The last few weeks have seen an explosion of posts across Unison’s national social media platforms – all of them placing general secretary Christina McAnea at the front and centre.
Of course, you might expect such promotion coming from the right wing in the lead-up to the union’s general secretary elections. The bureaucrats will use every tool at their disposal to ensure the re-election of their incumbent.
What may be more surprising to people outside of the Unison bubble, is that some self-described ‘lefts’ are also backing the right-wing sitting general secretary!
A group (confusingly) calling itself the ‘Organised Left’ has been vocal in its support for McAnea.
The Organised Left was set up by the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) in the North West, along with other disaffected ‘lefts’, in order to challenge Time For Real Change (TFRC) – the faction that has been fighting in recent years to put the union under the control of grassroots members.
The CPB group gained four NEC seats at the last elections. They achieved this through tacit collaboration with the right wing, who didn’t stand in the North West.
Their only real role has been to give a thin veneer of ‘left’ cover to the union bureaucracy and its unholy alliance with Starmer’s Labour Party.
Their scandalous behaviour is nothing new. In the recent NEC elections, these so-called ‘lefts’ – pretend ‘communists’, even – turned their fire not on the right of the union (who in all honesty are their own bedfellows) but on the actual left grouping, organised in the TFRC slate.
This opened the door for right-wingers to gain ground, and wrestle control of the NEC.
Now, having played their part in undermining the left, the CPB grouping has let the mask slip entirely, and has openly lined-up with McAnea against the TFRC-backed left candidate, Andrea Egan.
Bureaucrat in chief
Christina McAnea’s record speaks for itself. As general secretary, she has been a slavishly loyal supporter of the Labour leadership under Keir Starmer.
This slimy bureaucrat, who receives wages, gifts, and benefits to the tune of £180,000, is in league with Labour’s frontbench.
She stands at the head of a bureaucracy that has routinely victimised militant, rank-and-file activists on the most spurious accusations – not least, suspending rival leaders of TFRC, in cahoots with the employers – in order to maintain their absolute control over the union and prevent industrial militancy.
This bureaucracy acts as a massive weight on the class struggle.
Prior to last year’s general election, McAnea meekly spoke about “holding Labour’s feet to the fire”. But at no point have these mere words been transformed into action.
Instead, at the recent Unison conference, she “vowed to keep Labour honest”. Militant words indeed, against a government of liars, thieves, and war criminals.
McAnea was no better before Labour came to power either. She proposed and recommended a rotten deal for the NHS at the close of the 2023 strike wave, accepting real-terms pay cuts and splintering the healthcare strikes at a point where they were growing in militancy and unity.
Of course, McAnea can posture to the left on a whole range of issues, when they are far away from her home turf. On Palestine, she has gone so far as to demand a “Kosovo-style military intervention” to force open the borders and allow aid to flow into Gaza.
How nice and humanitarian! The problem is, Starmer’s imperialist government – which she supports – is actively assisting the Israel Defense Forces!
All this phrasemongering merely serves as a smokescreen for inaction, a left veneer for Starmer, and a perfect excuse for the Stalinist CPB to get in bed with the bureaucrats.
All the more egregious is the hypocrisy of her posturing. Back in the 2024 conference, McAnea’s faction railed against any delegate who spoke in support of Palestine or against police brutality towards protestors.
Lies and smears
The ‘Organised Left’ statement in support of McAnea is riddled with distortions. They claim that she is responsible for membership growth under the union’s ‘Organising to Win’ strategy, and for the recent uplift in strike pay. Both assertions are false.
A response to the craven and disingenuous statement from UNISON “Organised Left” supporters backing Starmer-loyalist Christina McAnea, from those of us who were actually there.
There is only one candidate worth backing and it’s @Andrea4GS ✊ pic.twitter.com/D70lSo4lhf
— Steve North (@UNISONSteve) September 1, 2025
The fact is that the Organising to Win strategy was the policy of the TFRC-led NEC, agreed at Unison’s 2022 conference, and developed by the Development and Organising Committee chaired by Andrea Egan.
McAnea had nothing to do with it. She does not even vote at NEC meetings or conferences. To claim otherwise is to steal credit from ordinary members and the genuine grassroots activists that fought for it.
The same is true of strike pay. For years, under McAnea and her predecessors, Unison’s strike pay remained pitifully low – a deliberate barrier to militant action. It was only after the election of the left NEC in 2021 that strike pay was doubled to £50 a day, rising to £70 where required.
This increase gave members the confidence to wage serious battles, such as the long dispute at Liverpool Housing. McAnea, meanwhile, had never once supported increasing strike pay in her long career as a union officer.
The ‘Organised Left’ have been caught with their trousers down: trying to dress up McAnea’s right-wing record with the language of militancy, while smearing the real left of the union.
Pernicious role
Why would anyone calling themselves ‘left’ support such a figure? The answer lies in the nature of the ‘Organised Left’ itself. This is not a genuine, grassroots left current, but a bureaucratic faction dominated by the ‘Communist’ Party of Britain and their hangers-on.
For them, the aim is not to empower rank-and-file workers, but to secure comfortable positions within the union machine. Note that the executive committee of the CPB contains one past and one current assistant general secretary of the unions!
One of these is Roger Mckenzie, candidate in the 2021 general secretary election, who stood against TFRC’s Paul Holmes. He was formerly a part of ‘Team Dave’, in bed with McAnea’s predecessor Dave Prentis, who betrayed the pensions strikes in 2011.
The other is Kevan Nelson, misnamed ‘Communist Kev’ in parts of the union. He joined Unison’s headquarters at a time when Prentis was clamping down on dissent in the union.
The shenanigans of these people have deep roots. Ever since the merger that formed Unison, the CPB have engaged in a sort of quid pro quo. If the right wing lets them have positions, anoint bureaucrats’ speeches with some left-wing colouring, and give money for Cuba solidarity, then the CP will cooperate with the right wing.
The Stalinist policy of ‘peaceful coexistence’ has found its most complete expression in Unison.
These people will happily spread lies to disorient genuine militant activists, if it means maintaining their foothold. In this respect, they are no different from the right wing they now serve so openly.
By providing left cover for McAnea, the ‘Organised Left’ are helping to chain Britain’s biggest union to Starmer’s Labour Party – just as that same party’s government prepares a brutal programme of attacks on the working class.
The majority of these attacks will be felt most acutely by the very public sector, NHS, and local government workers that fill out the ranks of Unison.
For fighting unions!
The stakes in Unison’s elections, meanwhile, are clear.
In stark contrast to McAnea, Andrea Egan has committed, if elected, to only take the average wage of a worker in her profession (social work). This is a completely correct policy – one that threatens the entire logic of union gravy trains, in Unison and elsewhere.
She has stood with workers in struggle, and stood up to Starmer’s cabal. She was actually suspended and then expelled from Labour, in part for sharing an article by Socialist Appeal – predecessor to The Communist.
A vote for McAnea, and for the ‘Organised Left’ who prop her up, is a vote for continued bureaucratic control, class compromise, and silence in the face of imperialism.
A vote for Andrea Egan is a vote to begin putting the union back in the hands of the members; to fight the bosses and the Labour government that are raining down attacks on working people.
The CPB and their allies in the ‘Organised Left’ have once again placed themselves on the wrong side of history, revealing their true colours. They deserve nothing but contempt from every genuine socialist and militant worker.
Genuine, revolutionary communists will continue their struggle: to deliver a victory for Andrea Egan, the left candidate – as part of the wider struggle to transform the unions into fighting organisations of the working class.
