lawsuit
Exclusive: pro-Graham faction blocks exec Palestine motions
Anti-genocide members narrowly defeated in outcome described as a ‘disgrace’ as pro-Graham faction backs her silence on Gaza
Two motions on Palestine were ruled out last Thursday during the Unite union’s week-long meeting of its executive, after supporters of the union’s general secretary Sharon Graham backed the chair’s ruling that they should not be discussed. The excuse for the ruling was that supporting Palestinians in Gaza was not part of the union’s service to its members.
The chair was challenged and the issue went to a vote, in which eighteen exec members voted against the ruling, twenty supported it and two abstained.
One exec member told Skwawkbox:
It was a disgrace. The two motions were both from London and Eastern re Palestine, both were ruled out by the Chair because ‘Unite members are priority’. This ruling was challenged by a member but the left lost the challenge and we were not given the opportunity to debate.
This is not the notionally-left chair’s ‘first offence’ regarding Gaza. Another senior Unite figure told Skwawkbox:
A lot of the United Left [left-wing Unite caucus] are unhappy with the new chair , especially over Gaza as he stopped the debate last EC and sided with Sharon.
The meeting’s start on Monday was marked by a protest by Unite members outraged by Graham’s public silence on Gaza and behind-the-scenes actions to block shows of solidarity with its people and discussion of the UK’s – including Keir Starmer, with whom Graham has become increasingly cosy – complicity in Israel’s genocide.
Graham has been publicly silent about the slaughter, but has:
- been criticised for banning Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests
- banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam, placed an official under investigation who refused to cancel a Palestine solidarity fringe event at Labour’s 2023 annual conference
- allegedly told her chief of staff to threaten a soon-to-retire official with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians
An email from her official union address to an angry member also dismissed the genocide perpetrated on the civilians of Gaza.
Ms Graham’s tenure as Unite boss has also been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in threat, misogyny and bullying complaints brought by union employees. She is also embroiled in both an employment tribunal for discrimination and a defamation lawsuit brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for the union’s treatment of him and comments made about him by Graham and her close ally Tony Woodhouse.
This latest development will further fuel the outrage of Unite’s many members sickened by Israel’s mass murder of innocents and the union’s silence. Skwawkbox understands that the names of those who voted to support the gagging of the executive on the issue will be published soon.
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Corbyn starts legal action Vs Farage over antisemitism smear
Far-right figure’s comments on far right station lead to legal response
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has begun legal action against far-right stirrer Nigel Farage, after Farage accused him of believing that ‘the Jews run the world’.
Farage’s comments, on hard right TV station GB News, led to many calls for Corbyn to sue, and that wish has been granted. Farage has been accused by some who knows him of an aversion to testifying under oath.
If only Corbyn had acted in the same way over the antisemitism scam against him and the left when he was Labour leader, but better late than never.
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Exclusive: Graham’s Unite ‘spending €150,000 A DAY’ on lawyers in Ogle abuse case
1.35 million euros flushed on legal team over 9-day case according to union sources – and that’s just the tribunal, with the defamation suit to follow
Image: S Walker
Sources within the union say that Sharon Graham’s Unite is spending spending €150,000 a day just on the fees of its legal team to defend the discrimination tribunal case brought against Unite by leading Irish trade unionist Brendan Ogle – a staggering €1,350,000 across the planned nine days of the Workplace Relations Commission hearing in Dublin, not including court and other costs.
Ogle brought his complaint against his union employers after he was sidelined, following his successful battle against neck cancer, to an office fifty miles away from his Dublin home, despite a promise from Ms Graham’s predecessor Len McCluskey that his job would be kept open for him pending the outcome of his treatment. Cancer qualifies as a protected characteristic under equality legislation in both Ireland and the UK.
Ogle told the tribunal last week that another senior Unite employee in Ireland called him to a meeting after his return to work and told Ogle that:
he’d been told by Sharon Graham to draw up a strategic plan for the Republic of Ireland and I was not to be in it.
The case could, presumably, easily have been settled for no more, and probably considerably less, than €1.35m – but Unite has deployed no fewer than seven lawyers to defend it:
1 Senior barrister
1 Junior barrister
1 Legal Director
3 Solicitors
2 Legal Execs
Ogle, in contrast, has a junior barrister and a solicitor.
As well as the employment tribunal case, Brendan Ogle is also suing Graham, her ally Tony Woodhouse and Unite for defamation over comments made about him to union members at different events. Unite is employing the same legal firm – one of the world’s most expensive and profitable – in the defamation case, probably at similar or even greater cost.
One union source told Skwawkbox:
That’s the entire annual subs at full rate of 5,769 members. Sharon hasn’t published an Annual Report since she became general secretary. That’s unheard of – and for someone who has spent so much time accusing others of malpractice, it’s extraordinary.
The union’s ‘disgusting’ abuse toward Ogle on his return from cancer treatment triggered widespread outrage among grassroots members, politicians and community groups – anger so serious that an entire sector branch threatened to disaffiliate entirely from Unite, the well-known ‘Right2Water’ campaign said it will no longer work with Unite, Unite’s Community section in Ireland condemned the ‘injustice inflicted’ on him and members picketed general secretary Sharon Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin last month.
Sharon Graham’s tenure at Unite has also been marked by a string of other serious allegations, which neither she nor the union has ever denied – of abuse, cover-up and failure to protect women:
- that she attempted to have evidence destroyed in bullying and misogyny complaints about her husband, whom she now employs in her office despite a final warning from the union for his behaviour
- after her supporters failed in their bid to take control of the Unite executive despite ‘dark money’ spending on advertising, ineligible and racist members being allowed to stand and the alleged use of paid organisers in and following the exec election campaign, her faction has resorted to Starmerite tactics to try to discredit the executive members’ election of a new left-wing union chair and both vice-chairs, as well as the vital Finance and General Purpose Committee
In addition, she has been exposed behind the union’s decision to ban showings in Unite’s buildings of a film exposing racism, smears, rigging and abuse by the Labour right and has appeared to grow increasingly cosy with red-Tory Labour ‘leader’ Keir Starmer, despite Starmer’s lies, his contempt for democracy, his u-turns on promises to Unite members and his regime’s repeated blocking of Unite-backed parliamentary candidates.
Unite did not respond to a request for comment.
Update: more than two hours after the response deadline – and an hour after publication of this article – Unite responded with a generic denial:
“This story – like the other stories that The Skwawkbox has published as part of its smear campaign – is untrue.”
The statement, which did not specify whether the amount spent is higher or lower or by how much, went on to smear this site, implying the scrutiny of Ms Graham’s spending and activity was linked to a Birmingham hotel and conference centre project and Ms Graham’s ‘findings’ about it.
Ms Graham was part of the group of senior Unite figures that approved the Birmingham project. Her close ally Tony Seaman was the ‘project-specific convenor’ on the project, a role that appears to have been created especially to accommodate him. Unite, with Graham as general secretary, subsequently whitewashed racism findings against Mr Seaman, despite agreeing that he had made racist comments.
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Skwawkbox is in Dublin to cover Ogle vs Unite discrimination tribunal
Irish union legend claiming discrimination by Graham-run union after return from cancer treatment. Skwawkbox will report from Irish Workplace Relations Commission
From Tuesday, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in Dublin will hear the discrimination case brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle against Sharon Graham’s Unite, for abuse Ogle – who supported Howard Beckett during the 2021 Unite general secretary election – says he suffered at the hands of the union management after his return from a successful battle against life-threatening cancer.
Ogle, who is also separately suing Graham, her ally Tony Woodhouse and the union for defamation, has alleged that he was abused by the union after his return from treatment for cancer – and after he made ‘protected disclosures’ to the union about its failures to adhere to covid protocols during the pandemic.
Graham and her representatives have been accused of ‘disgusting’ behaviour toward Ogle – and anger in Ireland at the situation became so great that an entire sector branch threatened to disaffiliate entirely from Unite, the well-known ‘Right2Water’ campaign said it will no longer work with Unite, Unite’s Community section in Ireland condemned the ‘injustice inflicted’ on him and members picketed general secretary Sharon Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin.
Skwawkbox is in Dublin to cover the proceedings, including Tuesday’s session where Graham’s predecessor as general secretary, Jeremy Corbyn ally Len McCluskey, is expected to take the stand to testify. Graham herself has been subpoenaed by Ogle’s legal team to give evidence, despite allegedly trying to get out of appearing.
Graham is using one of the world’s most profitable law firms to defend the defamation suit – and also, as Skwawkbox revealed, in the tribunal case. Her tenure as Unite boss has been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in misogyny and bullying complaints. She is currently being sued, along with an ally and the union, by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for defamation.
She has been exposed using proxies to order the cancellation of showings of the film ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn/The Big Lie’, which exposes the political abuse of antisemitism accusations against left-wingers in the Labour party, and discussion of Asa Winstanley’s forensic book Weaponising Antisemitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn. Proxies were similarly despatched to try, unsuccessfully, to cancel a Unite ‘fringe’ event at Labour’s conference earlier this month in support of Palestinians.
Ogle’s barrister told the Workplace Relations Commission adjudicator last November that she expected the union would be required to ‘produce’ Sharon Graham to testify, along with a string of current and former senior Unite officials and employees.
If you would like to help cover Skwawkbox’s costs of attending this week’s session, which is expected to be the first of two or three at the WRC before the case is adjudicated, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thank you for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
Graham suspends official who refused to cancel pro-Palestine Labour conference fringe
Simon Dubbins told Graham’s proxies she should come and tell him herself if she wanted Unite Palestine solidarity fringe cancelling.
CORRECTION: Dubbins is ‘under investigation’, but not suspended..
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has suspended a senior Unite official who refused last October to cancel a solidarity fringe even for the Palestinian people that he had arranged during Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.
Graham sent underlings to tell Simon Dubbins, Unite’s Director for International Affairs, that the event must be pulled – but as Skwawkbox revealed exclusively at the time Dubbins refused, telling the proxies that if Graham wanted the event cancelled she should come and say so herself. She didn’t, and it went ahead.
The official reasons for the suspension have not been revealed, but Unite insiders have linked it to the fringe event.
Sharon Graham has been slammed for her actions – and inaction – relating to Palestine and the Israeli regime’s genocide in Gaza. She has been publicly silent about the slaughter, but has been criticised for banning Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests, banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam – and an email from her official union address to an angry member dismissed the genocide perpetrated on the people of Gaza.
Ms Graham’s tenure as Unite boss has also been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in threat, misogyny and bullying complaints brought by union employees. She is also embroiled in both an employment tribunal for discrimination and a defamation lawsuit brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for the union’s treatment of him and comments made about him by Graham and her close ally Tony Woodhouse.
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Liverpool residents launch legal process against ‘timebomb’ chemical processing site
Legal challenge launched to Labour council’s approval of Veolia site processing huge quantities of chemicals that caused one of biggest non-nuclear explosions in history – in the heart of a residential area
Residents of Garston and Cressington in the south of Liverpool have begun the formal legal process to overturn the decision by the city’s Labour council to approve a site that will process more than double the quantity of a mix of dangerous chemicals that caused the 1974 Flixborough disaster, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in human history, with a blast radius of over three miles that killed twenty-eight people in a rural area.
Despite the Flixborough inquiry’s conclusions that the chemical should not be processed near residential areas, the council’s planning committee did not even discuss the risk of explosion before approving the construction of the site, only 200m from the nearest school and nearby housing estates. In light of the much larger quantities ultimately to be processed at the site, the potential blast radius could reach almost to the city centre six miles away. The planning committee was also told that there was no need an outside assessment of the dangers of the site, because its officers were the ‘independent’ investigators and had assessed Veolia’s reports.
After raising an initial legal fighting fund, lawyers acting for the residents have sent a formal ‘letter before action’ to Liverpool City Council, challenging the Council’s decision to grant permission for Veolia to construct two additional fractionation towers used for distilling and processing the chemical waste on King Street (planning ref. 23F/0408).
The letter challenges the decision on the basis that the planning application was deliberately split from an earlier application for two identical towers on site. If the developments, which will be built and used simulataneously, are properly considered together they meet the threshold for being a ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project’. This designation would mean that development consent should have been required from the Secretary of State, rather than a pliant local council known to have diverted emails from residents about the development away from their intended recipients.
The letter argues that any construction which takes place without that development consent will be in breach of the law and could therefore be ordered to be demolished by the Council. Finally, the letter argues that the environmental impact assessment which was supportive of the development the site did not properly consider the cumulative effect of both applications. The letter requests that the Council responds to the challenge by 22 February after which the action group may consider lodging proceedings to ask the court to review the decision.
Donations can be made to the residents’ legal fighting fund here.
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McDonalds, Starbucks, others admit Gaza boycott hitting profits
Firms admit losses or even cut ties with Israel
The chief executives of food chains McDonalds and Starbucks have admitted that the global boycott of their stores and products because of the firms’ support for Israel is hitting their profits. McDonalds in Israel provided free meals to Israeli soldiers participating in Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians, while Starbucks has sued a union representing some Starbucks workers – the firm has engaged in union-busting efforts – for a post on the union’s social media account expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Other firms have suffered similarly and have even cut ties with Israel because of widespread grassroots anger over the genocide in Gaza. Swiss-based shipping firm Kuehne & Nagel has ceased transporting materials for Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems and Japanese giant Itochu has announced it will end all collaboration with the same Israeli firm by the end of this month, citing the International Court of Justice’s damning findings against Israel last month in the case brought by South Africa.
January also saw controversy in Ireland after Dublin airport closed its Starbucks but continued to sell the firm’s products under a different brand.
The longstanding ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions’ (BDS) campaign of peaceful resistance to Israel’s apartheid and illegal occupation rattles Israel to such an extent that it set up a specific government department to combat and discredit it. Now, with the Houthi blockade of Israel-bound shipping hitting Israel’s economy, BDS is biting even deeper.
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Netanyahu ‘changes tune’ about ethnic cleansing on eve of ICJ genocide hearing
Israeli PM broadcasts ‘clarification’ – but only in English
Far-right Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has suddenly – for the first time – said that he doesn’t want to drive Palestinians out of Gaza. Previously, Netanyahu has described Gazans as ‘Amalek’, a reference to a biblical nation that the Israelites destroyed down to the last person, while his ministers have talked in various ways about the destruction, flattening, ‘voluntary’ transfer and even nuclear bombing of Gaza’s population – and his ambassador to the UK has spoken of the complete destruction of Gaza as the only ‘solution’.
The change comes on the evening before Israel faces South Africa’s genocide accusations in the International Court of Justice:
Netanyahu repeated the ridiculous claim that Israel – which has murdered more than 30,000 civilians, more than two thirds of them women and children, and maimed almost sixty thousand others – is doing all it can to minimise civilian casualties an that its orders driving Palestinians out of northern Gaza to be bombed in the south is somehow humanitarian.
They lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and they lie, and . . .#NetanyahuIsAwarCriminalhttps://t.co/OPwAC5KyXu
— RonniSalt (@RonniSalt) January 10, 2024
Israel appears to be seriously worried about the outcome of the ICJ case. Netanyahu, who faced corruption charges before again becoming PM, looks personally worried too. But no statement or change of tune can mask Israel’s genocidal intent in its mass murder of women and children and its bombing of schools, hospitals and homes, or hide the direct violence and the deprivation of food, water, fuel and medicines that threaten to kill far more innocent Palestinian civilians than the bombs and bullets.
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Outrage builds over Unite’s use of Israel-linked firms as protesters occupy Axa Dublin office
Union management’s choice of firms is ‘huge embarrassment’, say insiders
A row has broken out in Unite over the union’s choice of insurer and hotel chain, after a group linked to the union occupied the European HQ of Axa insurance in Dublin.
Community Action Tenants’ Union (CATU) and the Dublin for Gaza group took over Axa’s offices and called for boycott of the company, according to Irish paper The Journal, because of the business being one of “725 European financial institutions that have subsidised apartheid Israel’s colonial settlements“. Axa told the paper that it “has no proprietary investments in any of the banks cited in recent calls for boycott”.
The action prompted growing anger among supporters of Palestinian human rights in Unite Ireland that the UK and Irish union’s official, democratic position is firm support of Palestinian freedom and right of return to lands taken from them by the Israeli settler-colonial project – and opposition to Israeli occupation, apartheid and oppression.
In fact, at its annual conference earlier this year, Unite delegates voted to formally support the ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ (BDS) movement that represents Palestinians’ peaceful resistance to the occupation by encouraging businesses to refuse to buy from or do business with illegally-occupied territories, in a resolution saying that Unite:
[recognises that] Israel is practicing the crime of apartheid, calls for an end to the UK Government’s proposed free trade agreement with Israel, and for support for BDS campaigns against companies complicit in supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
Yet according to union insiders, Axa is Unite’s insurer in Ireland – and Unite’s designated provider of hotel accommodation is the Leonardo hotel group, which is part-owned by the Israeli Fattal group. One outraged insider told Skwawkbox:
It’s a huge embarrassment to Unite and one that is causing a lot of anger – even more so as our Irish exec meeting next month is taking place in the Belfast Leonardo’s.
What’s worse is that this has been going on for months and the union still hasn’t done anything to change it. Businesses linked to Israel should never have been selected in the first place, let alone still be used now with everything that’s going on in Gaza.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has already infuriated supporters of Palestinian rights by remaining silent for many weeks at the start of Israel’s latest genocidal assault on Gaza – then making a grossly asymmetrical statement appearing to treat Israeli deaths more seriously than Palestinian; and ultimately allegedly having the exec railroaded into accepting only her preferred wording when a statement was eventually issued.
Graham was also exposed using proxies to order the cancellation of showings of the film ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn/The Big Lie’, which exposes the political abuse of antisemitism accusations against left-wingers in the Labour party, and discussion of Asa Winstanley’s forensic book Weaponising Antisemitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn. Proxies were similarly despatched to try, unsuccessfully, to cancel a Unite ‘fringe’ event at Labour’s conference earlier this month in support of Palestinians.
Her popularity in Ireland is already low. Irish union legend Brendan Ogle is also suing her, her ally Tony Woodhouse and the union for defamation; he also alleges that he was abused by the union after his return from treatment for serious cancer – and after he made ‘protected disclosures’ to the union about its failures to adhere to covid protocols during the pandemic. Graham and her representatives have been accused of ‘disgusting’ behaviour toward Ogle – and anger in Ireland at the situation became so great that an entire sector branch threatened to disaffiliate entirely from Unite, the well-known ‘Right2Water’ campaign said it will no longer work with Unite, Unite’s Community section in Ireland condemned the ‘injustice inflicted’ on him and members picketed general secretary Sharon Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin.
Ms Graham is using Denton’s one of the world’s most profitable law firms to defend the defamation suit and Ogle’s the tribunal case. Denton’s was lambasted after its initial social media statement on Israel/Gaza failed even to mention the many Palestinian deaths. The statement was subsequently deleted and replaced.
Her tenure as Unite boss has been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in misogyny and bullying complaints.
The Euro Med Monitor group reports that some 24,000 civilians in Gaza have been killed so far in just nine weeks by Israel’s bombing, shelling and invasion, around half of them children. Israel is also continuing to kill Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Politicians around the world have called on the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute Israeli government ministers for genocide and other war crimes.
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Graham to be called to testify in Ireland in Ogle’s discrimination claim against Unite
Irish union legend’s case against union for abuse and discrimination after his cancer treatment expected to last eight days but adjourned until February
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham is expected to be called to testify in Dublin in Irish union legend Brendan Ogle’s discrimination claim against the union.
Ogle, who is also suing Graham, her ally Tony Woodhouse and the union for defamation, has alleged that he was abused by the union after his return from treatment for serious cancer – and after he made ‘protected disclosures’ to the union about its failures to adhere to covid protocols during the pandemic. Graham and her representatives have been accused of ‘disgusting’ behaviour toward Ogle – and anger in Ireland at the situation became so great that an entire sector branch threatened to disaffiliate entirely from Unite, the well-known ‘Right2Water’ campaign said it will no longer work with Unite, Unite’s Community section in Ireland condemned the ‘injustice inflicted’ on him and members picketed general secretary Sharon Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin.
Graham is using one of the world’s most profitable law firms to defend the defamation suit – and also, Tuesday’s hearing revealed, in the tribunal case. Her tenure as Unite boss has been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in misogyny and bullying complaints. She is currently being sued, along with an ally and the union, by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for defamation.
She has been exposed using proxies to order the cancellation of showings of the film ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn/The Big Lie’, which exposes the political abuse of antisemitism accusations against left-wingers in the Labour party, and discussion of Asa Winstanley’s forensic book Weaponising Antisemitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn. Proxies were similarly despatched to try, unsuccessfully, to cancel a Unite ‘fringe’ event at Labour’s conference earlier this month in support of Palestinians.
Ogle’s barrister told the Workplace Relations Commission adjudicator that she expected the union would be required to ‘produce’ Sharon Graham to testify, along with a string of current and former senior Unite officials and employees. The case was adjourned to allow both sides further time to prepare for what is expected to be an eight-day hearing and will recommence in February.
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