Conference Like banging your head cont

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Rob Dawber (Sheffield City NUR) Rob Dawber (Sheffield City NUR) analyses why the NUR conference was not as democratic as it seemed was not as democratic as it seemed its own agenda, * the General Secretary, assistants, and divisional officers to have to stand for election every five years *manifestos to be distributed for union elections, rather than just candidates' biographies, * the General Secretary's salary to be the average for the industry.

These were all thrown out by the simple expedient of someone shouting 'Move business as the proposer was approaching the rostrum, getting a seconder, and then winning a two-thirds vote. The only one debated was on five-yearly elections for General Secretary, and that was lost by a simple majority.

Finally, the AGM reversed the NEC decision to take no action against the people accused by Weighell of sending out unofficial circulars. NEC members associated with the Broad Left have now been fined £10 and required to state in writing that they will not break the rules again:

The rules in question were designed to stop blacklegs and union wreckers operating inside the union in its very early days. Weighell has now turned them against those who wish to make our union more democratic and accountable, and therefore stronger.

One delegate told me that the discussion at the AGM was like banging on a brick wall. Against you was Weighell, who had brought with him almost the whole of Unity House, the NUR HQ.

He had files and research staff. He could pull strings and manoeuvre, and he had enough supporters there to get away with it.

Only a handful of delegates were Broad Left supporters. We need to ensure more left-wing delegates in future if the NUR is to become anything other than a hatchet for the right in politics, and a union that presides over worsening conditions for its members and the decimation of the railways.