We should back Ian Allinson for General Secretary of UNITE. Backing Len McCluskey will bring some sour smiles of derision from the bureaucrats around him at pitiful attempts by revolutionaries to draw him to the left, and contempt from a new generation of union activists who are now willing to fight for something different. Deals with the ‘almost left enough for the moment’ union officials are now increasingly completely out of tune with the left politics we should be engaging with. This is all the more important in UNITE now as a union that is drawing in community activists as part of organised labour campaigns. And these deals will fail. We know this, so why on earth fool ourselves as well as those we try to draw into left politics otherwise? McCluskey’s record is not at all as someone who will bravely speak out for Corbyn, but someone who is clearly watching which way the wind blows, and he will jump ship from the Corbyn camp as soon as it is necessary. He has already pushed Corbyn over Trident and restrictions on free movement in Europe, pushed to the right. A vote for him will be a vote for one of Corbyn’s hangmen, doing Corbyn no favours. Ian Allinson, on the other hand, despite his organisation RS21s mistaken stance on Brexit, is way more progressive on that question than McCluskey, and backing him would be way better than siding with the little patriotic Stalinists and bureaucrats who are whispering in Corbyn’s ear. Ian Allinson was one of the most prominent open voices to speak out against the sexual violence scandal in the SWP, and speaks not only for a left agenda but also for a feminist one in union politics. He is a respected activist, and trade union fighter in Fujitsu for many years, and support for him now in Manchester is going to be seen as a test for those on the left. http://www.ian4unite.org/