So states John McInally, the PCS national vice-president writing on the Socialist Party (SP) website in a personal capacity.

That article can be read here:
http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/813/18690/04-06-2014/pcs-unite-merger-will-it-strengthen-our-fightback

Of course the emergency motion did more than authorise talks with Unite, it set preconditions and limits on those talks, all of which are ignored by Comrade McInally in his article. We believe that the reason why these limitations are ignored is that the SP has no intention to be bound by them.

The emergency motion, which sizeably beat the NEC motion, stated that we had to tell Unite that we wanted to retain our present democratic structures and independent political voice. If these could not be guaranteed then the talks must end. The motion also stated that there must be full report backs to members on all meetings with Unite.

In contrast the article says:

Neither Left Unity nor the Socialist Party have a fixed position on the merger other than the necessity of engaging in talks and then conducting a democratic debate and allow members to decide. But we see the possibilities of a merger.

And ends:

That is why we believe the formal talks should begin.

What we think will happen is that the talks will begin (though there are rumours that Unite is rapidly cooling on the idea of a transfer of PCS members), there will be little in the way of reports and that a ‘deal’ will be announced. This will not guarantee our democratic structures (though we assume there will be transitional arrangements) nor our independent political voice. Then a special conference will be held but it will be limited in what it will be allowed to do – for example it will be banned from giving a recommendation in a ballot to members and there will be a members ballot on the transfer which will have a ‘yes’ recommendation. Therefore branches and activists have to prepare themselves now for those manoeuvres.

In future postings we will return to Comrade McInally’s article as it contains a multitude of riches as far as SP thought is concerned but for now the key message is that the SP intend to plough ahead with the merger.