PCS Independent Left (IL) does agree there are some very hard working and effective Full Time Officers (FTOs) of the union, particularly those recruited from PCS’ activist cadre.  That said we have some FTOs who are not hardworking or effective.Now in our union FTOs are paid between £41,355 and £93,836 pa, paid through your subs. This is well in excess of what the vast bulk of us earn.

IL is the only organisation in a union, stuffed full of self proclaimed leftists and left groups, that actually fights for the principle of a workers’ representative being on workers’ wage.

The leading left group in the union, the Socialist Party, who make up the core of Left Unity, at least in terms of its politics, have a formal position of workers’ representatives being on workers’ wages. In other unions they actually fight elections under this banner. In our union where they could actually implement that principle, they refuse to do so.

That is why in previous national conferences you get SP comrades arguing against PCS workers’ representatives being on a worker’s wages. The world turned up downside – but not in a good way.

It is not hard to fathom why they argue as they do though. In our union, many of them hope to be FTOs – indeed many of them have become FTOs. They have no intention therefore of earning less than they are ‘entitled’ to.

As a famous materialist philosopher argued, it is not the consciousness of people that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” In this instances, SP and LU comrades being well off and materially comfortable is driving their consciousness, and leading them to put aside any socialist consciousness they have.

The principle of workers’ representatives being on workers’ wages is part of the radical change we want to see in the union. If you want the same, then please vote for us.