by funding both sides in the July hearing, and an inquiry into the pro-Mod censorship of the June edition of PCS View.
Now calmer counsel has prevailed. GODRICH and SERWOTKA believe, with some justification, that time is on their side. They will return to the HQ “reshuffle” in due course but they want it to appear as a routine move and not a vindictive purge which could spark off more trouble. The Mods for their part are playing ball avoiding confrontation at the September NEC to give themselves time to sort out their own internal problems and decide on their plan of action for the next election and if and when the left pushes for rules revision.
The Moderati have at least retained the loyalty of the majority of the Me First bloc in Inland Revenue. UNDY’s overtures have failed and the Group, now styled as IRMF, seems set to continue to back the Mods as long as they continue to uphold the ring-fenced terms which brought the Inland Revenue union into the amalgamation in the first place.
The Mods need time to choose a new challenger for the GS post when it comes up in two years time. BOYLE is saying nothing though he knows that the nomination is his for the asking. LUNITY, on the other hand, has still to come to terms with working with SERWOTKA. The bloc is largely dominated by the former Militant faction that now calls itself the Socialist Party. Though nowhere near as strong as the old MENDICANT in CPSA days it has a national network and it is the only faction, left or right, which truly cuts across all grades.
MAREK, however, is in no faction at all, a maverick TROT well-known to the low-castes who has rapidly built up a personal following in recent months as “Mr Clean”. He certainly plays his cards better than LEON BAUGH, blamed for the farcical initial LUNITY backing of the portly darling of the high-castes, HUGH LANNING, and MAREK’s shown a patience that few imagined he possessed in the past. He knows he can’t retain the services of bridesmaid MACREADIE for much longer, so we can expect to hear that that his best chum Steve BATTLEMUCH is ready to take on a new demanding role.
And what of the Great Moderati Ballot Rigging Scandal? You may well ask. Looks like we’ve again shelled out to the Silks without anything substantial in return.
So everything has changed and nothing has changed to recall a thought from a more turbulent period of French history. That perhaps is what PCS is all about.