{"id":7472,"date":"2014-08-26T14:54:20","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T14:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=7472"},"modified":"2021-03-21T18:44:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T18:44:42","slug":"sexist-abuse-in-the-trade-union-movement-a-case-requiting-a-proper-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/26\/sexist-abuse-in-the-trade-union-movement-a-case-requiting-a-proper-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexist abuse in the Trade Union movement – a case requiring a proper response"},"content":{"rendered":"

The RCN takes seriously the continued appearance of cases of actual and alleged sexual abuse that have arisen in the Socialist, Labour and Trade Union Movements. Sexist behaviour needs to be driven from our movement and not brushed under the carpet. This is why we have decided to post the statement from Morning Star<\/cite> reporter, Rory Mackinnon and the Morning Star<\/cite>‘s response.<\/p>\n

1. Statement from Rory MacKinnon<\/h2>\n

My name\u2019s Rory MacKinnon, and I\u2019ve been a reporter for the Morning Star<\/cite> for three years now. It\u2019s given me a lot of pride to see how readers and supporters believe so strongly in the paper, from donating what cash they can to hawking it in the streets on miserable Saturday afternoons. I was proud to represent a \u201cbroad paper of the left\u201d, as my editor Richard Bagley always put it: a paper that saw feminism, LGBTQ issues, racial politics and the like as integral to its coverage of class struggle.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s for this reason that I thought I would have my editor\u2019s support in following up domestic violence allegations against the Rail, Maritime and Transport union\u2019s assistant general secretary Steve Hedley. Instead the Morning Star<\/cite>\u2019s management threatened me with the sack, hauled me through a disciplinary hearing and placed me on a final written warning.<\/p>\n

If you want to see my reasons for writing this, skip to the bottom. But I\u2019m a reporter, and in my mind the most important thing is that you all know exactly what\u2019s happened behind closed doors. So let\u2019s get on with it.<\/p>\n

Last March a former RMT assistant branch secretary, Caroline Leneghan went public about what she described as a “violent assault” at the hands of Hedley while they had been in a relationship.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOn this occasion he kicked a pot of paint at me, threw me around by my hair and pinned me to the floor repeatedly punching me in the face.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Leneghan said she had approached both police and the union after their break-up to seek an investigation: her RMT rep confirmed that police had suggested a \u201chigh chance of conviction,\u201d but that the six-month window for a charge of common assault had since expired.<\/p>\n

Despite this, the union\u2019s then-leadership had decided not to refer the allegations to its national executive for a formal investigation. It was at this point that Leneghan decided to go public.<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t pretend to have any inside knowledge, and at the time I had only just been assigned to a post in Scotland and was busy trying to get my feet in under the table up there. But I am a journalist, and when the union agreed to consider an appeal from Leneghan only to see it eventually withdrawn at her request* \u2013 amid a pretty vile reaction from some elements of the left \u2013 I mentally filed it away as something to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n

In March of this year I went as a Morning Star<\/cite> reporter – with the RMT’s approval – to cover its women\u2019s conference in Glasgow. Women I knew of in the RMT were still talking about Leneghan\u2019s case, and it made sense to me as a reporter to follow it up in the public interest, so I took advantage of a Q&A session with the union\u2019s national organising co-ordinator Alan Pottage \u2013 a session on recruiting women organisers and combating sexism in the workplace \u2013 to ask whether he thought the lack of formal investigation into the allegations against Hedley had affected women members\u2019 perceptions of the union. Pottage declined to comment and the session continued, but when delegates reconvened for the afternoon session the union\u2019s equalities officer Jessica Webb and executive member Denis Connor approached my seat and forcibly ejected me from the conference.<\/p>\n

The very next day the Morning Star<\/cite>\u2019s editor Richard Bagley informed me that I had been suspended following allegations of gross misconduct and that any public comment I might make \u201ccould risk bringing the paper into disrepute and could have a bearing on [my] case\u201d.<\/p>\n

One month<\/em> later, I found myself back in London for a disciplinary hearing, with the company\u2019s secretary Tony Briscoe bringing the charges and Bagley sitting in judgement. But as the Morning Star<\/cite> management\u2019s minutes and my own notes show, it quickly became clear that the real nature of the accusations had nothing to do with the charge sheet and everything to do with appeasement.<\/p>\n

From the minutes:<\/p>\n

\n\u201cRB: You have three years\u2019 experience as a Morning Star journalist. Given the type of stories you\u2019ve covered previously do you think the paper would have published a story on the issue you raised?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRB: So let\u2019s clarify the role of the Morning Star<\/em> here: internal union matters are different from inter-union matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTB: It\u2019s debatable whether the NUJ (National Union of Journalists \u2013 Rory) code of conduct applies in a situation such as this and the fact you asked it raises a question about your approach. The question feels more like something a Daily Mail<\/em> reporter would ask than someone from the Morning Star<\/em>. You should have known better. This indicates a lack of journalistic etiquette and has damaged our relationship with the trade union movement.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And from my own notes:<\/p>\n

\nTB: \u201cI would have thought the role of the Morning Star<\/em> reporter was to progress the aims & goals of the paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

TB: \u201cI would expect that sort of question to be asked in the Daily Mail<\/em> or the Sun<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

TB: \u201cI would say the public has no right to know about the ins-&-outs of the relationship between Leneghan & Hedley.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shortly afterwards I received Bagley\u2019s written judgement. The thrust of the Morning Star<\/cite>\u2019s editorial policy is below:<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAfter three years at the paper you should reasonably be expected to be familiar with the paper\u2019s news priorities, which do not include reporting internal union rows or personal controversy. Your actions suggest a fundamental failure to grasp the Morning Star<\/em>\u2019s news focus, and by extension the role of any journalist employed by it.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was placed on a final written warning with twelve months\u2019 probation, then went on to appeal, but that\u2019s boring procedural stuff that isn\u2019t really relevant.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s relevant, to my mind, is that readers cannot trust the Morning Star<\/cite>\u2019s current leadership to report on abuse allegations and failures to formally investigate when they concern favoured figures in the trade union movement, even when those figures are elected officials. As the edition for 24 July shows, however- coincidentally the same day I had decided to give my notice \u2013 those Nasty Tories cannot expect such discretion. Feminist principles are a weapon with which to attack the right, but not an end in itself for the left.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written this because I was told that \u201cthe public has no right to know.\u201d I think the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union\u2019s members do have a right to know about their leaders\u2019 decision not to hold a formal investigation into reports of violence against a female member, and I think the Morning Star<\/cite>\u2019s readers and supporters also have a right to know that the paper\u2019s senior staff have an explicit policy of suppressing such allegations.<\/p>\n

It is quite possible that the Morning Star<\/cite>\u2019s management committee \u2013 a panel which includes the National Assembly of Women\u2019s Anita Wright \u2013 have not been told anything about this. If so, I hope that they will investigate and reassert the paper\u2019s editorial independence. I am not trying to wreck the Morning Star here. I am insisting that it commits to its feminist principles and treats readers with the respect they deserve.<\/p>\n

Rory MacKinnon
\nMorning Star<\/cite> reporter (2011-2014)<\/p>\n\n

UPDATE \u2013 This post was drafted on Saturday 26 July, the day after informing the Morning Star<\/cite>\u2019s management of my intent to quit. On Monday, 28 July, the paper announced company secretary Tony Briscoe\u2019s retirement and editor Richard Bagley\u2019s departure \u201cfor family reasons\u201d. Bagley would continue to work for the paper, the report added.<\/p>\n

\n6:53pm: Caroline writes, \u201cThere\u2019s a mistake here, The executive refused my appeal, after that the only route was the agm, which is the quashed one, as I realised all my documents, statements etc had been distributed to hundreds of people without my knowledge\u201d.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

2. Morning Star<\/cite> Response<\/h2>\n

In response to recent claims made by Rory MacKinnon \u2014 who finishes his employment at the Morning Star<\/cite> on Friday August 8 \u2014 the Morning Star<\/cite> completely and utterly rejects the allegations that Mr MacKinnon was disciplined for attempting to raise allegations of domestic abuse.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to note that he never formally raised such an allegation until he resigned, while facing further investigations into allegations of misconduct.<\/p>\n

For the record, in April 2014 Mr MacKinnon was properly disciplined on charges of breaking the trust and confidence expected of him as a Morning Star<\/cite> reporter and of bringing the paper into disrepute.<\/p>\n

The Morning Star<\/cite> wholly rejects Mr MacKinnon\u2019s offensive claims that \u201cthe paper\u2019s senior staff have an explicit policy of suppressing such allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Morning Star<\/cite> always has and always will condemn violence against women in all its forms, in the strongest possible terms.<\/p>\n\n

also see:-<\/p>\n

Feminism And The Crisis In The British Socialist Workers Party<\/a><\/p>\n

Comradely Conduct Policy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The RCN takes seriously the continued appearance of cases of actual and alleged sexual abuse that have arisen in the Socialist, Labour and Trade Union Movements. Sexist behaviour needs to be driven from our movement and not brushed under the carpet. This is why we have decided to post the statement from Morning Star reporter,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1858,1859],"tags":[8925,3869],"class_list":["post-7472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oppression-liberation","category-womens-liberation","tag-author-morning-star","tag-author-rory-mackinnon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":11009,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7472"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18797,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7472\/revisions\/18797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}