Beckett’s On Fire, The Establishment Is Petrified

I couldn’t think of a better title, so I went back to when I was 21 to borrow and amend the lyrics of a pop tune by ‘Gala’. The chorus was deep, it went “na na na na na na na na na na na na” x 4.

Howard Beckett’s campaign to become the next General Secretary of Unite the Union is gathering pace. 


Despite some peculiar nomination counting, all four candidates - Sharon Graham, Steve Turner, Gerard Coyne and Beckett himself have passed the required number of nominations to put themselves forward for the big job. 


The battle is on. 


Much of the talk from outside of the Beckett camp has been about Howard ‘doing the right thing’ - standing aside to allow just one left-leaning candidate to take on the last of the Blairites, Gerard Coyne. 


But this hasn’t been the talk coming from inside Team Beckett. They remain focused on the big prize. If anything, Beckett’s campaign has got stronger and louder as the week has passed. 


While I have no plans to question the lefty credentials of Graham and Turner - Turner is the current Chair of The People’s Assembly and supported Jeremy Corbyn twice - I still wholeheartedly believe that Howard Beckett is *the* left candidate to support. 


To be clear, the number of nominations you receive does not mean you are guaranteed to get the most votes in a contest where just 12% of the entire membership voted last time around, when the retiring Len McCluskey defeated Gerard Coyne. 


Branch organisation has been a strength for Turner, despite his campaign getting utterly steamrolled by a positive, energetic, grassroots-led campaign from Beckett and his ever-growing army of supporters. 


I wrote about the Beckett campaign last week too. While I might not get the coverage and clicks of the establishment media, some 20,000 people have taken the time to read it - plus they have the added bonus of not clicking on a sponsored advertisement for erectile dysfunction, or a SAGA coach holiday to Malta, because my site is free of corporate sponsorship, and it always will be. 


But what I’m trying to say is simple enough. 


We can ALL do our little bit. Whether that’s writing and sharing a blog, joining in with campaigns on social media, or even just a chat with your colleagues who have a vote, but couldn’t get a flying fridge who wins. 


Every tweet for Howard matters. Every conversation for Howard matters. Every key endorsement for Howard matters. Every retweet and like, every meme, every bit of time and effort, it all matters. And all of this is in your hands. 




I’ve been unofficially involved with quite a few campaigns since 2015, from 2 successful leadership contests and NEC elections to the stunning result at the General Election in 2017. 


I can honestly say, Howard Beckett’s vibrant, inclusive and forward-thinking campaign is up there with the very best that I have either been involved in, or watched from the sidelines. 


The one thing all of these campaigns had in common? Grassroots involvement. 


Once you hand the decision making to trendy focus groups and think-tanks the game is up. I mean, what does a suit in Islington, a property millionaire by luck, know about the indignity of queuing up at a Foodbank? What do they know about calling a park bench “home”? What do they know about getting up at 4am and getting home at 6pm for a wage so inadequate the government has to top up the families income so they can break even at the end of the month? 


They know less than nothing, and they know it fluently. 


But what does the grassroots know about job insecurity? Fire and rehire? What do they know about the blight of zero hours contracts? 


Absolutely everything there is to know. 


Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 election campaign is a perfect example. The online activism became the engine room. I think they called some of us “Corbyn outriders” - although that was probably one of the nicer things they labelled us, to be honest.


Of course, Jeremy had a fantastic socialist proposal for the country, and the same can be said for Howard Beckett and his proposals that he is presenting to the near 1.2 million members of Unite. 


I believe Howard presented a proposal to the other two left candidates, arguing that the grassroots-fuelled energy and the momentum (small “m”) was with his campaign. I think he makes a fair point. 


Being the loudest on Twitter doesn’t mean you are entitled to lead, and it doesn’t mean you will win elections. I get that. If that was reality we would’ve had a Corbyn government, Scottish independence, the monarchy would be living in a council flat, and the most powerful nation on earth would be governed by Bernie Sanders, rather than handsy Biden. 


No Joe, that’s not just ‘being friendly’. How about we swap you Sanders for Prince Andrew?


And Beckett really gets this, which is why he has put such a transformative agenda forward to Unite membership. It’s all very well and good having the mouth, but you’ve got to have the trousers - Beckett has got more trousers than M&S. 




Most of you witnessed Howard’s classic appearance on Newsnight last week. 


Beckett knew exactly what he was letting himself in for. A Blairite ambush, aided and abetted by the establishment-owned BBC. But you saw what he did. It was an absolute masterclass from an emerging champion for the working class. 


Rarely do I start a sentence with the words “if only Jeremy…” - but if only Jeremy attacked the attackers like that. If only Jeremy would’ve bit back like his friend, Howard Beckett. But if you know Jeremy Corbyn, you would know his own decency and kindness tends to pull him back from savaging the liars and exposing their agenda for what it is. 


I’ll repeat, this contest will not be won on Twitter, and it won’t be won with paid adverts on Facebook, as one of the other candidates seems to believe. 


But a passionate, energetic online movement can once again act as the engine room, with a purpose of informing, mobilising to support Mr Beckett’s powerful campaign, and promoting the most radical but necessary agenda that has ever been put forward to the membership of such a large union. 


Howard is a decent man with a decent plan. His vision is unrivalled in this contest, and let’s not pretend otherwise. 


Beckett isn’t a ‘continuation McCluskey’ - lovely Len did things his way, Howard Beckett will do things Howard Beckett’s way. Len is a phenomenal leader and was one of Jeremy’s biggest supporters throughout his time as leader of the opposition - that was when we had an opposition. 


But I firmly believe NOW is Howard Beckett’s time. Not in a few years, but now. He will be a first class leader. He has already spent the last year or so filling the gaping void left by Keir Starmer, by acting as the People’s opposition leader, and barely any of Unite’s massive membership will know this. 


Howard Beckett is *the* left candidate, and he is best placed to beat Blairite throwback Gerard Coyne, should they go head-to-head. 


They may have the focus groups and Facebook adverts, but we have got the momentum, we have got the motivation, and we have got *US* - the movement, and it is time to fully mobilise in support of Howard Beckett’s quest to become the next General Secretary of Unite the Union. 


Thanks for reading. 


Rachael x 


Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, if you want to chip in towards improving my ongoing campaign, and it would cause you *no hardship*, you can do so here:



 

Comments

  1. From the outside, I cannot see why anyone with any sense would vote for Coyne. His unsavoury behaviour in previous elections really shows him to be an unsuitable person to lead any social endeavour, let alone a major union.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Couldn't agree more Rachael wish to god unite was my union if Howard gets it lt will be. What we have here is an intelligent tactical articulate left , rotweiler , by god do we need him the leader of the labour party is a conservative in drag out to destroy the union movement along with the labour party Howard Beckitt is to be feared because on his watch it won't happen

    ReplyDelete
  3. > to the stunning result at the General Election in 2017

    In 2017 after 7 years of Tory austerity, the worst PM in living memory and a Tory manifesto that collapsed upon launch the Labour Party ended up not as the government, not as the the leader of a coalition, not even as the largest party but 55 seats behind the Tories! If Labour couldn't win in these circumstances it's hard to see when they will ever win again.

    The issue with the 2017 GE is that the Tories won and treated it as if they lost, Labour lost and treated it as if they had won!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Asked this elswhere but maybe someone hard knows.
    Is there anyway of finding how many. Votes in total went to each candidate.
    As it stands a nomination from a branch where only 5 voted counts the same as one where 50 voted.
    Right Wing Labour extremists are well known for rigging selection votes by ensuring there are only a small number of people actually present at them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Coyne is a safe pair of hands for the Establishment to continue propping up the wealthy elite, his agenda is to keep the working class working for the establishment class and line his own pockets along the way. FFS vote Beckett!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hope he is prepared to speak up for the thousands of young working class women working in care homes on minimum wage who are going to be forced to take an experimental vaccine that does not prevent a person from spreading or catching the virus in order to keep their jobs.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Full disclosure - I am not or ever will be a socialist…
    I saw the newsnight interview which, frankly, manoeuvred Beckett into a corner and his response was weak and prevaricating! He tried to downplay the activities of Steve Price and put a spin on it. This was a clear demonstration of the division within Labour. The party should consider separating into two factions - the socialist, left wing Trotskyites (who don’t have a hope in hell of being elected, although they are a gutsy bunch) vs the establishment right wing who display the charisma of an amoeba (zero chance of them getting into government too)! Such fun to watch both sides eat each other up…and they wonder why they can’t get into government…🤨

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beckett has been neutered like the neighbours cat. His is powerless, and sad.

    ReplyDelete

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