Last night saw demonstrations in London under the banner of the “People’s Assembly.” This is an extreme left wing group, launched earlier this year, under the sponsorship of Len McCluskey’s Unite the Union.
The same bunch of union bully boys are involved in another outfit called Unite the Resistance.
‘Unite the Resistance’ claims to be: “a group of trade unionists from the NUT, PCS, Unison, Unite and UCU”. They refuse to give out the names of their leaders. Their only registered address is Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE – a leading socialist bookshop.
It is all very reminiscent of Unite’s ‘Leverage Unit’ active in Grangemouth. It is all too clear that was not some local aberration. This is about law breaking and intimidation to achieve political objectives. Any democrat should repudiate it. Ed Miliband just dithers.
In Lewisham the police were called after the demo caused an obstruction and meant traffic was disrupted. The local efforts involve campaigning against Trussell Trust foodbanks – instead championing their own agitprop approved version.
Illegal fires were started in Westminster. These were sent out on the campaign’s official Twitter feed.
Unite the Union appears to see its role as a bridging organisation between the revolutionary Left and the Labour Party to secure entryism from the former into the latter.
Mr McCluskey is a veteran of the Militant Tendency in Liverpool.
Say what you like about Lord Kinnock. At least he was tough about resisting Militant. Mr Miliband seems determined to appease them in their new incarnation.