The Napo For A New Party meeting on 1 September was the first of its kind since members had met to discuss how to build support for Jeremy Corbyn’s policies in the union when he was leader of the Labour Party.
This meeting was one of a series of follow-ups to the national trade union meeting on 21st July, chaired by Dave Nellist, the former Labour MP (1983-1992) and now the chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), and addressed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana shortly before they made the ‘Your Party’ announcement that has since then quickly gathered such massive support.
Napo represents workers in probation and family courts. The meeting had a variety of attendees, with new young members alongside current and former vice-chairs and National Executive Committee members, retired members, and both probation and family court workers.
Attendees were keen to express anger at the Labour government. Labour has continued Tory austerity, harming all public services including probation and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass). It has kept the repressive Tory anti-union laws that sabotaged Napo’s ballot on industrial action. We were just short of the 50% turnout threshold, but with over 90% backing strike action and 97% favouring action short of strike!
And members added that Labour has continued the horrendous Tory attacks on refugees and asylum seekers, diving headfirst into the racist rhetoric that was discussed at last year’s Napo AGM, with a panel on opposing racism.
Next steps in the union
The meeting mainly focused on practical aims. Napo’s 2025 AGM on 16th-18th October will have a motion going to it from the Family Court Section that directly calls for discussion with other trade unions on establishing a new voice for the working class, Motion 21: ‘Enough is Enough – We Need New Political Representation’ (see below).
We agreed to build support for Motion 21 in our branches and to hold another online meeting to follow up on progress. We also intend to hold a Napo For A New Party meeting at the AGM itself.
More Napo members have joined the group since that meeting, making it clear that the question of working-class political representation will be a feature at the AGM and in the union going forward. ■
Napo AGM Motion 21: Enough is Enough – We Need New Political Representation
AGM notes:
• The ongoing funding crisis in the probation service, Cafcass, and across the public sector
• Labour’s continuation of austerity and various attacks on the working class and oppressed groups, despite clear opposition and demands for an alternative from the trade union movement
• The 2022 AGM resolution supporting Enough Is Enough and its demands: a real pay rise, slash energy bills, end food poverty, decent homes for all, tax the rich
AGM believes:
• Napo members need political representatives that firmly back our union’s policies
• The Labour government is not representing the interests of Napo or the wider working class. Napo and the broader trade union movement must look for an alternative political voice to Labour
AGM resolves, without actions requiring a political fund:
• To contact sister unions with an invitation to enter discussion on establishing a new political voice for the working class
• To invite pro-worker MPs including Jeremy Corbyn MP and Zarah Sultana MP to attend a National Executive Committee meeting for a discussion about how they can support our union’s demands for decent funding for probation and Cafcass
• To encourage Napo members to stand in elections, linking up with other trade unionists, to campaign for our union’s policies