Rob Horsfield argues that the attempt to silence a speaker at the NEU conference was a serious mistake which weakens the much-needed unity we need to fight against ruling class attacks

NEU conference commenced this week in Brighton on a Sunday buffeted by coastal winds. Delegates crammed into hotels to prepare for the three and a half days that would shape the activities of the largest education union in Europe for the coming year.

The weather wasn’t the only tempestuous thing about this week.

Conference was rightly packed with motions on workplace organising, bargaining, and demands. The first three catastrophic months of the year – the attack on Venezuela, the strangulation of Cuba, the continued annihilation of the Palestinians, and the war on Iran – could only be directly addressed by the union via emergency motions and late arrangements for speakers.

The NEU is the most leftwing union in the UK. It was the most represented labour organisation at the Together Alliance demo on 28 March and has the most branches supporting the upcoming international peace conference on 20 June.

However, like anywhere else on the left, there are problems of political immaturity that can be exploited by the small right wing inside the union. The main problem is one of positions as a substitute for politics – the idea of good politics as having the perfect positions on everything, rather than a political approach focused on pushing ahead.

On Tuesday, Chris Nineham, and Ben Jamal’s daughter, came to conference both for the Stop the War fringe meeting and to hear Stop the War chair and NEU member Alex Kenny to make a speech to the main hall about Chris and Ben’s trials. Alex himself is due to appear in court later this month.

However, a faction inside the NEU which is pro-war and pro-Israel decided to challenge his right to give the speech on two fronts. The first was apolitical proceduralism – they argued that Kenny’s speech would take up valuable business time of conference and therefore undemocratic – as a delegate, I only came across this later. This was the formal position taken. A google document was circulated asking people to sign – allegedly 300 delegates signed. The second, more pernicious, front was the allegation that Alex is transphobic, and the messages I received as a delegate in my district’s WhatsApp chat alongside the google doc were plainly giving this as the reason.

Rapidly there were plans being made to heckle Alex if he got to the podium, and accusations of transphobia if you didn’t agree with this course of action.

It became very difficult to argue against, because the line taken, often by well-meaning people, was moralist and maximalist – if you disagree with my assertion about this man’s character you must share in the perceived moral failing, you aren’t worth listening to. It gained momentum even as it generated bad feeling.

Shortly after this torrent of messages it came out that Alex wasn’t going to speak. Chris Nineham and Ben Jamal’s daughter sat in the audience and had their comrade silenced and traduced behind the scenes, conference denied the chance to hear a NEU member of nearly 40 years standing speak on the dire criminalisation of protest in this country and of the winnowing down of democracy. This was even more scandalous as the incident took place on the eve of the sentencing of Chris and Ben, so denied them even this basic level of solidarity.

A good portion of the delegates in my district afterwards told me how angry and frustrated they were there was no dedicated speech on the state’s war on our civil liberties while Palestine is starved to death. Some Muslim delegates I spoke to felt it was straightforwardly Islamophobic.

I think it’s important to dedicate at least a section of this account to why it was important to have Alex Kenny speak on principle, especially to people who have different views to his on trans liberation and how to get there.

The state is attacking us – all of us, the 99% – through the court cases and convictions of the leaders of the Palestine movement. If the state can successfully restrict the most sustained mass protests in living memory, of which Alex is a key organiser, they can crush any protest – antiracist, anti-austerity, pro-trans. They can further strangle creativity on the picket line. This means this is a straightforward class issue, the ruling class against us, our collective employees against us.

This is much like it is in a union. In workplaces everywhere, you have people with prejudices against LGBT people, racialised people, and so on. Statistically you work somewhere with potential Reform voters. You will dispute them in some areas.

But when it comes to a dispute, you work with them. Because division breaks down the only strength you have in front of the employer – practical unity. You do not make conditions on struggling together, because to do so weakens the workers in the dispute. I have no doubt most of the people who signed that document and said they wouldn’t be happy with Alex are people who act in good faith and care about fighting fascism and getting a better future for people. I know a lot of them are good reps and care deeply about their work. But Alex Kenny, in that moment, was that employee in the sights of the boss. A crucial test for the class was failed. We can’t afford to keep failing.