GPF approves funding for anti-BNP election campaigning

I went to the GPF (UNISON’s General Political Fund) Committee today where we agreed funding for a number of things to tackle the BNP in the run up to the local and London Assembly elections in May. The BNP are a threat to all of us in society, particularly our members who work for those local authorities where they are an electoral threat. UNISON has stood against fascist parties since our formation and has a proud record of exposing them and mobilising the anti-fascist vote, and this year will be no different.

The GPF have funded work in partnership with Searchlight and The Mirror newspaper taking the Hope not Hate message out to key target areas as well as a supplement in the Mirror. UNISON will be supporting these events at a regional level and funding for this will be approved by the GPF when more details are known.

The GPF will also be funding national anti-BNP literature, and the committee looked at possibilities that have been put together for leaflets/posters. This will be agreed by the Chairs of GPF and PDCC (Policy Development & Campaigns Committee) and should be available for regional and branch use shortly.

The GPF will also be funding regional activity across the organisation, but as one of our branches in the West Midlands rightly points out leaflets etc. don’t deliver themselves. So as well as resources it’s important that we get UNISON members out delivering leaflets, knocking on doors and getting the anti-fascist vote out in the elections on May 3rd.

We also approved other bids for political funding and sent some back for further work.