TU Certification Office investigating Solidarity

Some time ago we were made aware that the trades union Certification Officer was at last actively investigating several complaints made against the BNP/Patrick Harrington version of the fake union, Solidarity.

The complaints were made by members of the original, official Solidarity Executive, sidelined by Harrington and Nick Griffin when the union was effectively hi-jacked last year, and more recent complaints have been made by supporters of the Unity and allied websites who were concerned that the Certification Officer might be tempted to avoid involvement, given the complexity of the case presented and the veritable viper-pit of personalities involved.

The website of the Certification Officer now carries the following notice:

APPOINTMENT OF INSPECTOR - SOLIDARITY

On 22 May 2008 the Certification Officer appointed Gerard Walker, Assistant Certification Officer, as an Inspector to investigate the financial affairs of the trade union Solidarity. The appointment was made under Section 37B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The Inspector's terms of reference are to investigate the financial affairs of the trade union Solidarity between 1 November 2005 and 24 November 2007; as regards;

a. the production of receipts for expenditure,

b. the operation of the Solidarity Paypal account,

c. withdrawals from the Solidarity HSBC current account on 20 and 25 September 2007 and a transfer to the Solidarity HSBC current account from the Solidarity HSBC Money Manager Account on 20 September 2007,

d. cheques cashed from the Solidarity HSBC current account between 18 January 2007 and 4 June 2007,

e. payments made to Mr Patrick Harrington from the Solidarity HSBC current account between 1 February 2007 and 1 May 2007,

f. the freezing of the Solidarity HSBC Current Account and Business Money Manager Account in 2007,

g. the opening of a Bank of Scotland account in the name of Solidarity in 2007,

h. the appointment of Accentuate PR Company by Solidarity in 2007,

i. the appointment of the auditors of Solidarity's accounts for the years ending 31 December 2006 and 31 December 2007 and

j. any other matter, with the consent of the Certification Officer, indicating a financial irregularity within the description set out in section 37B(2) of the 1992 Act that may come to light during the investigation of (a) to (i) above.

The terms of reference exclude the Inspector from reaching any conclusion on the legal issues arising out of the unresolved dispute within Solidarity about the application of its rules to its governance, the resolution of which requires either internal agreement or judicial determination.

The final paragraph is a clear enough statement that the Certification Officer intends to make no judgement or ruling on the legality or otherwise of the Harrington takeover, and so, whatever the outcome of this investigation into the financial affairs of Solidarity, the fake union will remain in the hands of Harrington and the BNP - unless the official Executive have the wherewithal to take the matter to law.

We do not expect them to do so, but we can state that in the unlikely event of control of the union being returned to them, then the official Executive intend to liquidate Solidarity due to the taint of its association with the BNP and Harrington - though this had not previously been a concern to Solidarity's leaders.

On the rarely visited website maintained by the hi-jacked version of Solidarity, Harrington republishes the investigation schedule, adding:

We keep an open-mind as regards the motivation of the Certification Office. It is possible that they are a neutral party simply responding professionally to a series of malicious (and potentially defamatory) allegations. We caution any third party from making unfounded or premature statements regarding this matter.

It is a very strange thing indeed that the supposed General Secretary of a supposed trade union only thinks it "possible" that the Certification Office is a "neutral party", as if he had no idea what the Certification Office existed for. Note, too, the clear threat in the final sentence, obviously intended for our eyes.

Harrington ends: "Members can rest assured that we will deal with this matter in a businesslike fashion and our services will continue to be delivered as normal."

Exactly what these "services" are is open to question, since our contacts within the Harrington/BNP Solidarity have seen very little of service and very much of waffle and grandiose promise for their £5 per month.

Solidarity has clearly failed.

As we have seen in past articles, it is very far from being the "One Big Union" of Harrington's vaulting aspirations, having only 211 members (allegedly), and having stirred little interest among the BNP membership at which it aims itself. Its annual conference was a tawdry hole and corner affair hedged about with tight security, and attended by only 27 members - almost a third of those sitting on the Executive platform.

Its much-promoted May Day activities boiled down to some desultory leafleting at two distant locations by a tiny number of members (four, we believe) armed with scruffy hand-made placards.

And, of course, it has taken on only one case since its inception, that of sacked teacher Mark Walker, a BNP man advised by the useless "fighting union" to find himself a lawyer specialising in employment law.

As there really is no beginning to the successes of the Harrington/BNP Solidarity, and as we're in danger of repeating old and all too familiar news, we'll leave it there.

At this time we have no idea of the probable timescale of Gerard Walker's investigation into Solidarity's finances, or even whether Mr Walker intends either to interview the main protagonists or to accept their written submissions, but we'll bring news of the outcome as soon as we have it.