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Regional press news - this story published 20 October 2009

NUJ election hots up amid claims of hard-left plot

by holdthefrontpage staff

The election for editor of the National Union of Journalists' magazine turned bitter today with one of the candidates accused of being part of a hard-left plot to take over the union.

Freelance journalist Mark Watts circulated an email to 19,000 NUJ members naming rival candidate Richard Simcox as a member of a faction calling itself "NUJ Left."

Mr Watts claimed the faction was using the election for editor of Journalist magazine as part of a bid to take control of the union's ruling national executive.

He is calling on general secretary Jeremy Dear to publicly disown its aims, and on members to place Mr Simcox last in the single transferable vote election.

NUJ Left is open about its aims and it has a publicly accessible web presence at nujleft.org/about.

It describes itself as "an inclusive coalition of activists in the NUJ who work together to improve conditions for members and advance socialist principles within the union, the labour movement and society at large."

Mr Watts claims in his email: "I have been astonished by what I’ve found out about the NUJ during this election. Since declaring my candidacy for the Journalist editorship just three weeks ago, I've uncovered what has gone wrong with our union. And I think you’ll be appalled too.

"A political faction that calls itself 'NUJ Left' is trying to take control of the NUJ. I bet you've never even heard of 'NUJ Left.' Don’t worry, I hadn't either. I’ve never seen it mentioned in the Journalist. Maybe I missed it. Did you see it?

"NUJ Left doesn’t have overall control of the national executive council (NEC) – not yet. But that's what they want, and the same applies to other key policy-making bodies in our union.

"And this election is the key that will enable them to pull it off. They're trying to put their man in charge of the Journalist. With that, they'll be in an ideal position to take control of our union completely."

Mr Watts goes on to say that "one of the candidates in the election for the Journalist editorship is from 'NUJ Left,' before naming Mr Simcox as that candidate.

He concludes his email by calling on members to "lance the boil and save the NUJ" by rejecting Mr Simcox's candidature.

Mr Simcox, who has the support of many of the union's existing officials including northern organiser Chris Morley and NEC members Jim Boumelha and Donnacha De Long, said it was well-known that NUJ Left is backing his campaign.

"I didn't realise it was such a secret, as it comes up about fourth if you put my name into Google," he told HTFP.

All the candidates standing for the £51,000-a-year post have published 150-word statements for HTFP which can be read here.

Sam (20/10/2009 10:11)
Oh gawd, the Brothers are at it again. What on earth has this fossilised organisation got to do with anyone or anything? It wouldn't be worthy of comment if it wasn't for that number. Fifty. One. Grand. That's how much you're coughing up for them to relive their days in the student union. How many of the NUJ "activists" are journalists anyway? In my experience, they are mostly employed by press offices in the public sector. Or correct me brothers - and while you're at it, have you got those tractor production figures for the last 12 months?

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Onlooker (20/10/2009 10:19)
What ? The Left trying to hijack the NUJ ? Scandalous ! Er..well, I think you'll find it happened a long, long time ago. Even 30 years back, when I first joined this union, it was as bent as a nine bob note in its blinkered, left-left-left political march. Funnily enough, most of the leaders came from backgrounds much posher and privileged than mine. Looking back, I honestly think they were still rebelling against Mummy and Daddy.

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marc jones (20/10/2009 10:30)
Mr Watts uncovers leftists in a trade union - shock horror! Whatever next? The NUJ is a broad church and Mark Watts is engaging in a slightly weird McCarthyite witchhunt that tries to claim that NUJ Left is some kind of secret society. He demonstrates this by referring to its publicly accessible website. Doh! I am however grateful to Mr Watts - until now I wasn't a member of the NUJ Left.

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Hilary Jones (20/10/2009 12:14)
Oh gawd. I've just read NUJ Left's website and it reads like something from the bloody Seventies. It's as though the last 35 years had never existed. A stated aim of being against the employers as a matter of course is counter-productive - look at Royal Mail, look at the NUM, look at British Leyland. There's plenty to fight for without boring the pants off the largely middle-of-the-road membership with outdated left-wing polemic!

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James Doherty (20/10/2009 12:35)
As NUJ President, I can't think of a time when the NUJ Left has exterted influence on union decision-making while I have been an active member. If there was an orchestrated effort to hijack the union, I for one would stand against it. There is some scare-mongering going on here. I've endorsed Frank Morgan for the #1 Vote in this election. Frank is a NUJ stalwart, who has stood up against profiteering and union bashing at Aberdeen Journals and Daily Record - and has all the editorial and production skills needed to actually 'edit' The Journalist. Frank's manifesto does not include political factions, nor does it include sectoral or geographic factions. He's the clear choice - standing up for journalists and journalism - his 'party' is the NUJ. And Steve Usher, another excellent choice, gets my #2 vote for the job. The NUJ is a progressive and pragmatic union. It is a broad church, but the only way to stop one faction steering the debate is to get active!

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stewart perkins (20/10/2009 14:12)
SCOOP! People in trades unions democratically organising to try to influence union activity! Whatever next.....NUJ members going along to branch meetings and talking to each other? Richard Simcox has solid support and would, I think make an excellent editor.

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Connor (20/10/2009 15:34)
If the NUJ wants to be a political group which lobbies on behalf of a section of the industry, fine. If it wants to represent everyone and fight for everyone, it needs to forget the politics and focus on doing what's best for the industry. It's no surprise that Simcox is on the left, after the way he ran around websites saying how brilliant it was that journalists were going on strike in Wales. What this story does prove is that if you want a Journalist magazine which seeks to hold the executive to account, then don't vote Simcox. If you want the party line in your magazine, vote Simcox, who is currently fighting the good fight for journalism with a job in PR.

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Tom Davies (20/10/2009 16:12)
Connor, Do you not consider a job in PR to be 'journalism'? I do hope you spell that out to all our members in PR. I actually do want the NUJ to be, as you put it, a political group which lobbies on behalf of a section of the industry. That "section" being our members, huge numbers of whom are having a very difficult time at the moment. I think Richard understands this very well, which is why he supports members who democratically agree to take industrial action in defence of their jobs. Which, of course, is political. As is copyright law. As is entitlement to sick and holiday pay. As is freedom of information. As is supporting public service broadcasting. As are labour laws that make it very difficult for chapels to resist arbitrary cuts. All of these things are political concerns of the NUJ. Everything a union does is political. Or are you using 'political' as shorthand for 'people I don't happen to agree with'?

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do what (20/10/2009 17:12)
PR is journalism? Do me a favour. I had no idea the NUJ covered PR people. Another excuse not to join an organisation that is run by idiots more content with infighting than saving our jobs and getting us better wages.

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Pete Jenkins (21/10/2009 11:09)
James Doherty wrote: "I can't think of a time when the NUJ Left has exterted influence on union decision-making while I have been an active member." Are you sure James? Amnesia? Blow on the head? The Left has been an active part of NUJ decision making for as long as most active members can remember. Whether this is good or bad is up for individuals to decide, but to suggest that it does not take place is plain daft (maybe naive). The NUJ is a (very) left leaning Union - indeed always has been.

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John Szemerey (21/10/2009 13:11)
We all know that the NUJ is run by Lefties. You should do what I did many years ago: join the non-political Chartered Institute of Journalists, from which the NUJ broke away a century ago. In the CIoJ we are professionals concerned with professional matters. huq8B

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connor (26/10/2009 09:33)
Tom, PR isn't a job in journalism. It might use some of the skills involved in journalism, but it isn't journalism. Surely journalism, at its core, is about writing for an audience without fear or favour. PR can never be that, because it often involves the manipulation of that core principle of journalism, which is a reason why it often pays of well to be a PR. I don't think that stop PRs from being journalists by trade, but it does mean they aren't practising journalism. Therefore, it's a bit rich to have someone from PR talking about "standing up for journalism" when they themselves have bailed out. The fact PRs are members of the NUJ is to do with the fact they can probably be considered journalists, but more likely because the NUJ has to take money from whoever is prepared to offer it

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Tom Davies (26/10/2009 10:45)
Connor, this is potentially quite an interesting debate (in fact, a substantially more interesting and important one than the original article that sparked this thread). We can get terribly precious about what constitutes "practising journalism", and if we are, we might also want to discuss elements of contemporary "newsroom journalism" that might also not meet the standards you're implying. Is regurgitating stories off the wires all day "practising journalism"? Is running an interview with a big star only on the proviso that you plug the sponsors' product they're endorsing "practising journalism"? In reality, journalistic practices are compromised all the time. I wish they weren't, but they are. I work mainly in newspapers myself, but I think we should be wary of getting too haughty about our 'compromised' 'spinning' colleagues in PR. Especially as, let's be honest, they do us a fair few favours too and we use them when we can or have to. There's lots of reasons why PR members are welcome in the NUJ, and reasons that go beyond "just taking anyone's money", as you rather sniffily put it. One of them is that, given that PR exists, it needs to have some kind of ethical, professional framework, which the union can promote through its own code of practice. I can think of several issues in local government PR we've had in recent years that have been over precisely these issues - where PR members have sought to stand up for their role as straightforward disseminators of information against bosses pressing them to put inaccurate party-political (or private consultant-led) spin on their work. Standards matter, in PR as much as the newsroom. And we're happy to stand up for them. And of course one of the main reasons why people "bail out" into PR" is because the pay and conditions in so many newspapers have become intolerable. People have families to feed, at the end of the day.

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