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Affiliated Political
Fund
REPORT
2001
Winning UNISON
policies in the constituencies
No-one would say
that this is an easy or happy time to be APF Officer of a UNISON branch.
It is true that
the Labour Party fought the General Election on the issue of better
public services; but the Labour-led administrations at Westminster
and Holyrood remain committed to PFI, PPP and in general the funding
of public services by the private sector.
This inevitably
involves transfers to the private sector and undermines the principles
which UNISON knows are needed for high quality, universally available,
accountable services.
The administration
of the City Council, faced with the unenviable choice of accepting
these mechanisms or having to manage even higher under-funding of
services, has followed suit in a number of cases. Most Labour Party
members are unhappy with this.
We know this through
our participation in Labour Party constituency meetings where UNISON
policies are regularly supported. So what we in this branch's APF
try to do at local and Scottish level is to express those views and
bring pressure to bear on the policy process and the politicians.
It will be a long
slog, in particular to persuade people that the root of the problem
lies in the Chancellor's 'orthodoxy' in handling public funding. But
the problems will not go away so nor should we go away from the Labour
Party. In the year we have had success in getting the City Labour
Party to give the Best Value process regular scrutiny.
We have been active
in opposing the Trunk Roads contract going to the private sector and
in arguing UNISON's case on pay and local government funding.
Lastly in the
review of the APF we are promoting this branch's view that reform
should be based on ensuring accountability of UNISON's representations
into the Labour Party to the APF membership through a delegate structure.
MATTHEW CRICHTON
Political Fund Officer
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